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Small, light, versatile, cheap travel lens


jaapv

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I've been trying out the Olympus Zuiko 75-150.

The advantages:

It costs next to nothing,

Very light

Compact

Useful focal range.

 

The price was increased somewhat by giving it a CLA by Will van Manen but the ebay price was 39 Euro for a near-mint lens.

 

In use it did not disappoint.

 

The rendering is nice and matches my Leica lenses

The center is very sharp, the edges and corners more than adequate.

The lens shows distortion, especially at the 75 mm end, easily corrected in PS

Quite noticable CA, again easily removed in PS

Slightly blueish-greenish colour cast (PS again)

Pleasing bokeh.

 

This is a lens that really benefits from the possibilities that postprocessing gives us, placing it at a higher level than it can be on film.

 

It has earned its place in my bag travelling for those occasional longer focal length shots.

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.

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Off-centre crop

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Grab shot - what this lens is for. I like the Bokeh.

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Obviously it needs a crop, but for demonstration the whole frame.

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Is useful in general cutting out stray light. The EVF has a good diopter correction. I think glasses put the eye too far from the diopter, and the eyecup would worsen that effect.

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How about the Summicron-C 40/2. Step back for a 35mm FOV and step forward for a 50mm FOV.

How would that get you 75-150 mm? And how would you manage to photograph the squirrel without chasing it away and the boat without drowning?

I have the Summicron 40/2. Very nice but different use.

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I have had similar thoughts about trying to find a lightweight telephoto lens for my Leica M.  I believe the Nikon E series 75-150 may be another alternative as well as perhaps a Nikon 135 mm F3.5 lens as a prime lens.  Although I can handle my 90 mm Summarit lens OK, I think I might struggle with heavier 135 mm Leica lenses; I have not got the steadiest of hands.  The prices of these lenses are poles apart.  I have just seen your Olympus lens advertised for about 35 euros.  

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But do have it cleaned. These older zoom lenses are not that well sealed and usually have considerable dust and haze on the lens elements reducing contrast. Mine even had the beginning of fungus (fortunately without any damage to the glass).

I did not get an expensive Novoflex adapter, I ebayed a midrange Chinese one for about 30 Euro, and it is excellent and well made.

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How would that get you 75-150 mm? And how would you manage to photograph the squirrel without chasing it away and the boat without drowning?

I have the Summicron 40/2. Very nice but different use.

I did not realize the thread only applied to zoom/long lenses. Sorry.

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Glad it worked out for you!  The convenience of a zoom can't be beat, particularly a long one, because many subjects are too far away for foot-zooming to be effective.  Someone mentioned the 75-150 Series-E Nikkor...an excellent lens optically but many of them are found with loose sloppy zoom mechanisms not fixable by a simple re-lube.  The Oly lens is extremely robust by comparison.   I'm partial to the 70-210/4 R lens, which I have not found needs any PP corrections, and compared to the 80-200/4 it's fairly light and small, though it would dwarf the Oly.  Very tempted.

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Is useful in general cutting out stray light. The EVF has a good diopter correction. I think glasses put the eye too far from the diopter, and the eyecup would worsen that effect.

Not my experience Jaap. But I agree with the shielding effect.

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The advantage here (for zukio) is 1) price and 2) zoom convenience. I agree BUT

 

I would rather have 

  90mm Macro Elmar M (which is permanently in my bag) and

  Voigtlander 180 Lanthar (weight 430g compared to Zukio's 430g !!) 

 

I will only lose convenience of zoom and some extra $$ (one time only) and in return, I get corner to corner CA free sharp pic with the most beautiful bokeh.

 

Not disagreeing with OP, but showing alternative option for travel. 

 

Edit: I re-read the title and it says "small", "light", "versatile" and "cheap". My setup misses out on "cheap" part only. :)

Edited by jmahto
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Going back to old MF lenses, I am surprised how good many of the old lenses are after PP. I have bunch of Konica AR glass (ranging from $10 to $100) and I can use each one of them without any hesitation. Even Hexar lenses are pretty good (compared to better Hexanons). 

 

Recently I did a comparison between $50 Konica 57mm 1.4 hexanon wide open with 50mm lux ASPH and found the bokeh of Konica to be nicer !! The reason was little longer FL (57 vs 50) and little softness (hint of dreamy) wide open. I can use the Konica for portraits in a heartbeat (and I am not talking about 57mm 1.2 which is costly). This lens stopped down to f8 matches sharpness of lux for infinity as well. We are comparing $50 to $4000.

 

BTW, my avatar on the left has Konica AR 135 f/3.2 on M240. :)

Edited by jmahto
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  • 5 weeks later...

......

I would rather have 

  90mm Macro Elmar M (which is permanently in my bag) and

  Voigtlander 180 Lanthar (weight 430g compared to Zukio's 430g !!) 

 

.....

Gave up resisting the GAS and bought Zuiko 75-150. Shipping, adapter everything was just above $100. In two week's time I will run the test. 

 

(Only sometimes I talk to myself) :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got this lens and took some test shots. Compared with 80-200Vario R f/4. My impression:

 

On M240:

- Color and rendering good.

- At f4 the corners and edges soft enough not suitable for landscape. Some CA in high contrast. Note that I am comparing with 80-200 Vario R.

- Stopped to f5.6, it is kind of OK in edges and corners if you are not critical. I didn't test at f8.

 

Now my surprise:

- On Nex6 (crop sensor), it is very good even at f4. I compared M240+80-200vario@200mm with Nex6+Zuiko@150mm and they are very close at f4.

 

I am not surprised that on FF it is less than the better lens. I paid $40 for EX++ condition. :) therefore I should not complain. For non-landscape use it is very fine lens on M240.

 

I have decided to use it with Nex6. The camera+lens is 2lb !! (in comparison 80-200vario+M adapter is 2.4lb - just the lens).

Thanks Jaap for this under appreciated gem.

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