DPReview.com is closing April 10th - Find out more

OMD: Can I take the same pictures with the 12mm f2.0 and the 17mm f1.8 ?

Started Nov 27, 2012 | Discussions thread
Paul De Bra
Paul De Bra Forum Pro • Posts: 12,949
Neither will do.

Two things to consider: the way our eyes work is reported to be roughly equivalent to a 58mm lens on 35mm (full frame) format. On full frame an 85mm lens is often said to be the ideal portrait lens. Translating this roughly to m43 the 45mm f/1.8 lens should be the ideal portrait lens.

So the 17mm lens is too wide and the 12mm is even more too wide. If you take a portrait with a 12mm lens you have to move uncomfortably close to the subject (with the 17mm too but less so) and the rectilinear projection starts distorting the portrait. If the subject it slightly off-center this becomes even worse. Try taking a group portrait with an ultra-wide lens to see this effect in a more extreme way: the people near the top corners become cone-heads. (Funny looking but the subjects will ask you to delete the picture.)

-- hide signature --

Slowly learning to use the Olympus OM-D E-M5.
Public pictures at http://debra.zenfolio.com/.

 Paul De Bra's gear list:Paul De Bra's gear list
Fujifilm FinePix F200EXR Olympus OM-D E-M5 Olympus E-M5 II Panasonic Lumix G 20mm F1.7 ASPH Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 45mm F1.8 +3 more
Post (hide subjects) Posted by
Keyboard shortcuts:
FForum PPrevious NNext WNext unread UUpvote SSubscribe RReply QQuote BBookmark MMy threads
Color scheme? Blue / Yellow