(Extracted from an article in the May 1995 issue of UK photo magazine
"Practical Photography". The article reviewed the OM3Ti plus 35-80mm zoom
lens.)
Olympus has a comprehensive system of Zuiko lenses, but when the OM3Ti was
launched, a 35-80mm f2.8 zoom lens also arrived. This constant fast
aperture zoom is a nice contrast to many modern plasticky zoom lenses --
it's bulky and solid by comparison. At 1200 UK pounds it also isn't cheap,
and like the OM3Ti I think it's overpriced.
Optically it's very good -- across the frame and throughout the focal length
range. Handling is reasonable without being outstanding. One thing I find
when carrying the camera and lens over the shoulder is that when you come
to put the camera to the eye, the focusing barrel has magically rotated to
the minimum focusing distance. Annoying, to put it mildly, though regular
checking solves the problem.
("Practical Photography" had stopped doing MTF lens tests by the time of
this review, so no test measurements for the 35-80mm zoom are available.)
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