Zuiko 1.8/75mm and the MFT system

[Frank Fremerey]

This is an exceptional lens by any standards and I would not own it if not by circumstance I would have been able to acquire an OM-D and the lens for the current price of the lens.

It came here less than 36 hours ago and I started to develop some RAW files, named after a famous composer: http://www.orff.de/en.html with interesting results. Bare with me if I can not and will not process these Orffiles faster. It is a learning curve.

So here is the lens with the OM-D:

[Frank Fremerey]

An here are some flowers. Many more to follow. Feel free to contribute!

[Frank Fremerey]

Installation at 1/10 of a second, so more a test of the IBIS...

[Frank Fremerey]

As you can not marry one aspect of a woman, you can not use many lenses without their system. The 1.8/75mm Zuiko is the tipping point for me concerning the MFT sytem. Will I keep or drop Oly?

This is handheld 1/4 of a second at a FOV of a 150mm FX lens (in Nikon terms):

[Frank Fremerey]

Speaking of the system. I feel MFT maxes out at ISO1600, 3200 with a lot of help in RAW conversion.

To compare: At ISO1600 the OM-D EM-5 is on the level of a D500 at ISO20.000! Sorry in this department others rule for sure.

ISO 1600 100% crop:

[Frank Fremerey]

Summing up the system so far: great with a lot of light or on stationary subjects, but beware of situations requiring above ISO800...

The focussing is great if there is enough light. On a parking lot this night a street light scene could not be focussed without going into some furking menue and setting the focus mode to "manual".

My D70 was better in that respect.

[John Geerts]

Yes, agree. I am not ready with my MFT tests, but I can add that the RAWs are also less flexible to work with, compared to FF. And the lenses for MFT are generally too sharp and too contrasty, which makes it hard to process to your liking.

[Akira]

Frank, admitting that the 75/1.8 is superb, do you really need that combo?  You already have the exellent D500 and 105/1.4...

[Frank Fremerey]

Akira: I do not "need" another camera, but curiosity drives me and I desperately wanted to try the 1.8/75mm for a while. At the price I paid, I can sell the whole without loss in half a year or so. I love the silver look of the combo, some sentimental feelings go with that. I had the OM-1n for four years of intensive use from 1984 till 1988 and loved her very much. The OM-D EM-5 has the looks but is a bit of an antithesis to the very logical, very simple super ergonomic OM-1n. I know the EM-1 is much better in the ergonomics department, my neighbour has her and a lot of glass and I used her quite often.

Contrary to John, I was enthused about the leverage of the RAW files. I did develop them in Photo Ninja 134.

"Unadjusted" is the starting point and manual white balance, because both "smart lighting" and the AWB of PN134 fail on the Orffs.

Starting from there a lot can be had from the highlights and the shadows. Also the Noise Ninja module work pretty well on these files, getting rid of the noise and keeping the details at the same time. The noise character in the children shot is basicly with no special adjustments in the Noise module of PN134. I show other examples later.

I hope for some sunny weather in the next few days to test the camera in her comfort zone.

[Tristin]

The Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 delivers nice images.  A friend of mine owns one and I was quite impressed with it's light macro capabilities.  Versatile lens with good image quality.  I have not pixel peeped on it, but I like what I have seen. 

The focus by wire part though . . . *barf*

[Danulon]

This is an exceptional lens by any standards and I would not own it if not by circumstance I would have been able to acquire an OM-D and the lens for the current price of the lens.

It came here less than 36 hours ago and I started to develop some RAW files, named after a famous composer: http://www.orff.de/en.html with interesting results. Bare with me if I can not and will not process these Orffiles faster. It is a learning curve.

So here is the lens with the OM-D:

Frank, straying into m4/3 territory?! ;-)
I recently bought a m4/3, as well, however for my gf.
Focusing by wire feels a bit weird, but then currently the only lens for the cam is a kit zoom.
Looking for some good fixed focus lenses, but couldn't decide yet.
Interesting that you were so keen on that lens even before owning a m4/3 lens.
Is the zuiko 75 mm 1.8 so well regarded?

Wishing you much fun with your latest purchase!

[John Geerts]

The Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 delivers nice images.  A friend of mine owns one and I was quite impressed with it's light macro capabilities.  Versatile lens with good image quality.  I have not pixel peeped on it, but I like what I have seen. 

The focus by wire part though . . . *barf*

Oh yes, the Pano 20/1.7 is a pretty good lens !  Two examples wide open.

[Frank Fremerey]

Interesting that you were so keen on that lens even before owning a m4/3 lens.
Is the zuiko 75 mm 1.8 so well regarded? Wishing you much fun with your latest purchase!

Hi Günther & Happy New Year! https://blog.mingthein.com/2012/07/22/review-the-olympus-zd-751-8-for-micro-four-thirds/ plus I have see some stunning nature & street stuff on the old NG site, a special character I was fascinated about. Frankly it was just the lens that brought me into these waters. I like to see what I can do in the garden with it compared to my Nikon stuff.

If not the ergonomics of the EM-5 were so bad:

1) I cannot switch OFF the rear screen and only use the View finder as screen as I do it with my Fuji all the time. In many situations the screen goes life again and I have to use the little button on the right side of the VF to toggle between the two

2) The VF picture does not resemble the final picture. Only the frame and a symbol for AF success can be seen

3) The embedded JPEG does not have much to do with what I might achieve in a RAW development

4) the playback button is too small and positioned falsly

5) chosing the af point cannot be easily done with the eye on the VF (button placement issue)

6) I am not used yet to the wheel placements also

[Anthony]

Frank, admitting that the 75/1.8 is superb, do you really need that combo?  You already have the exellent D500 and 105/1.4...

Need?  When was that relevant to an NG member? 

[Akira]

Akira: I do not "need" another camera, but curiosity drives me and I desperately wanted to try the 1.8/75mm for a while.

Need?  When was that relevant to an NG member? 

Okay, curiosity is a good reason.   

By the way, 20/1.7 was THE reason for me to jump on m4/3.  When it was released, I immediately bought it with G1.

As for the raw file, Olympus tends to over-sharpen the SOOC jpeg files.  Some say that the sharpening setting cannot be canceled in RAW file, but I didn't noticed that and I always set the sharpening to the minimum on my E-M5 MkII.

The EVF image was vastly improved on E-M5 MkII.  It was the best EVF image I had ever seen.  E-M1 MkII should take that over.