Informal 4/3 Lens Comparison

For couple of years I have been using an Olympus E-500 as a small and light travel camera. Bit by bit I have

gathered more lenses for it, in addition to the OM and Leica legacy lenses that I have an adapter for. A while ago I

realised that I have a total of nine different lenses between 14-60mm that fit the E-series cameras. I thought of

making a little comparison. Not to prove any point but merely to see myself which lenses are good, and which are

less so, for my own use. Since this is a subject that might have wider interest, I will enclose here a summary of the

comparison. The first image shows the full frame and the second one crops from the indicated place. All crops are

both wide open and at f5.6. I used high quality jpeg, sunny white balance and central weighted metering as it tends

to work better with legacy lenses. All this just to keep things simple. I could make the full size originals available but

they add up to quite a big stack of files (about 200Mb).

 

Second installment will be on longer lenses, 135-300. I happen to have five lenses in that range.<div></div>

Two Zuiko digital zoom lenses and Leica Fish Eye Elmarit. Also Ricoh GRD as a comparison with its fixed 5.9mm

(28 eq) lens.<div></div>

OM Zuiko 3.5/21mm lens compared with the two Zuiko Digital zooms.<div></div>

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The new 25 mm Pancake.<div></div>

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Sigma 30mm. Please note that the wide open image is over exposed by about one stop. The shortest speed 1/4000s was not short enough. I could have waited for cloudy day or used grey filter, but I didn't.

 

Another comment on 16mm Leica lens comparison above. That was done on a different day. At first I forgot I had this lens and did not bring it for my initial side by side comparison. I knew it is not a good lens for 4/3 system.<div></div>

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35mm Schneider PA Curtagon. Surprisingly good lens on 4/3, considering that it is 30 years old and covers almost medium format.<div></div>

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45-60mm. 45 is the longest for the old kit zoom. 54 longest for the old premium kit zoom. My two standard macro lenses are OM 3.5/50mm macro and Leica Macro Elmarit 2.8/60mm.<div></div>

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My quick conclusions:

 

16mm full frame Fisheye is not a good lens on 4/3 system.

 

14-45 zoom is pretty good, not much different from 14-54.

 

OM3.5/21mm is not a good lens on 4/3 system.

 

25mm Pancake and Sigma 1.4/30 are pretty good lenses, as good or better than the 14-54 zoom.

 

35PA Curtagon is surprisingly good on 4/3 format. Better than in full frame, in my opinion.

 

OM3.5/50 macro is good when stopped down a bit. Likewise for the Leica 2.8/60 Macro Elmarit.

I have had an interest in the OM 4/3 system because of it's compatibility with other manufacturer lens systems. The new

25mm lens looks great, and so does the 45-60mm zoom. Thanks.

I have also very good images from 14-45. I took 14-54 as an upgrade, but the image quality is not "that much" different. The little advantage of the f stop and closer focusing distance makes 14-54 stay most of the time on the camera.

 

It good to see the 30 f1.4 equally good as I am planning to have it soon.

 

Thanks for your time.

As a 14-54 owner, and one considering the purchase of the Sigma 30/1.4, I really appreciate this comparison. The only other lens that I would like to see in the comparison is the PanaLeica 25/1.4, but it is quite expensive and difficult to come by.

 

I am very happy with the results that I obtain with the Zuiko 14-54.

Very interesting real world comparison, thanks. Out of interest, is the 14-45 the original one or the more recent lightweight one?

The 14-45 is the original that came with E500. I think the new one is 14-42 anyway. I have the 14-54 as well and I find its faster speed to be a real benefit in mornings and evenings as I don't like to raise the ISO higher than 400 if I can avoid it.

 

I did think of getting the Leica 1.4/25 but then decided against it, mainly for two reasons, price and aperture ring. The ring around the lens does not work on Olympus cameras and I did not want to pay for a good feature that is not usable on my camera body. The Sigma 30 is a good lens. There has been some reports of misfocusing, but I checked the one I bought before paying to make sure it focused right.