I'm going to steal some of Moose's thunder here by quoting on of his old
posts from April 2004 which I had suirreled away in my 50/1.4 file
Chuck Norcutt
------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 08 Apr 2004 21:51:12 -0700
From: Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [OM] Re: 50mm F1.4 lens
50/1.4s were made in several different variations over almost the whole
time OM bodies were made. Only at the very end were they discontinued in
favor of the 50/1.2. The very, very earliest used rare earth, slightly
radioactive elements in the glass. There were at least 2 different
coating variations in the SC versions and at least another 2 in the MC
versions and there were some mechanical and lens element changes along
the way too. Like other Zuikos, the silver nose is not the absolute
indicator of SC. 50/1.4s marked G.ZUIKO are SC and all others are MC.
Early multi-coated lenses have an 'MC' designation on the front ring.
Later MC lenses, after it was clear that all lenses were multi-coated
anyway, dropped the 'MC' marking. The last 50/1.4s, after the MC marking
was dropped, and especially above ~serial #1,085,000, are really
excellent lenses, especially remarkable for their even performance over
the whole aperture range. There are many lengthier treatises, some by
me, on this subject in the archives.
A later 1.8 will generally be optically better than an early 1.4 and
vice versa. Beyond that, unless you are using very careful techinque and
making big enlargements, it's a toss-up, you would have to test the
individual lenses in question. The 'MC' marked version of the 1.8 has a
common problem with grease/oil migrating from the helicoid to the
aperture blades and causing slow return from stopping down. 1.4s and
later 1.8s very seldom suffer from this problem.
Moose
------------------------------------------------------------------
keith_w wrote:
> Which leads to a general question...
> I have several Zuiko lenses, which I'd like to know the production dates.
> Any place I can get that? Some web site?
>
> I got back to this thread a little late, and am not aware of the thrust of s/n
> on 50mm f/1.4's.
>
> My G. Zuiko 50mm 1:1.4 is 643,xxx. About which I'm tempted to say, "So what?"
> ;-)
==============================================
List usage info: http://www.zuikoholic.com
List nannies: olympusadmin@xxxxxxxxxx
==============================================
|