Most all m4/3 lenses seem soft or mediocre at best (so far)...

--
Berghof G.C.

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Thanks,

Teski
http://www.tedescophotography.com

What makes you so sure of that?

I suspect there are quite a few people who, like me, already have comprehensive DSLR systems and are looking for something to complement those systems, not replace them, and not as upgrades from P&S.

The pricing of MFT also tends to belie your statement.

Harold66 said:

The reason is that Both panasonic and Olympus are only trying to address the entry market who want to upgrade from their P&S cameras

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--
Ian
http://www.monsoonteardrops.com/

I want the flexibility of my DSLR system but more portable. With my GH1/14-140 kit, I have incredible quality and range in one small kit when I'm doing business travel all over the US/Europe. I stopped carrying my high end heavy gear for that type of stuff and was missing out.

--
Thanks,

Teski
http://www.tedescophotography.com

Thanks for all that... but who said anything about video ?

Aex said:

Your post just make me think a little bit...

1. Certain people tend to see the glass half empty

I upgraded from a P&S (Panasonic FZ28) and to me, the 14-140mm is more than sharp enough and the 20mm f1.7 crazy sharp. From that "glass half full" perspective,

Click to expand...

Aex said:

snip....

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Aex said:

So ya, I wouldn't want to take my 14-140mm to compete with your SHG Oly gear in term of sharpness. I'll lose. But take your gear and do video! I think I have more than an advantage. It's not always about the sharpness.

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My flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/testdasi/

R Stacy said:

I know its early on, but it really is a bit of a disappointment so far. I realize all we have are entry grade lenses, albeit a couple of which are priced towards high grade...

What gives? I know these new sensors are capable and even the first round of cameras are capable of far more, but these lenses from everything I'm seeing so far are indeed the achillles heal.

I have yet to see any that compete with OLy's High Grade as yet, much less Super High Grade, including Leica's lone entry - possibly only the Pany 20mm notwithstanding.

I know its still early, but, especially given OLy's recent announcement, will we in fact see any great lenses for the m4/3 format ?

--



'There ain't no life nowhere' ~ Jimi Hendrix
Lately I'm thinking he was talking about pixel peepers.

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--
=============================
My flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/testdasi/

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--



'There ain't no life nowhere' ~ Jimi Hendrix
Lately I'm thinking he was talking about pixel peepers.

R Stacy said:

Thanks for all that... but who said anything about video ?
...

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You did, in your "poppycock" comment: Which is why you are getting some disagreement about the 14-140:

R Stacy said:

R Stacy wrote:

Maybe I should have included the 7-14, but I don't see even it compares (image quality) with the full 4/3 OLy. As for the 14-140... poppycock... its a digitally enhanced video lens.

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--
JoelH

I own and have shot with Canon L primes for a number of years, and the 20mm is quite a capable little sibling. Beautiful colors, clear images, and sharp at focus points even wide open.

The 20mm at least is hardly "mediocre" at best. You obviously haven't tried it or don't know what you're talking about.

--



'There ain't no life nowhere' ~ Jimi Hendrix
Lately I'm thinking he was talking about pixel peepers.

if not that all m4/3 lenses currently available are mediocre at best?

pls enlighten us.

i have the 7-14, 20/1.7, and the 45/2.8 and found them all to be very sharp. i shoot mostly leica/voigtlander/zeiss M lenses as well as some 4/3 lenses such as the leica 25/1.4 and 14-150 nowadays so that is the basis for my comparison. it is based on actual everyday use, not by observation based on viewing images taken by others on the net.

R Stacy said:

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'There ain't no life nowhere' ~ Jimi Hendrix
Lately I'm thinking he was talking about pixel peepers.

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GALLERY: http://galay.fotki.com

No I've never used it. It is generally regarded as the ultimate super wide & I wouldn't argue with that.
On a D3X needs a crane to lift it though!

tribac said:

Hi David,

I am a Nikon shooter (lusting for Canon & Leica currently looking at the Panasonic 7-14 to go with my E-P1 for light travelling. You commented on this lens being the best ultrawide you've ever used, have you ever used the Nikkor 14-24 on your D3x, and if yes how would you compare?
Tia,
--
Tri-Bac

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--
http://davidmartynhughes.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29782425@N08/
http://davidmartynhughes.smugmug.com/Photography
http://web.me.com/davidmartynhughes/Site/Home.html

would not care about the spelling since he, and everyone he knew, was completely illiterate. Moreover, for some centuries to come, even literate people only used capital letters and spelled proper names quite freely.

So now you can stop being uncertain.

BTW, your use of "of" is a slight error and very awkward. It is not the noun-like 'spelling' used that might anger him, but the verb-like act of spelling it wrong that would anger him.

This leads to the second blemish in the sentence where you use 'reference to', rather than 'referring to' and thus create a botched and awkward parallelism.

Both of which words are wrong anyway, since it is not the referring that might raise his ire, but the misspelling.

It is not necessary to write correctly or perfectly on an Internet forum. But it is good form when you're criticizing someone else's use of language.

Well, keep trying.

BigBarney said:

P.S. I am uncertain whether Achilles would have appreciated your spelling of his name without an upper case first letter, not to mention your reference to his heal rather than his heel.

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--
Frank
http://www.sidewalkshadows.com

ego sum via et veritas et vita

between mft and cameras costing many times the cost and weight and lenses that weigh almost as much as a small car and cost almost as much just go to prove how good the mft system is what ever the outcome, IMHO it's like comparing a mini with a Rolls or Merc then saying the mini doesn't give the same you the same ride or build quality......now there's a surprise!! Why can't these people that criticize the mft system get it into their heads that the camera was designed for a completely different market to the top end DSLR and full frame and they were never meant to be compared. ......end of rant!!! LOL

R Stacy said:

R Stacy wrote:

I know its early on, but it really is a bit of a disappointment so far. I realize all we have are entry grade lenses, albeit a couple of which are priced towards high grade...

What gives? I know these new sensors are capable and even the first round of cameras are capable of far more, but these lenses from everything I'm seeing so far are indeed the achillles heal.

I have yet to see any that compete with OLy's High Grade as yet, much less Super High Grade, including Leica's lone entry - possibly only the Pany 20mm notwithstanding.

I know its still early, but, especially given OLy's recent announcement, will we in fact see any great lenses for the m4/3 format ?

--



'There ain't no life nowhere' ~ Jimi Hendrix
Lately I'm thinking he was talking about pixel peepers.

Click to expand...

Hi,

Unlike the "defenders of faith" I kinda agree with you. I say "kinda" because I think you're being a little impatient.

I agree the lenses, are mediocre (although, for the price I paid for it, and its size, the 20mm Pancake is a jolly good buy), even the so called Leica Macro doesn't do well on the MFT chart at f5.6 compared to the 14-45 kit zoom (which could be another way of saying that the kit zoom at 45mm f5.6 is superb ). However, you have to remember, that when this system was introduced Panny were heavily targeting what one may referr to as "soccer mums" and were even giving out signals from some quarters that there was very little chance that one would see Leica lenses for the system i.e. this system is for "soccer mums" not advanced users. I think Panny themselves have been taken by surprise by the number of advanced photographers who have taken to the system.

Now that Panny are aware that their market is somewhat different to what they had initially prepared for, I am sure they will introduce next year, or the year after, the stellar lenses that you (and I, and many others) would like to see.

Further, if Panny had started the system off with stellar lenses, which equals high price, that would have been the kiss of death for the system. They would no doubt have got a lot of pats on the back and awards from reviewers but they probably wouldn't have got many customers. As it is, they have produced a reasonably good system that a great many people can afford to buy into, and from that customer base they can start introducing high end stuff.

So I think you just need to be patient. I don't think they can go much faster really, they have already introduced six lenses and three camera bodies in under a year.

Regards,

I have to respectfully disagree. I have been shooting the G1 with the 20mm 1.7 and the kit, 14-45 and I find both lenses to be incredibly sharp (sometimes almost to sharp). I do shoot jpeg and I tend to dial up the sharpness. These lenses on a subjective level seem to be sharper then my Canons (including some L glass) and highly touted Tamron 17-50 2.8 and 28-75 2.8 on FF.

I have 2 galleries of G1 images that in my estimation demonstrate the excellent sharpness of these lenses. yes, I know that you will argue that dialing up the sharpness and the contrast of the images may make them seem sharper then they actually are, but isn't that what we are talking about. It is not about the measurement of the glass, it is the final viewing image:

http://digitalphotonut.zenfolio.com/p417748325

http://digitalphotonut.zenfolio.com/p186610908

R Stacy said:

I know its early on, but it really is a bit of a disappointment so far. I realize all we have are entry grade lenses, albeit a couple of which are priced towards high grade...

What gives? I know these new sensors are capable and even the first round of cameras are capable of far more, but these lenses from everything I'm seeing so far are indeed the achillles heal.

I have yet to see any that compete with OLy's High Grade as yet, much less Super High Grade, including Leica's lone entry - possibly only the Pany 20mm notwithstanding.

I know its still early, but, especially given OLy's recent announcement, will we in fact see any great lenses for the m4/3 format ?

--



'There ain't no life nowhere' ~ Jimi Hendrix
Lately I'm thinking he was talking about pixel peepers.

Click to expand...

--
http://digitalphotonut.zenfolio.com/

nothinghere

Nothing here.

Seems its largely about mere semantics or downright 3rd grade childish evaluations. From my one post I've been called everything from a troll to an idiot abuot spelling. Nice.

I would not call the lens line up darn good as Godfrey suggests. Is anyone truly excited about the lens line-up? One person, Frederic, seemed to get what I'm saying - and if there are others I've missed amongst the hoopla please forgive.

Again, with the only exceptions being the P 20mm (good, but still not stellar), possibly the P 7-14 (though I haven't seen anything as good as OLy 7-14). As for the 14-140, I'd like to use this lens to decide for myself so for that one I'll admit undecided. Everything else is entry level and perhaps ok for you, or mediocre for me. Perhaps all the lenses are good enough for you or even great for you? I don't really care. Choose your own adjectives.

Sure, you can use any number of great 4/3 lenses or top shelf manual focus, and that is appealing but, a limited audience and largely forced into (myself I will use a host of OM Zuikos) until we see some pro glass.

=======================

R Stacy said:

I know its early on, but it really is a bit of a disappointment so far. I realize all we have are entry grade lenses, albeit a couple of which are priced towards high grade...

What gives? I know these new sensors are capable and even the first round of cameras are capable of far more, but these lenses from everything I'm seeing so far are indeed the achillles heal.

I have yet to see any that compete with OLy's High Grade as yet, much less Super High Grade, including Leica's lone entry - possibly only the Pany 20mm notwithstanding.

Click to expand...

I'm hardly a troll, but I may be the fool for trying to bring up a conversation about pro glass (or even ask the question) in a so far made for entry level format.

R Stacy said:

I know its still early, but, especially given OLy's recent announcement, will we in fact see any great lenses for the m4/3 format ?

--

Click to expand...

'There ain't no life nowhere' ~ Jimi Hendrix
Lately I'm thinking he was talking about pixel peepers.

Is the softness you are referring to inherented from the lens (centre-to-edge) or the in-camera processing?

I have used the GF1 for a month now, and I agree the standard setting on camera produce a softer image with any lens. I like that as it is possible to sharpen it through camera setting (film-setting on the GF1) or with the raw processer (silkypix), and I have more control over how the sharpening is done.

Super sharp lens over all aperture range will be nice, but it will take time for time for the m4/3 system to roll out.

Most lens has their sweet spots/range, and you just need to know where they are. I typically check the slrgear reviews:

for lumix 14-140
http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/1251/cat/69

for lumix 7-14
http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/1252/cat/69

for lumix 20
http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/1295/cat/67

and for Leica 45
http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/1294/cat/67

I am now trying a nikon-m4/3 adaptor on some old nikon primes. The good thing about m4/3 is that you can use your lens of choice through adaptors (under $50). You can use whatever sharp lens you want!!

:hinting

oops I think the dpreview one on the Leica 45mm is probably more in-depth.

... please read (and next time quote) the full text of my initial post. That would include exactly what I said.

If you prefer to quote one line out of context to make your own point... that would (by default) not be exactly what I said.

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'There ain't no life nowhere' ~ Jimi Hendrix
Lately I'm thinking he was talking about pixel peepers.