[dhazeghi]

Hello,



I'm looking for a decent standard zoom for my micro 4/3 (Olympus E-P2) body. Neither the kit 14-42 nor Panasonic's 14-45 have really impressed me - both seem rather soft toward the edges of the frame, especially at the wide end. I was wondering if the Olympus 14-54mm II would be a real upgrade in terms of sharpness. Thanks!



DH

[genotypewriter]

[quote name='dhazeghi' timestamp='1292891610' post='5136']

Hello,



I'm looking for a decent standard zoom for my micro 4/3 (Olympus E-P2) body. Neither the kit 14-42 nor Panasonic's 14-45 have really impressed me - both seem rather soft toward the edges of the frame, especially at the wide end. I was wondering if the Olympus 14-54mm II would be a real upgrade in terms of sharpness. Thanks!



DH

[/quote]

These should answer your questions...



Olympus 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 Zuiko Digital

http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/32/cat/15



Olympus 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 Zuiko Digital

http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/33/cat/15



Olympus 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 II Zuiko Digital

http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/1239/cat/15



Panasonic 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH MEGA O.I.S. LUMIX G VARIO

http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/1227/cat/69



<img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />



GTW

[dhazeghi]

[quote name='genotypewriter' timestamp='1292909491' post='5139']

These should answer your questions...



Olympus 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 Zuiko Digital

http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/33/cat/15



[/quote]



Thanks! I'd seen the SLRGear tests before. But I'm a bit dubious about their methodology - it's difficult to tell what the difference between 1 or 2 blur units is at a practical level, and their sharpness tests seem strangely asymmetric in almost every case. Still if they're to be believed, I guess the Olympus 14-54 isn't much of a step up from the Panasonic 14-45 in terms of sharpness.



Cheers!



DH

[Guest]

I have the 14-54 on an Oly 4/3 body. While I haven't done any scientific or even semi-scientific tests, I'm very happy with it. However, it's a very solidly built, sizable lens. Given that you might lose some functionality with a micro 4/3 adapter (?) -- I would not get it for a m4/3 body. It's just not really a lens for an E-2, too big, IMHO. If you haven't done so already, you can see this well on the four-thirds.org matching simulator.



Chris

[dhazeghi]

Thanks for the comments. I've just received my copy of the 14-54II. So far, I'm not very impressed.



The good news is that compared to the Panasonic 14-45, center sharpness seems better at wide apertures and corners are marginally better at all apertures. Also, while largish, the handling is manageable. I used to shoot with an Olympus 12-60 on the E-620, and this is no worse.



The bad news is that CA is almost as high as the Panasonic (which is to say, pretty high), performance at 14mm is still not good, and autofocus speed is drastically worse. The extra stop of speed is nice, particularly at the long end, but given the price of the lens and the dubious AF, I'm distinctly underwhelmed.



Thanks!

[genotypewriter]

[quote name='dhazeghi' timestamp='1294255136' post='5355']

The good news is that compared to the Panasonic 14-45, center sharpness seems better at wide apertures and corners are marginally better at all apertures. Also, while largish, the handling is manageable. I used to shoot with an Olympus 12-60 on the E-620, and this is no worse.



The bad news is that CA is almost as high as the Panasonic (which is to say, pretty high), performance at 14mm is still not good, and autofocus speed is drastically worse. The extra stop of speed is nice, particularly at the long end, but given the price of the lens and the dubious AF, I'm distinctly underwhelmed.

[/quote]

Sounds like you've reached the IQ limits of the system. The EVIL cameras+lenses so far have been targeted towards people who are willing to compromise IQ for portability or at ones who aren't aware of high IQ. I've heard somewhere that Oly wants to develop more serious lenses for mFT this year. Nikon also has announced that their upcoming system will target a higher-end market than the one there is right now. Hopefully, there'll be better lenses coming up for us all.



GTW

[finaldesignrb]

[quote name='genotypewriter' timestamp='1294269437' post='5356']

The EVIL cameras+lenses so far have been targeted towards people who are willing to compromise IQ for portability or at ones who aren't aware of high IQ...GTW

[/quote]



Hey GTW, narrow your speech a little there. Just because a camera is EVIL doesn't mean it's compromised. The Sony Nex camera BODY doesn't compromise image quality in any way. At least not when paired with the mighty 1988 Tokina 70-210 f4.5-5.6 SD II zoom, no-lateral-color-at-F8-and-F11 at 70mm, rendering ISO 800 Raw single-pixel wide details aplenty:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15387676/DSC02905-NexRawTest-TokinaSD70-210zoom70mmF11.jpg



You could say in your defense that you meant the camerasPlusKitLenses as a system, not the potential camera body quality. Am specifically and much enjoying the no-mirror-slap-and-lightweight-on-tripod, Sony EVIL sharpness with a smallish (450g, 87mm long) full frame 35mm lens. And I got the idea for finding this sharper-than-all-my-others practically worthless lens from Photozone's interesting review of the Sigma 55-200 zoom, which apparently at F11 was not very different from the Canon 85mm f1.8.

[dhazeghi]

[quote name='genotypewriter' timestamp='1294269437' post='5356']

Sounds like you've reached the IQ limits of the system. The EVIL cameras+lenses so far have been targeted towards people who are willing to compromise IQ for portability or at ones who aren't aware of high IQ. I've heard somewhere that Oly wants to develop more serious lenses for mFT this year. Nikon also has announced that their upcoming system will target a higher-end market than the one there is right now. Hopefully, there'll be better lenses coming up for us all.



GTW

[/quote]



Hi GTW,



I don't disagree that the EVIL setups are primarily targeted toward the lower-end. That said, there certainly are good lenses available like the Panasonic 45/2.8 and the Panasonic 20/1.7 which offer both excellent IQ and portability. I did briefly test the Olympus 12-60 on my E-P2 at the store some months back and found the quality to be impeccable (made my D700/Nikon 24-120 look quite mediocre by comparison). Unfortunately, it's a rather unwieldy combination and requires 2-3 seconds to acquire focus.



I hadn't read about Nikon's upcoming system, but a high-end mirrorless option would be very much appreciated! Thanks for your thoughts!



DH

[genotypewriter]

[quote name='RussellB' timestamp='1294290704' post='5357']

Hey GTW, narrow your speech a little there. Just because a camera is EVIL doesn't mean it's compromised. [/quote]

Well that's why I said "the EVIL cameras+lenses so far have been..." <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />





[quote name='RussellB' timestamp='1294290704' post='5357']

The Sony Nex camera BODY doesn't compromise image quality in any way. At least not when paired with the mighty 1988 Tokina 70-210 f4.5-5.6 SD II zoom, no-lateral-color-at-F8-and-F11 at 70mm, rendering ISO 800 Raw single-pixel wide details aplenty:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15387676/DSC02905-NexRawTest-TokinaSD70-210zoom70mmF11.jpg

[/quote]

Or... even better with the His Holiness, the 200 f/2 IS @ f/2 on the Nex-5:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/genotypewriter/4872191108/

<img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />





[quote name='RussellB' timestamp='1294290704' post='5357']

You could say in your defense that you meant the camerasPlusKitLenses as a system, not the potential camera body quality. Am specifically and much enjoying the no-mirror-slap-and-lightweight-on-tripod, Sony EVIL sharpness with a smallish (450g, 87mm long) full frame 35mm lens. And I got the idea for finding this sharper-than-all-my-others practically worthless lens from Photozone's interesting review of the Sigma 55-200 zoom, which apparently at F11 was not very different from the Canon 85mm f1.8.

[/quote]

Yes... thanks for not ignoring the "+" I specifically put there for this very reason <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />



Being a proud owner of a Nex-5 and using it almost exclusively (instead of my 5D2, 50D, etc.), I still have to say that Canon APS-C sensors have more pixel-level resolution. Sony (and Nikon) are very well known for performing noise reduction before the data is written as RAW and this takes a toll on high frequency data (a fancy way to say fine details).



Not sure what you mean when you compare the 55-200 to the Canon 85 1.8... I'm not surprised if the fast prime isn't anything special at f/11 over the zoom because (1) it's not that difficult to get rid of most of the aberrations at f/11 on any decent lens and (2) fast lenses are optimised for their fast apertures. The reason why people should pick the prime is for those apertures that the zoom doesn't allow and perhaps a better peak sharpness somewhere typically around f/5.6 or so. I do wish that Canon followed Leica's approach in building multiple lenses for the same focal length with a well-spaced range of max apertures (e.g. Summilux vs. Summicron vs. Elmarit vs. Elmar, etc.).



GTW

[genotypewriter]

[quote name='dhazeghi' timestamp='1294291357' post='5358']

That said, there certainly are good lenses available like the Panasonic 45/2.8 and the Panasonic 20/1.7 which offer both excellent IQ and portability.[/quote]

So then why are you asking about a 14-54? <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> It's possible for a system to have many lenses covering every mm twice... but if one can't find a high quality optic to fulfill their shooting needs, the system is still limited in that regard.





[quote name='dhazeghi' timestamp='1294291357' post='5358']

I did briefly test the Olympus 12-60 on my E-P2 at the store some months back and found the quality to be impeccable (made my D700/Nikon 24-120 look quite mediocre by comparison).[/quote]

This wouldn't have been a problem if you had gone for a 5D2 + 24-105 f/4 instead <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> I'm kidding...



Well, when you did the comparison, did you ensure that you compared the lenses at equivalent apertures? As in, did you stop the Nikon lens down to make it f/5.6-8 instead of comparing it wide open at f/3.5-5.6? Also, do keep in mind that Nikon hasn't really done their best with the 24-120 VRs... so I wouldn't give all the credit to Olympus there.



GTW