OM, I've become a Zuikoholic!

pggunn said:
Hi Rem,

I wanted the 85/2 but the 100/2.8 fit my budget better and it's very nice too.

It's compact, handles well, is reasonably fast and makes a great portrait lens.

Of my three lenses, the 50/1.4 gets the most use, but the 100/2.8 stays on the other body most of the time. Here's why:
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Very nice! I'm looking forward to using the new lens when it arrives. BTW, what kind of film did you use with this portrait?

Cheers...

Rem
 
andreios said:
From the new to me 85/2


4986536371_aefe516639_b_d.jpg
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Interesting photograph ... I really like it. It's very busy but fascinating! 🙂
 
remegius said:
Very nice! I'm looking forward to using the new lens when it arrives. BTW, what kind of film did you use with this portrait?

Cheers...

Rem
Click to expand...

That was Arista Premium 400, Freestyle's repackaging of Kodak Tri-X 400. It was developed in XTOL 1:1 and the negative scanned on an Epson V500.

I hope you enjoy your lens.

Take care,

Gregor
 
Keith said:
Interesting photograph ... I really like it. It's very busy but fascinating! 🙂
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Thanks, Keith! It was a quick snapshot, a rangefinder might have suited this better, but again it was proved that the best camera is the one you hold in hand. 🙂
I'll just have to buy some ND filters for my OM that would allow me to shoot TriX@1600 (wide) open during the day.. 😱
 
andreios said:
Thanks, Keith! It was a quick snapshot, a rangefinder might have suited this better, but again it was proved that the best camera is the one you hold in hand. 🙂
I'll just have to buy some ND filters for my OM that would allow me to shoot TriX@1600 (wide) open during the day.. 😱
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So true ... and isn't that 85mm f2 just an amazing lens and the 85mm focal length is suprisingly usable as a walk around! 🙂
 
The 100/2.8 is a very sweet lens, not much bigger than the 50/1.8 on the body and discrete. This lens with the 28/3.5 has me shooting my OM more than my M2 at the minute.

Here's some examples (Provia 400X, Kodak 160NC and Superia 400)


Sunseekers, The Arches, Brighton by Vicky Lamburn, on Flickr


Chips, Chips and Chips, Palace Pier, Brighton by Vicky Lamburn, on Flickr


Buskers and Performers, Brighton Seafront by Vicky Lamburn, on Flickr


Bank Holiday in Brighton by Vicky Lamburn, on Flickr

Plenty more 100/2.8 stuff on my Flickr stream if you're interested!

Vicky
 
Very nice Vicky ... my new OM friend is my recently aquired 28mm f2 Zuiko.

I never took to 28mm on a rangefinder and in fact don't have an M mount lens in this focal length ... but on an SLR I like it for some reason!
 
nikku said:
I've probably said it before, but I love the 28/2. OM-1n w/ 28/2 and Portra 160VC:
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Nice shot! I need to start using mine more. I've never felt real comfortable going wide and shoot the 50/1.4 mostly. It's about time for me to get out of my comfort zone and learn a bit.

Portra VC is my favorite film when shooting color, but haven't shot much of it lately. Need to stock up before the leaves start changing.
 
Here's a chance to put some internet noise to rest:

What's the truth about mirror slap effectively canceling out a stop of a lens' capability?

I've heard and read that old chestnut many times, and assume it means vibrations triggered by the mirror preclude hand holding SLR's when the lens is wide open.

But my Oly seems as steady as any camera I've used. Has anyone found they cannot reliably use Zuiko lenses wide open and hand held on an OM body because of mirror slap?
 
Hi Bill,

not internet noise, it very much depends how close you look.

Check Gary Reese's tests (http://web.archive.org/web/20050208000949/members.aol.com/olympusom/lenstests/default.htm); he did many with and without mirror lock-up/pre-fire, and there is a noticable difference, even on a tripod. I am able to reproduce that with some of my lenses. The OM4 in self-timer is particularly useful for this, since it slaps the mirror up when the counter starts.

Then again, in practice, hand-held, etc., the difference won't really matter, I'm typically far from the lens resolution optimum anyways.

Roland.
 
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The fundamental undoing of the Olympus OM system camera bodies are not mirror slap (yes, it's mostly true the rangefinder vs. slr had-holdability is an old wives' tale - few SLR mirrors have enough inertia to cause visible vibration in the hands of a human being, which have a lot more inertia than a tiny mirror) - but rather the aperture stop-down mechanism.

Unlike, say, Nikon F, where the body merely has to gently prod the aperture to stop down, which does so under the power of its own spring, an OM body provides the full force for the stop-down. The body has to slam aperture lever with all it's got, in order to be able to move giant aperture stop-down mechanisms of lenses like the 250mm f/2.0 or 1000mm f/11.

The aforementioned Gary Reese lens tests illustrates the disastrous effect this has on image quality taken with certain lenses on tripod - regardless of mirror lockup.

The effect is substantial, and often makes OM cameras much better hand-held (with "wet" vibration absorption by a human being) than on a tripod. I use a giant top-of-the-line Gitzo Tele Studex Carbon Fibre tripod (which easily holds my 4x5in large format camera and 500mm lens rock solid - 6kg or so), yet many tripod-mounted shots with my OM 250mm f/2.0 are blurred by camera shake.

On the other hand, I can hand-hold either this lens, or any other smaller one, on an OM body with surprisingly slow shutter speeds and get shake-free results. For example, this was hand-held at 1/4s:

Mothership_Bar_by_philosomatographer.jpg

(OM-2n, 24mm at f/2.0, 8x10 darkroom hand print)​

An odd (but lovely, nevertheless!) system, the OM system.

wgerrard said:
Here's a chance to put some internet noise to rest:

What's the truth about mirror slap effectively canceling out a stop of a lens' capability?

I've heard and read that old chestnut many times, and assume it means vibrations triggered by the mirror preclude hand holding SLR's when the lens is wide open.

But my Oly seems as steady as any camera I've used. Has anyone found they cannot reliably use Zuiko lenses wide open and hand held on an OM body because of mirror slap?
Click to expand...
 
If you press the stop down button and hold it down as you take the shot with an OM there is definitely less reaction through the camera IMO.
 
With the bodies that offer mirror lockup, does this action stop down the aperture, or is the aperture only stopped down upon the shutter firing?
 
ChrisN said:
With the bodies that offer mirror lockup, does this action stop down the aperture, or is the aperture only stopped down upon the shutter firing?
Click to expand...

I just tried it:

On the OM-1, the mirror lockup is mechanical and doesn't do anything to the aperture.

On the OM-4, using the selftimer, the mirror locks up AND it closes the aperture.

Stefan
 
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