Dear all,
I'd be interested to learn of people's experience with Zuiko single
coated (SC) 50/1.4 lenses. I bought one recently; it was a bit tatty,
with a (removable) thumb print on the rear element and a loose rubber
focus grip, which I glued in place. Mechanically and optically it
appears undamaged. Serial number is 6xxx,xxx so it's definitely SC.
I haven't used it much yet, so I don't have enough results to be able
to judge its performance for myself, but I'm beginning to regret buying
it after seeing Gary Reese's test results: the performance of this lens
seems to be less than respectable. I quote the information below from
Gary's site, with apologies to Gary, to save people having to look it
up for themselves:
50mm f/1.4 Zuiko (single-coated)
OM-1 with mirror lockup
Vignetting = C
Distortion = slight pincushion
Aperture Center Corner
f/1.4 D C-
f/2 C- C
f/2.8 C B-
f/4 B- B
f/5.6 B B
f/8 B+ B
f/11 A- B
f/16 A- B+
Gary says:
D = "Smudged" with obvious image defects in even small degrees of
enlargement, not suitable for most users (only 3.5x5").
C = "Soft" images that cannot withstand much enlargement - suitable for
snapshot quality images (5x7").
The resolution of the SC model seems to be acceptable only at f/4 or
smaller, with pincussion distortion to boot! People buy is lens for
low-light photography, which means the performance wide open is
particularly important - otherwise, they might just as well buy the
50/1.8 and save money. I am amazed that Olympus could have marketed
such a poor lens as the SC 1.4. I should say that, in comparison, the
more modern MC model seems excellent from Gary's test: all A and B
ratings and no distortion.
I know the usual wisdom is: "Don't worry - the differences bewtween SC
and MC aren't that great." However, in this case it would appear that
they are very significant. So, has anyone any comments?
Regards,
=====
Ray
"The trouble with resisting temptation is
you never know when you'll get another chance!"
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get Yahoo! Mail ? Free email you can access from anywhere!
http://mail.yahoo.com/
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|