Part of the reason it’s not very common is that it has a limited, not very exciting zoom range (28mm to 48mm), it’s slow (f/4), the minimum focus distance is a long 0.65mm, and the front element rotates (making use of polarizing filters a pain). On the plus side, it’s only 300g and quite tiny.
So why is this thing a “hidden gem”? I use Zuikos with a Kipon Tilt-Shift adapter on my Fuji X-T2. I had most of my favourite focal lengths covered, but 35mm (“normal” on APS-C) was a gap. I tried the Olympus OM 35/2.8 and it was a terrible shift lens. OM 35/2 is \more expensive, and has a mixed reputation; the old Modern Photography tests show it does best at f/5.6, with f/8 and f/11 (very common apertures in my shooting) being weaker. I’ll try it one day. But in the mean time OM 28-48/4 is a really excellent 35mm lens with strong shift performance.
At 35mm, it’s absolutely usable wide-open at f/4, with corners being only slightly softer than the centre; it sharpens up very nicely by f/5.6, with corners already excellent. Both f/8 and f/11 are excellent (with f/11 showing a bit of diffraction already). Colours are typical Olympus (which I like). It’s nice and contrasty, and distortion is very low. And best of all, for me, image quality on the far side of an 8mm shift is very good. My Canon FD 35/2.8 has better image quality at the far shifted side at 8-10mm, but OM 28-48/4 is better across the whole field.
At 48mm, image quality with and without shfiting is the same as at 35mm, but there’s noticeable barrel distortion. The weak point of the lens is 28mm, which has the same barrel distortion as 48mm, slightly reduced overall image quality, and the weakest shift quality. By happy coincidence, this lens seems to have been optimized for 35mm, the only focal length it provides that I actually need.
So if you happen to need the 35mm focal length on an Olympus OM Zuiko, then have a look at this lens. If you like Zuikos, you’ll love this one.
Jan 12, 2018 at 09:40 PM
Previous versions of rdeloe's message #14324224 « Hidden gem: Olympus OM S-Zuiko AUTO-Zoom 28-48mm f/4.0 »
