Digilux 3 with Olympus 7-14mm Zoom

[gwebster]

I just took delivery of the Olympus Zuiko 7-14mm 4/3 system lens from B&H and

couldn't wait to put it through its paces on my Digilux 3. My initial

impressions are overwhelmingly favorable - this ultra-wide zoom (equivalent of a

14-28mm zoom for 35mm) works really beautifully on my D3 throughout its focal

length range, giving beautiful crisp images right across the frame with gorgeous

tonal and color rendition. Here's a sample image that I snapped today at its

shortest (widest) focal length of 7mm.

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<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/6417780-lg.jpg"><br>

<strong>The Chess Master</strong> - <em>Leica Digilux 3, Olympus 7-14mm</em>

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[dougfromtumwater]

Hi Gordon

 

I just received my Digilux 3 a week ago, using the $699 Leica Loyalty certificate. It is a very well built camera and I'm having fun using it. For now I am going to use JPEGs for ease of use. The setting I like best (so far) is the standard film mode saved as "My Film 1" with the sharpness turned up two clicks and contrast up one. The film speed I usually set on auto which will vary the ISO between 100 - 400.

 

In addition to the D3, for $130 I picked up a mark 1 Olympus 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5 zoom from Cameta Camera (via Amazon). It is Plain Jane in appearance but is very well built and tack sharp! I strongly recommend this lens as a complement to the Leica D 14-50mm.

 

The 7-14mm is a great lens, did you see the Gordon Laing/cameralabs.com video review?

 

http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/OlympusE714mm/

[gwebster]

<em> ... did you see the Gordon Laing/cameralabs.com video review?</em>

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I did indeed Doug. I think this lens and camera body together make a killer combination and I'm very impressed with the four thirds system.

[davebecker]

Gordon,

Since the Olympus 7-14mm zoom does not have a aperture ring, have you found changing aperture with the command dial to be any slower on the Leica?

Dave

[gwebster]

Dave - I really like the aperture ring that Leica put on their 4/3 lenses and I wish all manufacturers did it, but when you hook up the Olympus lens to the D3, the little wheel on the rear panel automatically becomes the aperture control and I have found it very easy to use once I got used to not using the aperture ring. Since you can see the exposure settings in the viewfinder, it's really no trouble to have your right thumb on the little wheel while composing the shot so that you can alter the aperture as needed.

[davebecker]

Gordon,

Another question if you don't mind. Was this image made using the in-camera B&W options or converted later in post processing (Photoshop)? Looks very good.

Regards,

Dave

[gwebster]

The image was processed from RAW and desaturated in PS. I usually download only the RAW files from the SD card and discard the JPEGs.

[sam_motskin]

Hi guys. Has anybody printed 8x10 or 8x12 pics? How does the printed picture quality compare to Nikon D200? I've been using film Leica rangefinder and Nikon F3 to take B7W pics. I like what I hear about Digilux 3 but not sure how the larger prints are going to look like.

[dougfromtumwater]

My Digilux 3 came in a couple weeks ago and I have not made any prints yet but from the look of the files on my 20" 4X3 aspect ratio monitor they will be quite good. I have not used a Nikon D200 however the Digilux's 7.5MP sensor provides approximately 300 dpi resolution (photo quality standard) at the 8X10 print size. The D200's 10MP sensor @ 300 DPI will make a marginally larger print (around 9X12) but does not make it to the next standard print size of 11X14 (which would take around 14 megapixels to produce).

[dg1]

There's no reason you can't make 13X19 and larger prints from the Digilux 3. I've got a Panasonic L1 (basically the same camera) and there's no problem with that. If you are doing inkjet prints a standard DPI setting can be more like 200 or 240dpi, and your files can be sized up in post processing.

[sam_chapman]

I wholly agree with the comments about Olly's 7-14 zoom, it's fast, exceptionally wide and probably because of

it's Rectilinear design, has very little unwanted distortion. Another quality this optic possesses, is minimal

exposure variation between the centre and edges of the frame. It somewhat amuses me that users of other cameras

ask for comparisons in image quality, when these manufacturers do not make a zoom lens which is as wide as this

one. The fitting of an in-lens processing 'chip' which enables the image quality to be fine-tuned via Firmware,

is a feature that may well play a bigger part in the excellent results that this optic delivers than users realise.

 

Expensive it may be, but considering what you are getting for your money, the price is justified. When I ordered

my lens, I was told that the delivery time was 5 weeks mainly because these lenses are made in small batches with

very high levels of QC applied during manufacturing process. I doubt whether this has changed much, and these

procedures impact on the price.