Flare on the M. Zuiko 12/2.0

Flare on the M. Zuiko 12/2.0?

There isn't any - or, at least, there isn't much to speak of.

This isn't a "must-have" lens by any means, and it does have its issues, but one aspect of its optical performance that cannot be faulted is its flare resistance.

Note that the following photo (dawn at Masada, Israel, with the remnants of the Dead Sea in the background) was taken with no less than two filters fitted to the lens - a B+W MRC UV and a Hitech 2-stop grad.

I cannot think of any other lens that would perform this well shooting into the sun - except perhaps for the M. Zuiko 17/1.8:

It is indeed one of my fave m43 lens too

I'll confirm that observation.   Love the shot, BTW.

When I was in a panoramic state of mind doing city scapes at night, it was the go-to lens due to it's lack of flare.   Most others were confounding due to their flare, even if slight.

Nice picture in challenging conditions. I climbed Masada several times so I recognized the place before reading your text. I don't have the lens so I can't say much about it. If you are still in the country and interested in photographing ruins, I can recommend the ruins of Caesarea Maritima, Acre and Apollonia National Park. All are nice and easier to access, but not as intriguing as Masada.

Caesarea Maritima

It's funny because one time, I was intentionally trying to be artsy and get the lens to flare by shooting directing into the sun… I could not achieve flare with this lens.

Skeeterbytes wrote:

Very good shot in harsh conditions.

Love the little 12 and find it's the lens mounted most often on my E-M5. (A confession: several times now, I've had an "Aaaak, my autofocus doesn't work!" moment with much flapping about until I re-remind myself to check the 12's manual focus ring, which is inevitably shoved into the active mode. I'm slow that way.)

Me too! And also with the 17/1.8. I've actually missed quite a few good shots that way. Recently I tried to photograph a couple of guys in a really atmospheric little kebab joint in Casablanca and couldn't figure out why they were out of focus ...

S

Cheers,

Rick

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James Pilcher wrote:

NZ Scott wrote:

Flare on the M. Zuiko 12/2.0?

There isn't any - or, at least, there isn't much to speak of.

This isn't a "must-have" lens by any means, and it does have its issues, but one aspect of its optical performance that cannot be faulted is its flare resistance.

Hi Scott,

I too have the 12mm f/2.0. I purchased it for the E-PL3 (since retired) as soon as Olympus introduced the lens in 2011. I'm curious what "issues" you see with the 12mm. I have no reservations with it, but I'm always interested to hear what other people have to say.

Well, it's nothing too major, but it does show a bit of CA sometimes and I think it could be a little bit sharper for the price.

Cheers,

Jim Pilcher
Summit County, Colorado, USA

assaft wrote:

Nice picture in challenging conditions. I climbed Masada several times so I recognized the place before reading your text. I don't have the lens so I can't say much about it. If you are still in the country and interested in photographing ruins, I can recommend the ruins of Caesarea Maritima, Acre and Apollonia National Park. All are nice and easier to access, but not as intriguing as Masada.

Thanks for the recommendations. Unfortunately, we only had a week in Israel and are now back at work in Malaysia. We spent most of our time in Jerusalem, which is an amazing place as I'm sure you already know.

Caesarea Maritima