Digilux 3 with 11-22mm Olympus lens

[sos song]

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Hello to anyone out there. I think that the system will show me to be a first-time contributor, but I have been pretending to be "Big Brother" and have been reading for a while. My hope is that someone will have an answer to a problem that I am having.

 

I have been using (and loving) a Digilux 3 for around a year and just purchased an Olympus 11-22mm lens to document architectural interior shots. My first hand-held shots seemed odd on the screen, so I set-up a tripod and did a quick test. With everything on auto and the green dot telling me that the camera was set, the image was out of focus. However, with everything else the same, the manual focus image was spot on. I was unable to get an in-focus shot using the auto focus setting. In addition to the focus issue, the field of view through the view finder was nice and wide. However, changing to live-mode and using the manual focus enlargement feature significantly reduced the field of view. It was like I zoomed in on the image. To help with your diagnostics: I updated the firmware to 2.0 soon after it was available, the camera has worked flawlessly with the Leica 14-50mm lens (any bad shots have been "user error"), and it has never been dropped or bashed.

 

I have done some searching on this forum and found many references to using other 4/3 lenses and everything that I have read implies that using the 11-22mm should be fine. I bought the lens from someone on e-bay and, since it seemed to be unusable for me, I have already sent it back to him so he could re-list it.

 

I love the way the camera handles. I'm a bit of a Ludite and prefer the old-school look and feel. Please tell me that there was something wrong with the lens that I tried and that another 11-22mm lens would work in auto focus just fine. I have been putting off taking finished photos of my architectural design work and need to start taking photos before my clients beat things up too much.

 

Thanks for any help.

 

Kevin

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[goodbokeh]

Hi sos song

 

The Digilux 3 is great to use, isn't it!

 

The unsharp AF may have been from dirty contacts on the body or the lens, or the lens being defective. I have used other Olympus lenses and the AF works fine on my D3 so another 11-22mm should be ok for you. You might also try setting the D3 to use the center AF spot rather than the three to speed up the AF process and provide certainty of what the camera is focusing on.

 

When using LiveView and manual focus the image may have been magnified to either 4X or 10X to aid in sharp focus. This would explain the reduced the field of view you experienced.

[sos song]

Thanks for the reply. I can't say anything about how clean the contacts were. But you give me hope.

 

The field of view change was not the 4x or 10x focus assist feature. It was simply as if the field of view was narrower between the view finder and live view mode. At first I didn't notice it because I was concentrating on focus clarity. Then when I realized that something was amiss, I went back and tested for the field of view too. It was almost as if I had zoomed from 11mm to around 18mm, but I had not accidentally rotated the zoom barrel.

 

The auto focus issue is something that I can wrap my fevered little brain around. The field of view issue leaves me stumped.

 

Kevin

[sos song]

If anyone is interested.

 

Well, I just received a new 11-22mm lens from B&H and repeated my tripod test for auto and manual focus. This time the results were perfect. Everything that I read in this forum said that it should work, but my results with the first lens (apparently flawed in some way) and my naturally anxious nature had me totally keyed-up for the past week. Now that I have first-hand experience that another 4/3 lens will work on my D3, I can start thinking about whose advice to follow for a longer telephoto to start shooting my son's soccer matches.

 

Thanks for your reply goodbokeh.

 

Kevin

[goodbokeh]

That is great to hear Kevin! In terms of a telephoto zoom for soccer, the two lenses I would recommend would be either:

 

1) The old version Olympus 40-150mm f3.5/4.5, a high quality kit lens for a song. It works really well with my Digilux 3 in terms of size and comfort and is sharp as a tack!

 

wrotniak.net: Zuiko Digital 40-150 mm F/3.5-4.5

 

Amazon.com: Olympus 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5 Zuiko Digital Zoom Lens for E1, E300 & E500 Cameras: Cameta Camera

 

2) The 50-200mm f2.8/3.5 (being superceded by a faster AF version) for extra speed and reach. It has a big rebate until the end of the month.

 

Olympus | 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 ED Zuiko Digital Zoom Lens | 261002

 

Depending on your time and budget, you could wait until the 2008 PMA show (January 31-February 2) to see if the promised Leica/Lumix 50-150 f3.5/5.6 image stabilized zoom arrives. I might pick this one up in the future depending on performance and cost.

[rsolomon]

i have been using R lenses on my Digilux 3 and getting very nice results, i also like the leica kit lens but would like a telephoto zoom lens with all the advanced electronics (af and imagestabilization). im looking forward to leica's lenses but a bit concerned i'll need something faster then f 5.6. i would like to shoot some indoor gymnastics....

 

any suggestions ?

 

thanks

 

Rich

[goodbokeh]

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Hi Rich

 

For gymnastics you will need a fast telephoto zoom and I don't think Leica/Panasonic has a 4/3rds lens product planned that meets your needs. The closest 4/3rds combo I can think of that would provide IS and a fast aperture is the Olympus E510 or E3 with the Zuiko 35-100 f/2.