I'm surprised that this thread is not filling up quickly! Great shots!
Especially since I finally had ordered an adapter for the two Zuiko's I currently have (50/1.8 and 28/3.5 - nothing spectacular) and found some time to play around with them over the holidays.
I must say that I am rather pleasantly surprised by the 50/1.8. This lens I think is now my preferred portraitlens - wow what a lot of character in that neat little package! (The zeissen are more often than not too sharp for portraiture - depending on what kind of atmosphere you have/want to create). I always loved what RustyBug could do with the Zuiko 50/1.4. Now that I see what the 50/1.8 is already capable of ... I may go out hunting for the 1.4 ...
The 28/3.5, though very nice and sharp, I found lacking something distinct. It produces really neat images (see above!) but the scenes I shot "did nothing" for me (therefore no sample shots), if you catch my drift. Highly usefull in the bag nonetheless!
When I saw this image I was astonished by the mood. Then again, I may be biased :P
OM Zuiko 50/1.8 @ f/2-or-thereabouts. Postprocessing in Canon DPP: sharpened and adjusted the exposure by on the order of -1/3 EV. Well worth all of the 3EUR I spent on it
I think not very good images but they kinda show what the 75-150 is like wide open (I think these are all at 150mm but the bottom one).
They're all processed but the RAWs were on the impressive side of sharp without it anyway.
I wanna shoot my other OMs but my GH1 is broken and Panasonic refuses to fix it. I'm totally bummed! :cry:
Yeah, I'm pretty sure they're all wide open. That was the first day with the lens and so far I've always shot whatever lens I get wide-open-only for day one. Then have a look through them in ACR. Day two I usually pick boring scenes that'll show me the differences as a shoot it at each of it's stops all the way thru. I dunno why... but for the past 15 or so lenses that's been the process.
Yeah, many of the OM and FD zooms from the 70's and 80's are surprisingly good - and since like you, most folks seem to pass them up that means I can get them at or under my $15 limit. But I like primes better too. I have a few new (to me) zuiko primes sitting here waiting their turn but I seem find myself bodyless in the midst of it. Oh well... back to the Minolta A2 I guess.
Thanks for the comments! This lens seems to be extremely vibrant. All the shots with red, magenta, purple, or kelly-ish green in them almost look like I jacked the saturation - but in-fact I toned it down a bit (instead of up) after touching the contrast. Anyway I like you guys's shots a lot better than mine. The kids with the wild-flowers is just awesome and the China shots are pretty incredible! I like that B&W bather from Jman a bunch too... oh and of-course ht77's Notre Dame color extravaganza - wow!
Wow, I just looked at the 35-80/2.8 on KEH. Is it that good to warrant the price tag? ($1200+) That's rather pricey for an older zoom, manual focus. How does it compare to modern AF zooms? I love my Zeiss 28-85, because it's every bit as good as the Canon L standard zooms, but it was $400, which was a large part of the appeal n
I did some test shots form the balcony today, with tripod and mirror lock up and remote control. At all focal length it is sharp wide open, sweet spot is f/5.6, after that sharpness is reduced. At FL 35mm and 50mm it sharp at f/2.8 even in the extreme corners. At FL 85mm the corners are soft at f/2.8, but getting better at f/4 and excellent at f/5.6.
I had the Zuiko f/3.6 35-70mm Zoom before,which is quite good, but this one is surely the champ of OLY zooms.
Did not have much time to use it. Will take it with me during my vacation in Germany in October. Hope to get a few fall images.
OK, so $400 ~ $500 then... But $1200+ For an ancient antiquated OM zoom? I'm confounded! I guess, whatev-er... If people will pay it... But someone is having a good laugh.
Bifurcator wrote:
OK, so $400 ~ $500 then... But $1200+ For an ancient antiquated OM zoom? I'm confounded! I guess, whatev-er... If people will pay it... But someone is having a good laugh.
I bought it on bay for EUR 652,79 in March 2010. I have it since May, because my son had to send it from Berlin to Guangzhou, in China, where I live. In USD it might have been
USD 850,--. Unfortunately the seller did not include the lens hood, which was on the ebay image. Only today I was able to to acquire a lens hood which does not vignette.
Canon L zooms are more than double of that. I had the Tammy before (Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8) which was quite good in portraits (nice bokeh), but weak in the corners at all FL.
I also owned the CS V-SONNAR f/3.4 35-70mm, which I sold to finance the Zuiko zoom.
But I have to concede, I am a "Zuiko fan" and that zoom was "missing" on my Zuiko shelf.
I'm totally bummed! :cry:
