Summilux 25/1.4 on E-PL1

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It was dark at 5:30am, but I had with me my E-PL1 with the Summilux Panasonic 25/1.4, with the camera set to ISO800, so I took some photos. It may have been "too much" for the E-PL1.

 

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Bayou Texar, Pensacola, Florida

 

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Escambia Bay

 

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Escambia Bay

 

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[mcfingon]

The 25/1.4 is my favourite lens on micro four-thirds Raid. This one shot at f2.5 on a Pen Mini II

 

[raid]

It is an excellent lens. The camera does not do well at high ISO.

 

[rfaspen]

My EP-2 doesn't do well at high ISO either. However, I recently used it with a Super Takumar 50/1.4 and liked the results even at high ISO. But that's because I made my images black and white.

For color (and in general) I use the EP-2 at similar ISOs as the M9.

Sadly, I have no high-quality m4/3 lenses. Just the kit zoom and a Panasonic 45-200. Both zooms leave something to be desired. However, with adapted lenses my EP-2 makes surprising good images. It likes my Zuiko 90/2.0 quite a bit.

 

[peterm1]

I have long lusted after the 25mm Summilux f1.4 D (as opposed to DG) and recently found one at a good price complete with an adapter for M4/3 at a good price. I snapped it up. I have no idea if its better than the later and smaller DG version in native M4/3 mount but I know some say it is the better lens. All I know is that I have not been disappointed with the way it performs on my Olympus OM_D EM5. But I have no doubt that even with this relatively fast lens the camera would not perform all that well in low light due to the small amount of real estate on the sensor.

My preferred smaller camera for that situation is a Sony NEX F3 with a reasonably fast prime. In this regard I find the Sony 50mm f1.8 OSS quite fast enough and with that camera's low light handling it turns in nice shots with not much noise. This combo is even better than the later Sony NEX 7 presumably due to its significantly higher pixel count. I keep my M4/3 kit for daylight shooting.

 

[peterm1]

My EP-2 doesn't do well at high ISO either. However, I recently used it with a Super Takumar 50/1.4 and liked the results even at high ISO. But that's because I made my images black and white.

For color (and in general) I use the EP-2 at similar ISOs as the M9.

Sadly, I have no high-quality m4/3 lenses. Just the kit zoom and a Panasonic 45-200. Both zooms leave something to be desired. However, with adapted lenses my EP-2 makes surprising good images. It likes my Zuiko 90/2.0 quite a bit.

If you are looking for good value, good quality native M4/3 lenses you cannot go past the Sigma 30mm f2.8 and 60mm f2.8. These are exceedingly cheap but quite well made with superior optics. I have both and love them due to their performance and small size. I also have the Olympus 60mm f2.8 which comes in at about 4 times the cost of the Sigma equivalent. I cannot be sure it is any better in terms of image outcomes than the Sigma lens although in built terms it is of course made to a higher specification. I use the Sigma probably two times for every time I use the Olympus one.

 

[Prest_400]

It is an excellent lens. The camera does not do well at high ISO.

I have an EPL2 which is just about the same as the PL1 IIRC. Sometimes it does show its shortcomings, but I often think then that it is a very good camera even the tech is older (2011 was that long ago?).
I'd like to have a try what the latest m43 or the 1" could do.

Still, I had quite some fun in NYC nights shooting f2.8, ISO1600 at 1/15 (bless IS) with OK results.

If you are looking for good value, good quality native M4/3 lenses you cannot go past the Sigma 30mm f2.8 and 60mm f2.8. These are exceedingly cheap but quite well made with superior optics. I have both and love them due to their performance and small size. I also have the Olympus 60mm f2.8 which comes in at about 4 times the cost of the Sigma equivalent. I cannot be sure it is any better in terms of image outcomes than the Sigma lens although in built terms it is of course made to a higher specification. I use the Sigma probably two times for every time I use the Olympus one.

I have the 19mm f2.8 because of the FL, 30mm I thought to be rather long (60mm EQ). It is decent but my unit is not excellent. I am not babying this kit so that might be to blame.

Now, the OM 50mm 1.8 MiJ adapted is a fantastic and sharp sharp sharp f2.8 onwards. If there was focus peaking in the EPL2, it would a be much more convenient.

 

[peterm1]

"I have the 19mm f2.8 because of the FL, 30mm I thought to be rather long (60mm EQ). It is decent but my unit is not excellent. I am not babying this kit so that might be to blame.

Now, the OM 50mm 1.8 MiJ adapted is a fantastic and sharp sharp sharp f2.8 onwards. If there was focus peaking in the EPL2, it would a be much more convenient."

Yes I believe the 19mm does not have the same reputation as the other two lenses I mentioned. I cannot comment though not having tried it.

But if you look at the sharpness / blur curves on the pages in the following links you can see the amount of blur across the frame of the image is already almost non existent from f2.8 for both the 30mm and the 60mm lenses (the blue area in the 3D graph is very low down the scale - only 1 blur unit wide open). This means both are very sharp from the get go.

http://www.imaging-resource.com/lenses/sigma/30mm-f2.8-dn-a/review/

http://www.imaging-resource.com/lenses/sigma/60mm-f2.8-dn-a/review/

And I am not surprised at the OM 50mm f1.8 being excellent. Most older prime lenses in the 50mm range with moderate maximum apertures like this one, that I have tried are superb.

 

[robert blu]

Excellent colors raid, I really like the sea shots, specially the first one with the blu sky.
great, 5.30 am, you are an early bird...
robert

 

[raid]

Thank you Robert.
Lina had a school field trip, so I drove her to school that early. I was up, so why not take some photos.

 

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My EP-2 doesn't do well at high ISO either. However, I recently used it with a Super Takumar 50/1.4 and liked the results even at high ISO. But that's because I made my images black and white.

For color (and in general) I use the EP-2 at similar ISOs as the M9.

Sadly, I have no high-quality m4/3 lenses. Just the kit zoom and a Panasonic 45-200. Both zooms leave something to be desired. However, with adapted lenses my EP-2 makes surprising good images. It likes my Zuiko 90/2.0 quite a bit.

I also had with me my E-P2 with a Planar 50/1.4 (for Rollei SLR). I will soon post some images here for a comparison. The E-P2 is older than the E-PL1, though. I also used ISI 800 at 1.4.