How to recognise the coating on the 35 SHIFT lens from zuiko ?
Serial number ? ...

I'm looking for a 35mm shift lens for my 5D and later my 5DII...
I can't afford the zeiss alternative at the moment.
Thanks

Check this site. He refer that all are MC. Try to research a bit more.

http://www.datasync.com/~farrar/zuiko.html

Check this site. He refer that all are MC.

no, it says S=sometimes for MC
we are talking about the shift one !

You're right. A= always. Sorry.
In that case probably only the ones with MC on it.

In that case probably only the ones with MC on it.

No, you should read you link more carefully before posting ;-)
Some lenses listed as S or A are marked MC, and are multi-coated, but some multi-coated examples are not marked MC. If the reflection of a light source in a lens shows blue or green images, if is probably MC.

But looking at pics on the web it's not easy to be shure about it... no one have serial number of the first MC 35 shift ?

I misread again.
What i read was that only the ones with MC are really MC. And that's not what it says.

This is what happens when your doing two things at the same time!

A more reliable guide to index coatings on this particular lens is found here:
35mm Shift Lens Group Test (Olympus v Zeiss v Nikon)

MC or not, it is a fine lens and can be bought for 300ish euro. Go ahead.

The way to tell is as husband mentions above.

The singlecoated ones have f=35mm on the ID ring. The MC ones have just 35mm, I think. I can post pics of examples if need be.

There's a nice one on B&S from Pascal03 - his is a singlecoated one but in sweet shape. He had a MC one I bought from him also, in similarly spectacular condition. It's a great lens, very nice.

Multi coated versions are rare and in practical use the single coated versions do not suffer much from flare. I use mine a lot and have not had any more problems with flare than with say the 24mm TS-E which is multi coated and will flare with the sun in or just out of the frame

Actually, it is rather difficult to tell if the image is shot with a MC or SC version unless you find yourself in a rare situation - go out of your way to induce the effects shown in hubsands tests.

For what it's worth, the OM 24mm f3.5 PC Shift - probably one of the finest shift lenses ever made is not multi coated either.

One could state that all of the Canon TS-E's (atleast the 24 and 45) are prone to flare - maybe just as much or more so than the OM SC versions.

pascal03 wrote:

For what it's worth, the OM 24mm f3.5 PC Shift - probably one of the finest shift lenses ever made is not multi coated either.

Well, actually that is multicoated. It came out later than the 35 shift. Though they did vary the multicoating on them very slightly (I have 2 here for comparison at the moment) based on color of reflections in the elements.


One could state that all of the Canon TS-E's (atleast the 24 and 45) are prone to flare - maybe just as much or more so than the OM SC versions.


I'd agree with that. In general I think the 35 shift and 24 shift Oly's beat up on the respective Canon TS-Es in general. Of course the canon's offer tilt so it's not quite apples to apples...

Nonetheless I'd not hesitate to get a single-coated Oly 35 shift, in any case. If you can find a MC one, that's great but even the SC one is worth having.

-Ed

sn 100100 to 1072xx and 1092xx to 110150 are single coated; 1102xx to 1119xx are MC, and the 1074xx to 1091xx range contains a mix of single and multicoated lenses. Front ring reading is "ZUIKO Shift 1:2,8 f=35mm sn" for single coating; "ZUIKO SHIFT 35mm 1:2.8 sn" for multicoating. There are no shift lenses marked "ZUIKO MC". Multicoating for this lens was introduced between 09/1984 and 01/1985, i.e., it was the very last of the OM-System lenses which were upgraded to multicoating. Thus indeed only 15 to 25% of the 35mm shift lenses are multicoated. It might be that the sn 1074xx to 1091xx range was duplicated with two lenses having identical serial numbers: one SC, the other MC.

All OM 24mm f3.5 PC Shift lenses (intro: 04/1984) are MC.

deleted; seems my message was send twice

My late serial # OM 24/3.5 PC shift was definately MC. I've had just about all the OM's, and I can tell the difference easily by looking at the glass. I can even tell the difference betweeen the nice higher end MC's, and the other MC used on the lower end lenses. My 24/3.5 shift had the very nice looking MC's.

pascal03 wrote:

For what it's worth, the OM 24mm f3.5 PC Shift - probably one of the finest shift lenses ever made is not multi coated either.
.

Indeed you can tell MC by looking once you have some examples to compare with.

I think the MC in general was the same amongst most lenses, though they did change the formulation through the run of some of them.

Laminin has it right on the 35 shift info, no doubt.

-Ed

Laminin wrote:
sn 100100 to 1072xx and 1092xx to 110150 are single coated; 1102xx to 1119xx are MC, and the 1074xx to 1091xx range contains a mix of single and multicoated lenses. Front ring reading is "ZUIKO Shift 1:2,8 f=35mm sn" for single coating; "ZUIKO SHIFT 35mm 1:2.8 sn" for multicoating.

so, i've found different samples availables...

few single coated, i pass... having two tse, i'm looking for a real upgrade...

one MC with a serial number from this batch : 1102xx to 1119xx are MC

one MC with a serial number from this mix batch : 1074xx to 1091xx mix SC and MC

condition and prices are similar (460euros), what's the best choice ?

Thanks for all the infos !

pdmphoto wrote:
My late serial # OM 24/3.5 PC shift was definately MC. I've had just about all the OM's, and I can tell the difference easily by looking at the glass. I can even tell the difference betweeen the nice higher end MC's, and the other MC used on the lower end lenses. My 24/3.5 shift had the very nice looking MC's.



How high does the serial number list on the 24's go to know if one has a late or earlier version ?

How about the lens identification: Every 24mm PC Shift I have come across has "OLYMPUS OM-SYSTEM ZUIKO SHIFT 24mm 1:3.5" stamped on the ring. Are there any variants here ?

If you are going by the greenish tint versus brownish/bronze tint, I recall reading up on the web that this isn't the most accurate way to tell.
I can look at my 24mm PC Shift and while it may feel like it has the really nice MC (similar to the one I recently sold), how do you know for sure which of the OM Shifts or high end primes have it and which don't.

TY - everything I have found is that all the 24 shifts have excellent MC, no reason to think otherwise. My current 2 are 1029xx and 1027xx. I don't think they made a lot of these, I doubt there are two 'versions'.

Between these two there is a very slight difference in a couple of reflections on the rear element, that's the only difference I can see, and it's quite minor. I'd not notice it unless I had both side by side. Thankfully these lenses don't seem to accumulate dust the way some Zuikos do, they are amazingly dust free.

There's only a few Olys that have had 2 versions of multicoating, the 35/2 springs to mind, as do a few others. The oly lens diagrams which have separate part numbers for MC and New MC are the ones that have 2 versions of multicoating. these diagrams are available online though I didn't find one for the 24/shift however. (basically everything else though).

The greenish tint MC seems to be the earlier one, at least on the 35/2. My later one has the purplish tint. (both are MC though).

archivue - generally later serial number should be better but condition trumps everything I think. I'd take the cleanest/most dust free version of your choices. And the one that has the dovetail sliders the most nice and snug with no slop. That's what matters on these, really. (as far as the handling/precision of them).

-Ed