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Olympus lens department sucks

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Brian G. said:
But a Canon 28mm f/1.8 costs only $400 US, and is great for what it
allows.
Click to expand...
Hmm, it was a really bad lens on film, maybe the worst Canon prime I have ever seen, so I doubt that it would do well on a Canon "fullframe" body...
Brian G. said:
And while it's true that it's f/1.8 vs. f/1.4, you can
easily compensate by increasing the ISO as Canon's noise advantage
more than negates the difference. One could always buy it and a new
body to put it on, if need be, for much less than the Nikon, and
start shooting. :)
Click to expand...
oh, another Canon vs.... thread.
 
Like Louis, I prefer zooms. So do most current purchasers of digital cameras. In fact, as each year passes, more & more people who buy digicams & DSLRs are coming from the ranks of people who never shot film or owned 35mm, LF, or MF film cameras. For them (I am one of them, by the way, & I'm 58), prime-schime! I own OM legacy primes because I bought them AFTER acquiring my free adaptor as an E1 buyer. And I bought them because there were no cheaper alternatives in digital Zuiko zooms. I still use them for the same reason, but I would certainly prefer to use my zooms & do so when I can cover the range I want with the zooms (I own 14-54mm and 40-200mm).

Folks, this means the future Oly pro shooters are by and large coming from a digital background, not from film. As a business plan, I certainly would cater to my potential customers, not those who come from a legacy background based on film. I bought an E1 in Nov 2004 because I wanted a top-notch DSLR with colors I had learned to count on from previous experience with Oly digital cameras. I started with the original D200 P&S before it had removable memory, then bought a fixed lens SLR in the C2500L, and owned the fixed lens SLR E20 before selling it to get the E1.

The point I'm trying to make here is that I bought into the image quality and color range, not into the lens system. I think many other future Oly DSLR purchasers are going to make similar decisions. That is, they are coming from the ranks of Oly P&S digicams, or they try holding various competitor models in big box stores (not camera shops) and like the feel, or the price sways them into making the purchase. The availability of primes for these folks, like me, has very, very little to do with purchasing the camera. And most will never purchase another lens besides the one or two that come with the bodies. For those that will, then Oly offers a full range of high-quality zooms that span 7mm to 250mm and will work the same on all of the E-system bodies. So, long-range planning by Oly seems to be on target to attract consumer level DSLR buyers and then offer them upgrades on lenses and new bodies every 2-3 years, with a high-end body offered every 3-4 years (assuming the E3 becomes available in 2007).

Cheers,
HS
--
http://hestamm.smugmug.com
 
there are great lenses. We need more primes though... and a cheap (price wise) 50mm f1.8 or 1.4 for like $200 like Canon and Nikon have on their end.
 
Last I checked there is a 35mm f1.4 and a 50mm f2 lens available for Olympus DSLRs. The 50mm is sharp as a tack and the 35 is flat out FAST. But look at how big the 35mm is! And you want a FAST wide angle lens? How friggen big will that beast be? And how expensive as a result??

In the mean time the 4/3rds lens selection is EXCELLENT, getting better all the time, and simply a bit short in one area: primes and pancakes. If you want those then get out of Oly gear and get into something else. The small sensor and 2:1 multiplier don't lend themselves to fast & cheap primes anyhow if you expect them to be at all wide angle.

Oly
 
ISO 800 sucks on my E-500. Oly clearly does NOT have good high ISO performance - let's at least be honest about our gear.

Oly
 
I'll agree with the negative posts here. There are loads of strange solutions in the rangeup:
  • Two cheap ranges, one tiny and one small
  • A superlong 50-200 with no IS
  • Two wides, one not so wide and one $$$ expensive
  • A 35mm macro with an insane working distance
  • Super-zooms and a 150/2 with no appropriate body
  • An expensive fisheye (compared to pentax 10-17).
  • Announced lenses, that are not released
Also, there are other aspects that are worrying :
  • No pro body for 4, probably 5 or 6 years.
  • No updates to exsisting body within that time
  • No improvement in AF system
  • Old flash system
  • Dim and tiny viewfinders across range (attempted solved by "adapter").
  • ISO problems
I'm pretty confused and angry at the moment. I'm wondering weather I should put the $$$ on the table for the 7-14 or if I should just buy the D80+Tokina 12-24 which is a fine combination with a good viewfinder. Other tempting alternatives are the K10D + 10-20 sigma or the 30D + 10-22. All are optically poorer than 7-14, but are both cheaper and deliver a better -end result- in many situations. And pherhaps most noteworthy, all are lighter than E-1 + 7-14 combination.

At the moment things look pretty sjhit if you ask me. The D80 viewfinder on the other hand looks beautiful ... which the E-400 for sure is not going to ...

--
johan
 
The ZD 35mm is f/3.5. Both are pretty fine lenses.
Olyinaz said:
Last I checked there is a 35mm f1.4 and a 50mm f2 lens available
for Olympus DSLRs. The 50mm is sharp as a tack and the 35 is flat
out FAST. But look at how big the 35mm is! And you want a FAST
wide angle lens? How friggen big will that beast be? And how
expensive as a result??

In the mean time the 4/3rds lens selection is EXCELLENT, getting
better all the time, and simply a bit short in one area: primes and
pancakes. If you want those then get out of Oly gear and get into
something else. The small sensor and 2:1 multiplier don't lend
themselves to fast & cheap primes anyhow if you expect them to be
at all wide angle.
Click to expand...
 
Except they didn't promise a 14, 25, or 45mm lens. They showed
'fast xxx' in general areas.

And then they added waffle words "Development plan as of October, 2003. Launch schedule may be changed without notice." and "Details of exact launch date not yet determined."

Manufacturers have a right to change their plans. Deal with it, or move on.
dMatic said:
They promised 14mm, 25mm and 45mm on their first lens roadmap in
2004, when I bought my first E-1, second one I bought spring 2006.
Please do some homework before statement like that.
Click to expand...
 
Silly me - it certainly IS 30mm. :-)

Oly
 
Cephalotus said:
Brian G. said:
But a Canon 28mm f/1.8 costs only $400 US, and is great for what it
allows.
Click to expand...
Hmm, it was a really bad lens on film, maybe the worst Canon prime
I have ever seen, so I doubt that it would do well on a Canon
"fullframe" body...
Click to expand...
No, it wasn't. I'll certainly agree that it is not Canon's best prime by any stretch, but it is actually much better than many people think, and I happen to know it works very nicely on full-frame Canons.

In any case, if you don't like that lens, there are other options as well.

Sigma, for example, makes many. How about:
20mm f/1.8 ($400)
24mm f/1.8 ($339)
28mm f1.8 ($269)
30mm f/1.4 ($429)
Cephalotus said:
Cephalotus said:
And while it's true that it's f/1.8 vs. f/1.4, you can
easily compensate by increasing the ISO as Canon's noise advantage
more than negates the difference. One could always buy it and a new
body to put it on, if need be, for much less than the Nikon, and
start shooting. :)
Click to expand...
oh, another Canon vs.... thread.
Click to expand...
Hardly. The Sigmas I just mentioned are made in Sigma, Nikon, Canon, Minolta and Pentax mounts.
--
Brian



Some monochromes:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/spiritmist/SundayBoating/index.htm
Some more monochromes:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/spiritmist/BWWebPage/index.htm
Some older images:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/spiritmist/Brian_G_Digital_Image_Gallery/index.htm

'To quote out of context is the essence of the photographer's craft.' John Szarkowski, The Photographer's Eye
 
Has someone saved prior copies of the lens roadmap? I must admit I have trouble remembering what was included on previous versions.
 
Plkease show me the 14mm F/1.4 in any system... that would be awesome... but huge:)
dMatic said:
If you have 14-54mm f2.8-3.5 and shoot at 800iso wide open on
1/30s, you get not so good photo because your Olympus camera sucks
on high ISO, with prime lens 14mm f1.4 you can shoot same picture
at 200iso with f1.4 and 1/30s. Why is this so hard understandable
for people in Olympus? Before 30 years 200iso was high speed film
and 64iso was normal speed, but guess what photographers used f2
and f1.4 prime lenses!!!

And please do not tell me that 14-35mm f2 will solve the problem;
it will be too big and too expensive!!!

--
dMatic
http://dmatic.fototrip.org
http://dmatic.blogspot.com
http://www.fototrip.org
Click to expand...
--
Rob aka NoTx...
--- Forever Learning
 
14mm in 4/3 is 28mm, so the 14mm in 4/3 have less of ccd to be covered, so lens diameter can be smaller, so lens is smaller then 14mm film lens, so...

Did you get the point?
NoTx said:
dMatic said:
If you have 14-54mm f2.8-3.5 and shoot at 800iso wide open on
1/30s, you get not so good photo because your Olympus camera sucks
on high ISO, with prime lens 14mm f1.4 you can shoot same picture
at 200iso with f1.4 and 1/30s. Why is this so hard understandable
for people in Olympus? Before 30 years 200iso was high speed film
and 64iso was normal speed, but guess what photographers used f2
and f1.4 prime lenses!!!

And please do not tell me that 14-35mm f2 will solve the problem;
it will be too big and too expensive!!!

--
dMatic
http://dmatic.fototrip.org
http://dmatic.blogspot.com
http://www.fototrip.org
Click to expand...
--
Rob aka NoTx...
--- Forever Learning
Click to expand...
--
dMatic
http://dmatic.fototrip.org
 
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