Sunday, February 10, 2013

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 17mm f/1.8 dilemma

Photo from m43blog

Since I'm a street photographer, 35mm is like a must have focal length and Olympus released a 17mm (34mm equivalent, really close to 35mm) lens for micro four third around a month ago. From the previous release of Olympus, 45mm F1.8, 12mm F2, 75mm F1.8, all have amazing image quality, therefore, I have high hope for the 17mm, but the reviews from lenstips  and couple other sources all states that it is a overpriced lens and not better than lovely Pannasonic 20mm F1.7 (I just sold it because I prefer 25mm or 17mm lens Field of view) except for quick AF. It disappoints me. Of course, I will seek for more reviews to see is it worth for my money!

2 comments:

  1. Hi Edward,

    I did exactly the same, sold the panny 20mm and bought the oly 17mm. And I do not regret it at all. It focuses much faster and feels and looks much better than the plastic body of the panasonic lense. From image quality point of view it's very hard to find advantages / disadvantages of one or the other lense without doing some decent testing, but that's not what I buy a lense for, I just want to shoot, not test. And for the 34/35mm equivalent on mft there is no better option for an autofocus lense (of course the Voigtländer 17.5mm would be THE option in case you can live without autofocus - I'm sure you are aware of that as I can see that you are, like me, already using the Voigtländer 25mm) ... Check out my 17mm shots on flickr:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/leero29/tags/olympusmzuiko17mmf18/

    Cheers, Leero

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    1. Hi Leero , thx for you humble and honest comment regrading my post about the 17mm. I just got it today and it is just fantastic! I really like you said "I just want to shoot, not test" and yes, if we need have close to 35mm equivalent, this is the only one and it delivers.

      I will post some images later on to show how capable of this lens. I'm totally agree with you I have shown no regret at all after buying it!

      p.s. I saw your flickr (the 17mm 1.8 collection) and it is just amazing!

      Cheers

      Edward

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