Dresden, Hofkirche

[Airy]

I confess I'm a big fan of the Olympus 12/2.0 on m43. It delivers very clean images under all sorts of circumstances. As for the church, it was not completely destroyed in 1945 (unlike many others in Dresden). The organ inside is a landmark ; it has probably been played by old Johann Sebastian Bach himself. I could not visit it though, being on a biz trip.

[Akira]

I've been looking at the 12/2.0 for some time, and your images look convincing.  When I tested briefly, I had the impression that the lens performs better in closer distances.  How about your findings?

As for the church, it looks majestic.  I wonder when Bach visited Dresden, but I wish I would have been there, of course!

[Airy]

At intermediate distances (say, 5-50m), It does not leave anything to be desired : clean pics, high contrast. At infinite ? I never use WA under such circumstances, so I can't tell. I'd be looking for subjects here: there is no such things as the great canyon in Northern France...

[Akira]

Airy, thanks for the further info.  I have shot some skyscrapers in Shinjuku that are 100+m away.  The images were acceptable, but not stunning, and I observed some field curvature at the extrem corners when the lens was wide open or stopped down a bit.

That said, I'm not going to use the lens this way either, even when I would get one for me.  Mostly for the indoor use or for the buildings like your case.  The only imaginable exception would be the starry skies, if only the light pollution could be avoidable (the light composite mode would help?).

[Airy]

Akira, I just had a pixel-peeping look to the original shots. Both have been taken at f/3.5, 400 ISO, and relatively low speeds (1/10, 1/8s).  The distant shot is reasonably sharp, but falling rain diffuses everything a little bit. The close-up, bottom-up shot is much better. Attached are a center, two bottom corners and the top edge 100% crops. The very distant parts are sure less sharp, and DOF is not infinite, but all that is quite usable. My beloved 28/2 AI won't have corners that clean at such aperture...

[Akira]

Airy, thanks again.

The image quality in the corners looks pretty good.  The m4/3 sensors are no match for FX sensors, especially that of Df.  But the performance of the lens at relatively large apertures and the excellent IBIS allow the photographer to stay with lower ISO and slower shutter speeds, which largely (or even hugely) makes up for the disadvantage of smaller sensors, so long as the subjects are still, like buildings or organs.

[Airy]

Precisely... this is why I use both systems. Also, one still feels that there is more "processing" behind the m43 sensors, so the Df yields a more "natural" look, but the difference is subtle.

I have tried to test the field curvature at "infinite" today, but did not come to any results, partly because the DoF is high even wide open. I'll try and find a better subject tomorrow.