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Opinions about some OM lenses needed
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 19, 2015 6:30 pm    Post subject: Opinions about some OM lenses needed Reply with quote
How good are these Olympus OM lenses?

28mm f/2.8
50mm f/1.8
65-200mm f/4

Are these usable at full aperture or need to be stopped down to achieve sharpness across the entire field of view (on an APS-C)? Is it a good idea to use these lenses with a Sony NEX or Canon EOS camera? Would these OM lenses offer better quality in general than M42 lenses?


PostPosted: Wed Aug 19, 2015 7:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Sharpness across the entire field wide open is asking a bit much, very few lenses will do that unless you are shopping at the top end of the price range.

The main advantage of the OM Zuikos over most M42 lenses is that the later Zuikos are multicoated whereas there are few multi coated lenses in M42.


PostPosted: Thu Aug 20, 2015 1:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
I have both the 2.8/28 and 1.8/50 and I think they are both great lenses. I use them on my canon 70D and they do pretty well in the corners when stopped down. Otherwise they both have great center sharpness and bokeh IMO and are very intuitive and fun to use. I have no experience with the f4, but it's probably not bad with constant aperture. Enjoy your finds!


PostPosted: Mon Aug 24, 2015 7:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
I only had the 1.8/50 (and the 2.8/135) on dslr.
They both have good sharpness - better than I expected.

The zoom I only know from reading a test for film slr.
No bad lens but far from being as good as the 2.8 or 3.5 135mm OM.


PostPosted: Mon Aug 24, 2015 11:05 am    Post subject: Re: Opinions about some OM lenses needed Reply with quote
kyrcy wrote:
..Would these OM lenses offer better quality in general than M42 lenses?


the OM lenses generally are very good, but my answer to your question would be 'no'. 'The' top M42 lenses generaly are Takumars and they are very good too, of course there are other good M42 lenses too. If OMs or Takumars offer 'better' quality in IQ is rather a question of personal preferance, build quality of Takumars I find superior to that of OM lenses. The biggest asset of OM lenses imo is their small size, Takumars generally are a bit bigger, lenses of other makers of the same vintage generally are bigger than either OMs and Taks.

Regarding coatings OM lenses that have a letter in front of the 'Zuiko' in their naming, e.g. F.Zuiko are early lenses that have single coating which imo is decisively inferior to the coating of any Takumar, even very early Takumars and of course specially to that of any later multicoated S-M-C and SMC Takumar. Some of these early OMs have a silver ring around their name ring and are referred to as 'silver nose'. They offer a 'classic', little contrast rendering.
Later OM Zuikos that have multicoating can be identified by either having 'MC' in their name or by saying 'Zuiko' only, for general use imo they should clearly be preferred!
see a thread called 'Olympus OM preferred lenses': http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=103535


PostPosted: Mon Aug 24, 2015 12:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
The S-M-C & SMC Takumars are fairly good I prefer their rendering to Olympus.
But for night shooting I really did enjoy the 21/3.5 & 50/1.4, they could handle bright lights without much if any flare or coma on my NEX-7.


PostPosted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 1:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thanks for the replies, I will probably look for Takumars too, but I found some more OM lenses at good prices and I was thinking if they are worth buying? From the reviews that I read I think the answer is probably "no" rather than "yes", but in any case opinions are welcome.

Tokina Special 75-150mm f/3.8
Tokina 25-50mm f/4 RMC
F. Zuiko Auto-S 50mm f/1.8


PostPosted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 2:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
kyrcy wrote:
Thanks for the replies, I will probably look for Takumars too, but I found some more OM lenses at good prices and I was thinking if they are worth buying? From the reviews that I read I think the answer is probably "no" rather than "yes", but in any case opinions are welcome.

Tokina Special 75-150mm f/3.8
Tokina 25-50mm f/4 RMC
F. Zuiko Auto-S 50mm f/1.8


Of course they are worth buying, most OMs are very good lenses, as are most of any other of the 1st tier camera makers. Hopefully others can tell you about the Tokinas, regarding the 1.8/50, the F.Zuiko is an early single coated lens, from my experience with other, not the f1.8/50, single coated OMs I'd expect it to easily loose contrast and flare when used against light. For general use better to get a multicoated one, one that says 'MC Zuiko' or 'Zuiko' only. They may cost a bit more but it's worthwhile.
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