At 05:28 4/7/01, Michael Kopp wrote:
No, the lens hood for the 24 mmm f/2 is useless. I threw mine away 27
years ago.
My philosophy is _a_ lens hood is better than no lens hood . . . conceding
that some are more useful than others . . . and they can be a PITA to put
on and take off. I've gotten more disciplined in using them because they
have saved my hind end from off-axis flare. However, at 28mm focal lengths
and wider effectiveness goes down . . . more from the wide angle of view
taking in more possible sources of flare . . . not from whether the hood
itself is a better or worse design. Probably something you already
know. Just one man's opine on it.
There's nothing magical about one have Oly's name on it with the focal
length. An ideal hood would be at least as long as the focal length, have
a rectangular shape in the same aspect ratio as the film gate, and only be
wide enough to keep from vignetting the image on it. Most are much less
than this ideal.
Two situations where lens hoods are often dispensed with where they ought
to be used! One is night photography, especially with long timed
photographs. The other is with flash strobes, especially indoors, where
you can get reflectance from off-axis objects from all the light bouncing
around.
Question: what about the lens.
In fact, what about all of Oly's great lenses (the "pro" lenses, the ones
that go beyond consumer specs?).
My experience with the "MC" prime lenses overall (some marked "MC" and some
after Oly stopped marking them) is they are better than average . . . and
significantly better than the current offerings of "consumer priced" AF
lenses for Nikon, Canon and Minolta AF SLR bodies. Picked up a couple of
them and handled them at a store last night . . . BLECCCCHHHH! I'll stay
with the "Brass, Glass and Steel," Thank You). When I consistently get
very positive remarks about "image clarity" (I interpret this as perceived
acuity by the viewer) it tells me the OM Zuiko's are delivering more . . .
with smaller size and lower weight.
They're the reason (well, so was the OM1 body's lightweight and quiet
shutter and mirror) I dumped my Nikons after 15 years of professional use,
including a war.
The only other system I might consider is Nikon's manual focus with the AIS
lenses . . . an F3 or possibly an FM-2n . . . but the weight and size of
the system has always drawn me back to the OM's.
I still love them.
So do I.
-- John
< 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 >
|