Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 75mm f/1.8: Is this the best Micro Four Thirds lens available?
By Paul Carroll - Wednesday, January 23, 2013 Lens Review| Introduction | Measurement | Comparison | Conclusion |
Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 75mm f/1.8: Leads the way for Micro Four Thirds Lenses
For the purposes of this review all Lens Metric Scores have been achieved with the Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 75mm f/1.8 lens mounted on the 16-megapixel Panasonic GH2, which was the highest resolution Micro Four Thirds camera available at the time of testing. Measurements with the lens mounted on the Olympus OM-D EM-5 will be available shortly.
Achieving an Overall DxOMark Score of 23 the Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 75mm f/1.8 prime is the highest scoring lens currently on the DxOMark database for the Micro Four Thirds mount. As you’d hope with a prime optically it performs well with no noticeable Distortion and no issues with Chromatic Aberration at any aperture settings. There’s some minor vignetting at the maximum aperture of f/1.8 with corner shading of 0.7EV, but this can be rectified in post-production, and stop the lens down to f/2.8 and it’s no longer an issue. Sharpness is also excellent and an Overall Lens Metric Score of 11P-Mpix makes the Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 75mm f/1.8 the sharpest Micro Four Thirds lens on the DxOMark Database.
Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 75mm f/1.8: Image sharpness examined
If you’re considering this lens for portrait or low-light photography you’ll be encouraged by its sharpness at the wider aperture settings. At the maximum aperture of f/1.8 good sharpness is resolved in the centre of the frame and although it trails off at the edges it’s well controlled for such a wide aperture. Stop down to f/2.8 however and good sharpness becomes homogeneous across the frame and the lens’s optimum sharpness is achieved at f/5.6. Sharpness does drop off between f/11 to f/22 but generally results using these smaller apertures are less important with this type of lens.
Comments
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Added by Ysss |
January 25
Nonsystematic\relevant comparisons?
It would be more relevant if you post comparison against other mirrorless or compact systsem cameras, rather than Nikon D3x which is more than 3x more expensive.
I'd suggest to make comparison against similar priced or sized camera, then you can mention the comparison against D3X to give the readers idea of where the 75mm + m43 system is against the whole playing field. Oh, and OMD. Reply | Read all replies for this comment |
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Added by Nicolas |
January 25
Re: Nonsystematic\relevant comparisons?
Hello!
Comparison between other mirror less or compact camera system are very interesting too. Sometimes we propose more "exotic" comparison like this one. Note that the first comparison we provided correspond to your request. If you have other interesting comparison to propose, feel free to report it in this post ! Best regards, ED Reply |
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Added by Ysss |
January 26
Re: Nonsystematic\relevant comparisons?
Whereabout can I find comparison to other mirrorless cameras in the conclusion?
NEX. Fuji, samsung and EOS-M comes to mind. Those are more in line with the price&size of m43 than the quoted Nikon D3X. Reply |
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Added by Nicolas |
January 29
Re: Nonsystematic\relevant comparisons?
Hello,
You are right, for now these mounts are not supported but we are working on it. Regards, Reply |
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Added by peevee |
January 24
Mistake in the review of Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 75mm f/1.8
You write in the introduction:
"Olympus alone has 12 Micro Four Thirds lenses available covering a 12-300mm focal range, equivalent to 24-600mm in 35mm terms, " This is a mistake. Olympus also has 9-18 m43 zoom, so the total range covered is 9-300mm focal range, equivalent to 18-600mm in 35mm terms... Reply | Read all replies for this comment |
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Added by Nicolas |
January 25
Re: Mistake in the review of Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 75mm f/1.8
Hello,
It is right, the review had been corrected, thanks for your feedback ! Best regards, ED Reply |
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Added by purethanol |
January 24
DxO needs a new m43 body for tests
I'm wondering what the results would be on a newer sensor with more resolution power. Like on an OMD? The GH2 is kind of outdated now.
Reply | Read all replies for this comment |
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Added by Sanpaku |
February 02
Re: DxO needs a new m43 body for tests
The GH2 and/or GX1 are fine for m43 lens tests until a generation of higher resolution appears. Why?
There are 5 components of DXO lens tests, and aside from the hard upper limit sensor Mpix places on resolution, sensor differences (in dynamic range, luminance noise, or chrominance noise) generally have negligible impact. DXO found the Sony sensor Olympus cameras (EM-5, E-PM2, E-PL5) to have somewhat superior dynamic range and noise characteristics than other 16 Mpix m4/3 (GH2, GX1), but the pixel pitch, and hence the hardware upper limit on resolution, is the same. The Olympus 16 Mpix cameras reportedly have weaker antialiasing filters than the the 16 Mpix Panasonics, but as I understand they still have them, so any difference in resolution tests would be smaller than the difference between the Nikon D800 and D800E (< 5%, and visible only upon pixel peeping). Distortion is a large scale geometric defect rather than pixel level effect, and should be the same on any camera of the same mount. Vignetting may differ on other camera mounts due to varying pixel well depth (incident light arriving at oblique angles may miss the well bottom), but 4/3 and m4/3 were designed from the start for digital sensors, with telecentric lenses and perpendicular incident light. Transmission can be, and probably is, tested on an optical bench, with no camera at all. Likewise, chromatic aberration can be measured in µm on an optical bench. If it were measured in pixel widths, higher resolution would make CA more visible when pixel peeping. As an exercise, look at lenses with multiple DXOmark tests on other mounts. You'll note the same general pattern: - Camera resolution creates an upper limit on sharpness, but camera models with the same Mpix count differ trivially. - Vignetting can vary lightly on non-telecentric lenses (but not 4/3 or m4/3) - Distortion, Transmission, and Chromatic aberration are the same for a given lens regardless of mount. So, might lens tests using an Oly 16 Mpix camera add 1 point to perceptual megapixels (P-Mpix) for the very sharpest m43 lenses (75, 60, 25). Possibly, but in my opinion only if there's a shift from rounding down to rounding up. It would have negligible impact on the relative scores of the lenses within the system or compared to others. Reply |
Further readings for the Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 75mm f/1.8: Is this the best Micro Four Thirds lens available?
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