Canon 35/2.0 versus Olympus PenF 38/1.8

[goamules]

Great examples of how good the Zuiko lens is!

One thing to keep in mind is that a 35mm focal length is not that wide on full frame. 38mm covering that size is even less wide. 40mm is considered a "normal" focal length on 35mm, so the Olympus design is just 2mm shorter, into the "wide zone" for 35mm. On half frame it's slightly long. Though some lenses are indeed wide angle designs, covering say 95 to 100 degrees angle of view, like a Protar V in large format, I doubt that one one of these is "optimized for wide angle" and the other is "optimized for more normal." Both are conventional Double Gauss designs.

Coverage is predominately based on two things; the focal length, and the aperture. The slower the lens, the more the coverage, usually, because of optical dynamics. I note you shot the pen F lens wide open, did it cover the corners better stopped down to F2 or 2.8? 3mm more focal length doesn't do much, but it also helps coverage some. I also note the warmer colors from the Pen-F lens, that your portraits show. The canon is quit cold/blue.

I'm like you, I enjoy a little vignetting in a lot of my photography. Why does the Olympus vignette slightly (I mean dark corners)? Possibly just the design of the barrel, not the optics. They didn't intend for it's coverage to be used on the larger FF size, so built the barrel with a deep inset built in hood, to resist flare. I shoot some 25mm Cine lenses on my Micro 4/3s that are the same way, extremely sharp and 3D in the center, slight spherical aberrations around the edges and vignetting. It looks great to me. Enjoy the 38/1.8, they're one of the best lenses ever made.

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Dante wrote about the Pen lenses years ago, and I believe pointed out that they were designed with very high resolving power, to make up for the smaller footprint on the negative. They really are kind of made for APS-C.

 

[kuuan]

Great examples of how good the Zuiko lens is!

thank's, it really is an amazing little lens!

One thing to keep in mind is that a 35mm focal length is not that wide on full frame. 38mm covering that size is even less wide. 40mm is considered a "normal" focal length on 35mm, so the Olympus design is just 2mm shorter, into the "wide zone" for 35mm. On half frame it's slightly long.... I note you shot the pen F lens wide open, did it cover the corners better stopped down to F2 or 2.8? 3mm more focal length doesn't do much, but it also helps coverage some. I also note the warmer colors from the Pen-F lens, that your portraits show. The canon is quit cold/blue.

I'm like you, I enjoy a little vignetting in a lot of my photography. Why does the Olympus vignette slightly (I mean dark corners)? Possibly just the design of the barrel, not the optics. They didn't intend for it's coverage to be used on the larger FF size, so built the barrel with a deep inset built in hood, to resist flare. I shoot some 25mm Cine lenses on my Micro 4/3s that are the same way, extremely sharp and 3D in the center, slight spherical aberrations around the edges and vignetting. It looks great to me. Enjoy the 38/1.8, they're one of the best lenses ever made.

stopping down vignetting decreases but extreme corners remain dark even when fully stopped down. Looks as if they just barely mae it into the frame. Very good sharpness already wide open on impressively large area. I also find that the resulting images have a strong 3D appearance.

Certainly a halfframe lens on FF is not what one would want to use for this but someone rather briskly had demanded a photo at infinity. After I had done all the work and posted the photos the 'request' was deleted.
I took the same with the Canon and was surprised to notice that with the Zuiko Auto WB chose more yellow at wide apertures only, closed down it looked the as with the Canon.

unedited ( unsharpened ) 100% crop of top left corner @f11

( noticed that there are two or three small sensor stains that add a bit to the darkness )

unedited ( unsharpened ) 100% crop @f5.6

mid frame and centre 100% crops,
unedited / unsharpened jpg @f11

@f5.6

ok, right, halfframe lens 1.8/38 Zuiko on FF isn't a good choice for landscape. :bang:

I enjoy my Pen-F lenses, all of them, very much! I fully agree with mabelsound:

Dante wrote about the Pen lenses years ago, and I believe pointed out that they were designed with very high resolving power, to make up for the smaller footprint on the negative. They really are kind of made for APS-C.

Pen-F halfframe lenses are as if made for APS-C! After I started using mirrorless cams with APS-C sensor I got the Pen-Fs 3.5/20, 4/25, 2.8/25, 1.8/38, 1.4/40, 1.5/60 and 3.5/100 and had been using pretty much only them + the CV 4.5/15, 4/21 and 4/25.
I am thrilled that some of them can be used on FF and that to great effect!! The 1.8/38 and the 1.5/60 are amazing and unique lenses, for me they also shine on FF, very changed and despite the obvious limitations, the 100mm is stellar also on 24x36.

happy to return to a photo for which the 1.8/38 excels also on FF 🙂 ( slight crop )


Untitled by andreas, on Flickr