========================
>At its introduction date it was considered the sharpest 35mm
>format zoom lens made. It changed many 35mm photographers
>opinon of medium tele zooms.
Its competitor, the Vivitar zoom with the same range, was judged by Mod
Photo to be superior, if I recall aright.
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just like lenses in the 85mm to 105mm focal range are so easy to
make that most are excellent, zooms in the 70-150mm range with
modest max. apertures like f/3.5 to f/4 are relatively easy to
make and hence many are quite good. The Olympus one is a very
good lens, but others are better. The Nikon 75-150/3.5 E is
better than the 75-150/4 Zuiko as is the Vivitar 70-150/3.8.
I haven't used the Tamron 75-150/3.5, but it has a good reputation
also. Again, there aren't very many bad lenses of this genre,
so you won't go wrong generally, but the Vivitar 70-150/3.8
is $40-50 on the used market, sharp, solidly built, and focuses more closely
than the 75-150/4 Zuiko. This Vivitar lens also is better corrected
wide open, rivalling the 75-150/3.5 E from Nikon. Thus, if you
don't already have a 75-150/4 Zuiko, it probably isn't the best
buy for a lens of this genre. the vivitar lens has 52mm filter
threads to which a 52->55mm stepper can be permanently mounted.
(I standardize my 35mm lenses to 62mm, but that's a different story.)
the Vivitar 70-150/3.8 weighs 14oz and is only very slightly larger
than a 135/2.8 Zuiko. It focuses to 1:4 by itself, and with a nikon 3T or
5T 2-element closeup lens on the front, you can get publication-quality
macro shots with this lens.
J.
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