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

Olympus 4/3 mount 50 f/2 - worth it?

Started Jan 24, 2018 | Discussions thread
OzRay
OzRay Forum Pro • Posts: 19,428
Re: Olympus 4/3 mount 50 f/2 - worth it?

I owned the 50mm macro when it first came out and later sold it as I found it to be very slow to use. However, late last year I picked up a second hand one and was very surprised that it focussed much faster on my E-M1 MkI and MkII than I remember it ever doing on my 4/3 cameras. That's with and without the 1.4x extender. While the focus of the 45mm will be faster than the 50mm, how much faster will depend on camera. Anything without PDAF will be glacial and frustrating.

I bought the 50mm purely for macro/close-up work, as I was considering getting the 60mm macro. But when the 50mm, in mint condition, came up at less than half the price of a 60mm (with the hood etc), I thought why not. No regrets on my part.

But the other thing to consider with the 50mm is that it has an image characteristics that all SHG lenses have and which none of the m4/3 has yet been able to emulate. The m4/3 lenses tend to focus on absolute sharpness, but the SHG lenses focus on broader image characteristics. I think Olympus is trying to do similar now with the new f1.2 lenses as they have admitted that they have concentrated too much in image sharpness.

-- hide signature --

Thoughts, Musings, Ideas and Images from South Gippsland
https://australianimage.com.au

Post (hide subjects) Posted by
(unknown member)
(unknown member)
(unknown member)
Keyboard shortcuts:
FForum PPrevious NNext WNext unread UUpvote SSubscribe RReply QQuote BBookmark MMy threads
Color scheme? Blue / Yellow