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[OM] Re: 40mm pancake - collector or shooter?

Subject: [OM] Re: 40mm pancake - collector or shooter?
From: Skip Williams <om2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 08:51:42 -0500
All this mine-is-bigger-than-yours arguments won't get anyone anywhere unless 
you do objective, rational testing.  And who wants to do that, anyway?  Aren't 
the lenses for pictures?

Below are my, not-so-objective opinions

The 40/2 Zuiko isn't a rational lens, but an emotional one.  Its performance 
isn't that great vs. the 50/1.8 MIJ.  It's also a bit too thin to have good 
ergonomics.  But it's very small and a little wider and more natural than the 
50.  And it's cool.  Why do you think that the 35/2 Summicron has been so much 
of a favorite all these years?  It's the natural FOV.  Oh, and the vaunted, 
35/2 pre-asph Summicron that is so raved and coveted?  It's got mediocre 
off-center performance, but a nice sweet spot.  It's the bokeh that puts the 
icing on the cake of that lens, not it's razor-sharp performance.  It's a 
1970's design, remember.

The 85/2 can't be beat for portraits. 

The 90/2 is spectacular, and every bit as nice as the 90/2 Apo-Asph Summicron, 
plus you get macro capabilities.  If it's ergonomics were better, I'd say it 
was the perfect lens.  i.e., I wish it's aperture ring was smoother and had 1/2 
click-stops.  All the ones that I've seen kind of "clacked".

The 21/2 Zuiko is the only game in that town, but I doubt whether it would 
stand up against the 21/2.8 Elmarit-M Asph in head-to-head comparison, which 
has been tested as the best 21mm lens ever made.  Non-retrofocus designs have a 
big, inherent advantage.  The big plus of the 21/2 is its speed and very, very 
good performance.  Remember, it's a 30 year-old design, and you can't expect a 
design of that age to compete with 1990's aspherical surfaces.

As I said, the top-drawer lenses are all within spitting distances of each 
other and the nit-picking differences don't really matter to most, normal 
people.  It's just anal, gearheads that have discussions like these and 
_really_ believe that the equipment makes 90% of the difference.

Skip


>
>Subject: [OM] Re: 40mm pancake - collector or shooter?
>   From: "Tom Scales" <tscales@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>   Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 07:07:27 -0400
>     To: <olympus@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
>
>Oh come on.  An absolute like this is ridiculous.  I'm no Leica man, but I'd
>put the 85/2, 100/2, 90/2 and 21/2 up against anything.
>
>The 90/2 bokeh cannot be beat. Period.
>
>I have a 60/2.8 Micro-nikkor (90/2.8 on the D100) that is nice and produces
>good shots, but it is NOT the 90/2 Zuiko.
>
>I miss it.
>
>Tom
>
>>  richard-lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
>>
>> > Actually, for that matter, I know of no Zuiko that can compete at F2
>with
>> > the best Leica glass :-(
>> >
>
>
>
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