A walk through town with the Zuiko 3.5/28...

[LucisPictor]

I was very brave today!
When I went to the old town I only took the EOS 350D with the Zuiko 3.5/28 mounted and nothing else. Can you imagine that? Me? Just with one lens?

And I can tell you, it was fun!

I used my DSLR the way I normally use my film rangefinders which is no wonder, since the little Zuiko gives my a FoV of a 44mm lens, pretty close to my Oly 35RC.

OK, I won't stop my habit to bring a number of lenses on a normal walk, but sometimes it is kind of refreshing to have just one lens to shoot - esp. if the lens is such an amazing glass like this 28mm Zuiko is.


Isn't it a sexy little thing?

Here are some shots from today's lunch break. Weather was not really nice. I had to use ISO200 or even 400 outside at about noon! And still I only could shoot at f3.5 or f5.6 and at 1/30 to 1/200 max. Completely overcast. Images are just processed from RAW (no "auto" this time), resized and almost no sharpening. As Orio has said about the Distagon 3.5/100, even the "normal" sharpening is too much, a simliar thing is true for this lens. It produces so many details in the image that it is easily oversharpened. (The file size is much bigger than with a standard AF lens!)

This lens really surprised me. I guess, I have a new favourite 28mm lens. If I had to sell all 28s but one, I would keep this Zuiko and sell my Kiron, my Vivitars, the Yashica ML and all the others. (OK, I neither have a Nikkor, nor a Leica nor a Zeiss of this focal length.)

OK, now the shots...

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.
To test the distortion.

What do you say?

[Farside]

I do like Zuikos - but they're climbing in price now.
It's an interesting exercise just having the one lens when you go out; it's surprising just what you can make one lens do. I found that out the hard way when I bought my first OM1 - at the time I was skint and the only OM-fit lens I had was the one that came with the cam, a 50mm 1.8. Adapters then were pretty rare and very expensive, so no chance of using my others on it.
I made that lens do everything - portraits, landscapes, close-ups, street photos, groups, indoors, outdoors, etc, etc. Thing was, it did a credible job of all it was asked to do and more besides.

[Orio]

Congrats for your brave heart!
Walking around with just one lens is a great exercise for me. It prompts me for moving around and not just be content of the visual point I find yself standing upon.

I think that we can say that the lens is very well corrected for distortion, showing none in both your fence test, and the other geometrical shots.
It also seems to be resolving much detail, but without 100% crops, we can only guess.
(suggestion: always include a couple of 100% crops when presenting a lens)
The judgement on the quality of colour density must be delayed to a day with a better sunlight, as it would not be fair to judge the lens upon such a poor day light.

Finally, it would not hurt to see some samples taken with film, because the main battleground for wide angle lenses, is always the corner performance. The reputation of Zuiko wides, however, is very good, so I don't expect bad surprises in the edge performance.

I think you will enjoy this lens, as you surely will enjoy the Yashica ML28, which I would not sell, even if the Zuiko becomes your main 28mm - it is always good to have a quality spare for each focal lenght in the roster, to be safe against possible accidents.

P.S. It is Sonnar 3.5/100 not Distagon Your mind was probably in "wide angle mode" when writing that
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[Richard_D]

Nice shots!

During the week I generally only carry one lens - I don't know whether it helps my photography though!

You haven't got the Nikkor 28mm 2.8 AIS yet ?

[LucisPictor]

Thanks for your feedback!

You have to be flexible when shooting with only one prime lens, that's right. But as long as you just can shoot whatever you want and not what you need to shoot, it's OK. I would not like to shoot with one lens for a job, like professionally.

As far the crops are concerned, I agree. Only then you can judge the details, but at the moment I sit in front of my office PC and have uploaded these shots kind of "illegally".

So, perhaps I will show some crops later today. (Normally, I do that. I just have forgotten.) Until then I only can ask to to believe that it renders details quite nicely for a wide angle.

I do not like this lens "just" because of its performance, but also because of its look, its handling and its small size. If this was a f2.8 lens, I think I really would sell my other 28mm lenses.
As to the Yashica ML, I know that you like this lens a lot. I have not been able to see the high performance of this lens. Perhaps I have got a bad adapter (but my ML 1.7/50 works very well) or my ML 2.8/28 is not as good as yours. Don't get me wrong, my ML 28 is by no means a bad lens, it just is not as good as the Viv 2.8/28, the Kiron 2.0/28, the Penatx SMC 2.8/28 or esp. this Zuiko 28.

Given the necessary time, I will try this Zuiko at my film Canons to check
the corner performance. That's a good idea.

Sorry about confusing the Zeiss names. Of course, it was a Sonnar. A tele Distagon would be rather hard to calculate, I guess...

[Orio]

[LucisPictor]

Good! Thanks!

[Juanma]

That Zuiko seems to be a great lens.

It's good to go out with just one lens, it forces you to think more, to move more. I don't usually go out with more than two or three lenses. Specially when I have little time and I don't want it to run out changing lenses.

[Nelson]

I am thinking about buying a zuiko 24 mm.
What do you think about it ?
or must i find a copy of this 28 ?

[Orio]

[LucisPictor]

Orio has already given a very good answer.
The main aspect is, besides the more difficult correction of a wider lens, the price.
A 24mm lens will be considerably more expensive than a 28mm lens.

I think that a 24mm is not only recommendable for an FF cam, it also is great for a crop DSLR, since it offers about the same FoV like a 35mm at a film cam, whereas a 28mm offers between 42 and 44mm wich is closer to a normal lens. And esp. at a crop cam the perhaps "problematic" corner performance of a 24mm lens does not play a role.

Actually, each focal lenght has advantages at each format. 24mm will be, as Orio wrote, a "real" wide angle and at a crop cam still some kind of wide angle, whereas a 28mm will be a wide angle at a full frame cam but a normal lens at a crop cam.

A Zuiko 24mm will probably be very good, even at a full frame cam, but you won't get it for little money.

So, it all depends what you want to do with the lens and how much you want to pay...

[Nelson]

Orio, Lucis, thank you.
I will follow some 24 on ebay, and see the final prices

[Richard_D]

[LucisPictor]

[poilu]

I heard good thinks about the zuiko 28 and it's even someone who sell his distagon 28 for it.
I would never change my distagon 28 for this olympus based on those samples.
I don't know why but they look lifeless. Like something wrong with the contrast.
I will wait a sunny day to see more samples and change my mind.

[patrickh]

I know it can get pricy, but the nikkor 24/2 is pretty darn good. I like that 36 equivalent on my D200.


patrickh

[LucisPictor]

[Orio]

I think it's because of the lens high micro-contrast (a quality), the subjects, very rich in small details, the resize (very small compared to the many details), and the horrible day light, very harsh. Plus some over-exposure in a couple of files like the first one, and a very cool tone balance.

I tried a computer fix on Carstens' JPG. Carsten, the edited picture is on Attila's server, if you want it removed just let me know.
I did only three things:

- lowered exposure (via Power Retouche Pro)
- balanced using 3-grays system (via Power Retouche Pro)
- adjusted the black and white points in Photoshop's Levels.

So I did only very basic editing to exposure and colour balance, which shows that in better light condition ,the lens will surely do better.
Carsten's original first, then my edit:




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[poilu]

Thanks Orio, setting black point surely help

Of course we cannot compare a 50mm with a 28 mm but
if you compare the textures and colors of the Voigtländer with the zuiko you can see what I mean by lifeless.

[Orio]

[LucisPictor]

Thanks for your ideas, guys. I have no problem when you use my pics to show something you want to indicate...

The thing is that I did not post-produce the Zuiko pictures apart from resizing and a tiny bit of sharpening.
Of course you can easily improve any pic by some very basic PP steps, as Orio has shown with the first shot. But that was not my aim here, otherwise I would have published these shots in the "gallery".

And the difference between the 50mm and the 28mm shots is striking but mainly because of the light and of the missing PP in the 28mm shot. With the Voigtländer pictures I used some contrast correction...

I am sure it is no internal flare, since I have used the original hood that is shown in the first two pictures of the lens which will eliminate or rather prevent flare.

[LucisPictor]

[LucisPictor]

[Orio]

It seems that corners are ok or even more.

[BobDodds]

It's not fair to compare Zuiko 28mm f3.5 to Zeiss Distagon 28mm f2.8. Compare to CZ or CZJ fbig.

For a consumer level lens, that Zuiko 28mm f3.5 makes great images. I like the look of those pics.

For comparing to CZ Distagon 28/2.8, how about Zuiko 28/2?

Andy didn't like his Zuiko 24/2. Orio tells here why maybe, and also I've read that Zeiss users don't like Zeiss 25mm probably for reasons Orio gives.

Everybody loves Zuiko 21mm f2. It has ED glass.

Did Zuiko make 28/2 and 28/2.8? f2.8 would not be so high priced. Zeiss Distagon 28mm f2.8 is so under-priced compared to other Zeiss.