Schlagwort-Archive: English

Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm F/1.2 Pro vs. Olympus M.Zuiko 12-40mm F/2.8 Pro Sharpness Comparison

A sharpness comparison between the Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm F/1.2 Pro and the Olympus M.Zuiko 12-40mm F/2.8 Pro. The Olympus 25mm F/1.2 is the first lens of Olympus new series of F/1.2 primes. Design and features are similar to other Olympus Pro lenses. There is a good chance, that someone who is interested in the Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm F/1.2 Pro already owns the Olympus M.Zuiko 12-40mm F/2.8 Pro. Therefore, I am going to compare the two lenses in this article. Usually prime lenses are sharper than zooms, however, the Olympus 12-40mm F/2.8 is already a very sharp lens. Will the Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm F/1.2 Pro be able to surpass it or is it “just” 2,5 stops faster?

Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm F/1.2 Pro vs. Olympus M.Zuiko 12-40mm F/2.8 Pro Sharpness Comparison weiterlesen

Lens Sample Variation

How bad is sample variation of lenses? A test using three sample of the Panasonic Lumix G 25mm f/1.7.
Lens reviews are often criticized for using only one sample of a lens. Some people claim that the differences between samples are so big that a bad lens might look good and vice versa. Is this true? How strong is sample variation really?

Lens Sample Variation weiterlesen

ZY Optics Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f0.95 Review

The ZY Optics Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f0.95 is a normal focal length lens for the Micro Four Thirds system released in fall 2015. It is a purely manual lens from China. The Mitakon 25mm 0.95 is the third manual F/0.95 lens for the MFT-system. The other lenses are made by Cosina Voigtländer and SLR Magic. The Mitakon 25mm is a lot cheaper, smaller and lighter than the competition. It has a RRR of 400 $, while the Voigtländer and the SLR Magic have a RRR of 800$. The Mitakon is only 60mm x 5mm (diameter x lenth) and weights 230g. Both the Voigtländer (58mm x 70mm, 410g) and the SLR Magic (65mm x 85mm, 490g) are bigger and heavier.
Did ZY Optics release a little marvel or did they have to reduce the image quality to achieve this size and price?

The build quality of the ZY Optics Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f0.95

The Mitakon 25mm is shipped in a very high quality box. Both lens caps are included, but there are no other accessories, not even a lens hood.

ZY Optics Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f0.95 Box
ZY Optics Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f0.95 box.

The build quality of the ZY Optics Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f0.95 is very high. It is made of metal and the focus ring as well as the aperture ring are well damped and move smoothly.

ZY Optics Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f0.95 Review weiterlesen

New M43 and APS-C C-Mount Lenses

My first impressions of the new c-mount lenses Fish-Eye 8mm F3.8 4/3“ (CL-Mil0838), 25mm F1.4 APS-C (CL-Mil2514) and 35mm F1.6 APS-C (CL-Mil3516).

This week I received my package of three c-mount lenses, specifically designed for Micro Four Thirds and APS-C cameras. These lenses seem to be inspired by the successful Fujian lenses, especially the 35mm F/1.7 c-mount ().
All three lenses are chipped in the same boxes and just a small field tells you, which lens is included. There is no company name, the boxes just say “Camera Lens” and “Mirrorless”.

The lenses are only available since a few weeks and can as far as I know only be bought from China through Ebay.

Die Kartons der C-Mount Objektive
The boxes of the c-mount lenses

Four Different C-Mount Lenses

Fish-Eye 8mm F3.8 4/3“ (CL-Mil0838) about 77 US$ () – This is the only model that is only designed for (Micro) Four Thirds Kameras. It has around 180° field or view on my OM-D and does  vignette on my Nex.

25mm F1.4 APS-C (CL-Mil2514) about  50 US$ ().

35mm F1.6 APS-C (CL-Mil3516) about xx US$ ().

50mm F1.8 APS-C (CL-Mil5018) about xx US$ (Seems to be sold out already.) – the only model I did not buy directly as there are so many fast legacy lenses of this focal length.

The build quality seems decent for the price. The 25mm and the 35mm feature a 46mm filter thread and are shipped with a snap-on lens cap.  A pouch is included with all three lenses..

As soon as the weather clears up and I finish my comparison of the Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm and the Panasonic Lumix 20mm, I am going to test all three lenses by comparing them to the popular Fujian lenses as well as “real” MFT and APS-C lenses.

Here is a short clip to demonstrate the vignetting of the Fish-Eye 8mm 4/3” C-Mount lens on APS-C cameras. As you can see this lens really is specifically designed for (Micro) Four Thirds cameras. This clip is out of camera without any editing.

Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm 1:1.8 vs. Panasonic Lumix G 1.7/20mm Sharpness Comparison

This article compares the sharpness of the Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm 1:1.8 and the Panasonic Lumix G 1.7/20mm. I am currently working on a full comparison review.

Test Procedure

All pictures were taken with an Olympus OM-D E-M10. I used a tripod, the 0 sek. anti-shock setting, a remote release and turned the stabilization off. I also took several pictures for the image center and the image border for every aperture and selected the sharpest to make sure that the result was not affected by focusing errors or other external factors (f.e. vibrations).

Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm 1:1.8 vs. Panasonic Lumix G 1.7/20mm Sharpness Comparison weiterlesen

Micro Four Thirds Standard Zoom Lens Review

A Micro Four Thirds Standard Zoom Lens Review. I take a look at the features and sharpness as well as distortion and vignetting. The four tested lenses are the Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 12-50 mm 1:3.5-6.3 EZ, the Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42 mm 1:3.5-5.6 (I), the Panasonic LUMIX G VARIO 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 ASPH. MEGA O.I.S. (I) and the Panasonic LUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6 ASPH. MEGA O.I.S.

Hier klicken für die deutsche Version des Artikels.

Features

The Olympus M.Zuiko 12-50mm offers the most feature wise: It is the only non-pro Micro Four Thirds lens that is weather sealed and it has an internal electronic zoom. Further it offers an additional “L-FN” button and a macro mode with roughly a 1:3 reproduction scale. It is also the only of the four tested lenses, which offers 12mm at the wide end.
Both Panasonic lenses feature an optical image stabilization. How useful this is depends on your camera, if it offers in-body stabilization that is compatible with stills and video, the O.I.S. is pretty useless, if your camera has no stabilization it is a must-have for many people. The only difference in features between the two lenses from Panasonic is the physical O.I.S. switch on the 14-45mm. On the 14-42mm you have to turn stabilization on and off in the camera menu.
Least to offer has the Olympus M.Zuiko 14-42mm (I): It is the most compact of the lenses, but its noisy AF-drive and its rotating front element are not state-of-the-art anymore, as the first is bothersome for video recording and the second makes it nearly impossible to use circular polarization filters.

Micro Four Thirds Standard Zoom Lens Review weiterlesen