This was the last lens developed for the OM-System, introduced in the early
90's, if I remember right (or late 80's?). It's a cost-no-object,
constant-aperture zoom. It uses an unusual-for-the-OM-System petal hood and
62mm filters; it's also quite heavy, but nowhere near the size/weight of
competing lenses from other manufacturers of the era. It's the equal of normal
Zuiko primes, except for distortion. As with all zooms, even the vaunted
35-80/2.8, Canon L, or Nikon ED-AFS f/2.8 zooms, they all have higher
pincusion/barrel distortion characteristics at long/short focal lengths. I
wouldn't put it up against the 50/2, 90/2, or 100/2, but it holds its own with
other lenses.
Results are very, very nice, and you can pick out images with this lens over
lesser-quality zooms in transparancies or large prints. Superb resolution,
color saturation, and 3-d effects are evident, IME. I wish that it went wider,
but the technology didn't exist then to make 24mm or 28mm constant aperture
zooms. They started to appear with the Tamron 28-105/2.8 in the mid-90's (I
didn't do any detailed research here, so correct me if I'm wrong).
I sold mine for around $950 last year as I prepared to by an E-System. Prices
for examples with normal wear-and-tear run from $800 to $1200. If you find one
somewhere, be aware that they all have a little play in the zoom & focus
mechanism; evidentally they were designed that way, and aren't excessively
worn. FYI, they did not come with a hard case.
Skip
----- Original Message ---------------
Subject: [OM] The mysterious 35-80 f/2.8 Zuiko
From: "Evan Ruff" <evan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 08:34:09 -0400
To: <olympus@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
>I have seen mention of this lens in several of the online websites but have
>never actually seen or heard of one for sale. Am I totally missing the boat?
>How is the performance of this lens. Obviously I'm attracted to it because
>if the speed. How much do these beauties usually go for?
>
>Thanks,
>Evan
>
>
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