How sharp is the Oly 75mm f/1.8 Really?

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dkmiles1
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p.1 #1 · How sharp is the Oly 75mm f/1.8 Really?

Very rarely does a lens live up to the hype, but Olympus has really hit it out of the park with this one. I'm beside myself. My eyes are bleeding!

These aren't great images per se, but its pretty amazing how tack sharp this thing is.

Please show off your 75mm f/1.8 images....

The last two images were taken of a house, at night about 100 yards away. The chair is a 200% crop, just keep in mind, I'm 300 - 400 feet away from the house... The only adjustment made to the images were a +1.80 on the exposure slider in LR4. Apart from that, its straight OOC....

2013 © dkmiles1

E-M5 75 mm f/1.8 1/200 sec 5000 ISO 0.0 EV

2013 © dkmiles1

E-M5 75 mm f/1.8 1/160 sec 5000 ISO 0.0 EV

2013 © dkmiles1

E-M5 75 mm f/1.8 1 sec 200 ISO 0.0 EV

2013 © dkmiles1

E-M5 75 mm f/1.8 1 sec 200 ISO 0.0 EV

Dec 10, 2012 at 02:42 AM

joezasada
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p.1 #2 · How sharp is the Oly 75mm f/1.8 Really?

mine is also wickedly sharp. I only wish it had the MF control ring like on the 12mm has, then it would have been perfect.

Dec 10, 2012 at 09:13 PM

bobbytan
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p.1 #3 · How sharp is the Oly 75mm f/1.8 Really?

Very sharp ... and loving your cat shots!

Dec 11, 2012 at 08:03 AM

thrice
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p.1 #4 · How sharp is the Oly 75mm f/1.8 Really?

Are those 100% crops? Is that enlarged chair a 100% crop?

Dec 11, 2012 at 08:49 AM

pr4photos
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p.1 #5 · How sharp is the Oly 75mm f/1.8 Really?

He said 200%. Do you need your eyes looked at

Dec 11, 2012 at 12:24 PM

you2
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p.1 #6 · How sharp is the Oly 75mm f/1.8 Really?

Well I think the lens out resolves the sensor by quite a bit so I would focus on other attributes. Mind you the images I see posted from the lens seems to have a lot more sparkle than the 45 (which also out resolves the sensor when stopped down) so it is more than just raw resolution. Btw I really like the first cat picture; I wonder if it holds up (the image; not sharpness) when enlarged.

Dec 11, 2012 at 01:53 PM

Jman13
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p.1 #7 · How sharp is the Oly 75mm f/1.8 Really?

Here's one of my favorites from the 75/1.8 that most of you have likely seen before. I agree...it's one of the sharpest lenses (and one of the best lenses overall) I've ever owned. This one is wide open:

This image is copyrighted by the owner

Dec 11, 2012 at 01:57 PM

CalW
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p.1 #8 · How sharp is the Oly 75mm f/1.8 Really?

It is amazing, and not just for portraits

First Snow on Mount Mansfield
E-M5 75 mm f/8.0 1/1250 sec 200 ISO 0.0 EV

2013 © CalW

First Snow on Mount Mansfield Crop
E-M5 75 mm f/8.0 1/1250 sec 200 ISO 0.0 EV

Dec 11, 2012 at 02:40 PM

Bifurcator
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p.1 #9 · How sharp is the Oly 75mm f/1.8 Really?

I hear people "saying" it's great but these images aren't showing what I would comparatively call "great".

Any others to show?

Judging by these so far, both the FD 85/1.2L @f/1.8 and the Zeiss C/Y 85/1.4 @1.8 just trounce this Oly.

That said, it looks soft enough to indeed be a nice and forgiving portrait lens.

Dec 11, 2012 at 04:14 PM

dkmiles1
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p.1 #10 · How sharp is the Oly 75mm f/1.8 Really?

Bifurcator wrote:
I hear people "saying" it's great but these images aren't showing what I would comparatively call "great".

Any others to show?

Judging by these so far, both the FD 85/1.2L @f/1.8 and the Zeiss C/Y 85/1.4 @1.8 just trounce this Oly.

That said, it looks soft enough to indeed be a nice and forgiving portrait lens.

SLRGear.com says otherwise and so do I. I own or have owned the 85L, the 135 f/2 and the 70-200 f/4 IS - those are great lenses, GREAT lenses - but the Oly has a slight edge, when you factor in the cost of the system and the other lenses, there's no comparison.

That said, I won't be giving up my 5D3 or 85L anytime soon :-)

Dec 11, 2012 at 04:20 PM

Bifurcator
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p.1 #11 · How sharp is the Oly 75mm f/1.8 Really?

I don't care what people and sites say. Show me the images.

Also the Oly is about $750 right?

The FD 85/1.2 is $100 less than that and the Zeiss is $200 less.

As far as system price I think the OM-D or GH3 is about the same as a D700 these days isn't it? Other lenses don't matter as there are more+cheaper+better lenses in every length for both Canon and Nikon. So IMO the OM-D or the GH3 can in no way be said to be a cheaper or more cost effective photographic platform.

Dec 11, 2012 at 04:21 PM

dkmiles1
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p.1 #12 · How sharp is the Oly 75mm f/1.8 Really?

The popcorn is warming up in the micro...

The photo of the girl that admiring light put up doesn't do it for you? Wow...

I thought the cat photos were pretty sharp too...

The Oly is $899.

The OM-D body only is around $949.

An 85L new is around $2,200 - no offense, but no one's buying the FD 85L anymore, and even if they do its manual focus on canon's digital bodies with an adapter... That's not to say it isn't great BTW...

Zeiss 85 f/1.4 (Manual focus) is $1,283 on B&H

A Used D700 is what? $1,200?

$2,400 for a Nikon with the Zeiss or $1,848 for the OM-D and the 75... Taking weight into consideration, I'm going with the OM-D....

Here is the aforementioned SLR Gear review, note the first line;

"The Olympus 75mm ƒ/1.8 is one of the sharpest lenses we've ever tested. It is tack-sharp even wide open at ƒ/1.8, gets a little sharper through to ƒ/8, and stays sharp even stopped down to ƒ/16."

http://slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/1521/cat/14

Dec 11, 2012 at 05:02 PM

Bifurcator
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p.1 #13 · How sharp is the Oly 75mm f/1.8 Really?

No, Jman13's girl pic is a nice portrait even if her eyelashes are a little strange but nothing about it screams sharpness. Unless of course that's a 100% crop. I would say just from that image that the lens has a nice balance of contrast while being soft enough at the same time to make for a pretty good portrait lens - but it's not very sharp comparatively speaking. Going by the other images here I would pretty much only guess that the lens is soft. The cat one again shows some promising contrasty-ness tho.

The FD 85/1.2 L is no longer sold new. Many people still buy FD lenses. This is the Alt forum remember.

Then B&H is a rip-off.

Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Example 4

The D700 seems to go for between $950 and $1200 typically. I can readily find them for $1.000

So $1,600 for the D700 + Zeiss (my verified pricing) or $1850 for the OM-D + Oly 75/1.8 (your pricing)

The OM-D and probably the GH3 does indeed win the size and weight contest but this thread is about the sharpness of the Oly 75. Which BTW is a fairly heavy lens as I remember it. So let's not even consider price where the GH3/OM-D systems lose or tie, and just consider sharpness. I wanna see. Show it off bro. And please pass the popcorn!

Dec 11, 2012 at 05:37 PM

Jman13
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p.1 #14 · How sharp is the Oly 75mm f/1.8 Really?

Bif is just hard to please.

Here's a 100% crop of the image I posted earlier. Pretty sharp for wide open, I'd say:

This image is copyrighted by the owner

Stopped down it gets crazy sharp. This is a full frame at f/4:

This image is copyrighted by the owner

100% center crop:

This image is copyrighted by the owner

100% lower right corner crop:

This image is copyrighted by the owner

I also took a similar picture to one I have typically done before to test near infinity sharpness. These are all 100% crops...The left is the Canon 135 f/2L @ f/5 on the 30D, the Center is the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II @ f/5.6 on the 1Ds II (at 150mm), and the right is the 75mm f/1.8 @ f/2.8 on the OM-D (different angle and slightly closer):

This image is copyrighted by the owner

A few other 75/1.8 shots, just for fun (though without crops because I don't have them handy): wide open unless noted otherwise:

This image is copyrighted by the owner

@f/4:

@f/6.3:

Dec 11, 2012 at 06:07 PM

Bifurcator
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p.1 #15 · How sharp is the Oly 75mm f/1.8 Really?

The 100% of the girl's eye and the wall-leaves show good sharpness. Thanks!

Dec 11, 2012 at 06:15 PM

Jorgen Udvang
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p.1 #16 · How sharp is the Oly 75mm f/1.8 Really?

Bifurcator wrote:
I hear people "saying" it's great but these images aren't showing what I would comparatively call "great".

Any others to show?

Judging by these so far, both the FD 85/1.2L @f/1.8 and the Zeiss C/Y 85/1.4 @1.8 just trounce this Oly.

That said, it looks soft enough to indeed be a nice and forgiving portrait lens.

I disagree strongly. I have the Zuiko 85/1.8 and the Zeiss CY 85/1.4 which was my long portrait lens on the GH1 until now. Not only is the Zuiko sharper across the frame, but it's much more flare resistant and has very little CA. Add to that the convenience of AF, and my Zeiss lens has been mounted firmly where it belongs: on the Contax RX.

Dec 11, 2012 at 06:15 PM

mortyb
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p.1 #17 · How sharp is the Oly 75mm f/1.8 Really?

Jordan, the last shot of your daughter (?) is really, really nice.

Dec 11, 2012 at 06:17 PM

Bifurcator
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p.1 #18 · How sharp is the Oly 75mm f/1.8 Really?

I don't use nor trust AF though so that's not a beneficial feature to me.

Dec 11, 2012 at 06:18 PM

CalW
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p.1 #19 · How sharp is the Oly 75mm f/1.8 Really?

Bif, you have every right to be doubtful, and I would expect nothing less

I just checked my survey maps and that mountain ridge line is 3.75 KM away. To be able to discern individual altitude-dwarfed spruce trees at that distance with a 150mm field of view certainly pleases me. My Canon 300mm f/4 L was a damn fine lens, but even on a full-frame 1D with half the field of view, from this same point, I never had detail like this. And with absolutely no fringing. For whatever all that is worth.

Dec 11, 2012 at 08:26 PM

dkmiles1
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p.1 #20 · How sharp is the Oly 75mm f/1.8 Really?

Bifurcator wrote:
The 100% of the girl's eye and the wall-leaves show good sharpness. Thanks!

Here's one more. Not to beat a dead horse :-)

2013 © dkmiles1

E-M5 75 mm f/1.8 1/1250 sec 200 ISO 0.0 EV

Dec 12, 2012 at 04:03 AM

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