Zuiko Digital (Olympus) 50mm f2.0 Macro - High Grade

[admin_old]

focal length: 50mm Macro
Angle of view: 24
Clsest focusing distance: 9.45\"
Max image magnification: 1:2
Max aperture: f2.0
Min aperture: f22
filter size: 52mm
Dimensions: 2.8\"D x 2.4\"L
Weight: 10.6 oz.
Tele 1.4: Yes
Ex Tube: Yes 1:1 magnification
Price:
Olympus website (http://www.olympusamerica.com/e1/sys_lens_50mm20.asp)

Support this site by purchasing below:
<iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=fourthirdspho-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B0000TU7I6&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&lc1=0000ff&bc1=000000&bg1=ffffff&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>
4181

[admin_old]

http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/lenses/olympus_50_2/index.htm

Post edited by: tspore, at: 2005/10/02 23:40

[admin_old]

http://fourthirdsphoto.com/images/stories/lenses/50mm.jpg

[BL3]

Pros: Light, compact, sharp and fast. Makes even me look good, otherwise mundane shots are transformed by the sharpness. Great for portraits as well as macros and even some landscapes.

Cons: Sometimes too sharp for flattering portraits, macro focusing sometimes problematic (probably more the E-1\'s fault). Lens hood (easily removed) sometimes obscures macro subjects.

Price: Around $500 (?) @ Arlington Camera. Currently suffering from Brain Freeze/Senior Moment--Sorry.

Other: This lens is good enough to challenge me. What I used to think were good macros are no longer good enough, so I am forced to try more, like flash lighting for greater DOF, etc.

[manmachine]

Pros: extremly sharp, light, bright viewfinder image, little front diameter - easy to make macro photos of insects, invisible CA at F2.0, absolute no CA below F2.8, no distortion
Cons: relatively high price, slow and noisy AF at close targets, relatively little magnification (only 1:2)
Price: used - 80000HUF -&gt; 400$
Other: -

Post edited by: manmachine, at: 2005/10/04 14:31

Post edited by: manmachine, at: 2005/10/04 14:32

[Cephalotus]

PRO: very sharp from corner to corner even at F2,0, excellent micro contrast even at F2,0, no optical flaws, small, fast, FTM focus, sealed, nice bokeh...

CON: only 1:2, not so nice bokeh with EX-25, AF slow if you want to use it for \&quot;action\&quot; photos

PRICE: 350 € used

OTHER: Imho the optical best lens I have ever owned. Nothing more to add.

[First Light]

Pros:
To quote a recent PhotoZone review of this lens "...its performance is near flawless". I agree with regard to its optical performance—it truly is superb! It is super-sharp with virtually no optical problems like chromatic abberations (CA) even when its aperture is wide open. It's bokeh (the quality of the blur of the out-of-focus portion of an image) is excellent. With a maximum aperture of f2.0 it is very bright and equally at home for low-light shooting or when a shallow depth of field (DOF) is desired.

It's auto focus (AF) speed is good but not excellent. I'll comment more about AF in the "Cons" section.

With a 50mm focal length (twice that of a "normal" lens for a 4/3rds camera) it has the same focal angle (FA) as a 100mm lens on a 35mm film camera and therefore is an ideal focal length with a great perspective for use as a portrait lens. Some prefer a softer lens for portraiture but I don't. I like the fact this lens is sharp because you can never sharpen a soft lens but you can easily soften a sharp lens with a filter or computer software.

With the ability to focus very close (9.45 inches or 24 cm), this lens is also a great macro lens. At this minimum focus distance it has a maximum magnification of 0.52x (1:2). With an optional EX-25 extension tube, the minimum focus distance can be further reduced and the maximum magnification increased to 0.98x (1:1).

As one of Olympus "High Grade" Zuiko Digital (ZD) lenses, it includes a focus distance scale and it is sealed to withstand weather and dust.

This is a "prime" lens. In other words, it has a fixed focal length unlike a "zoom" lens which has a variable focal length. This makes it smaller and lighter than a comparable zoom lens (like the ZD 14-54mm f2.8-3.5 lens which can also do 50mm, albeit at a significantly higher f-stop). The lens is compact and light, making it very easy to carry.

The front of the lens does not rotate as you focus so a polarizer can be used.

Other "pros" include a nice lens hood. However, it fits a bit looser than the hoods of other ZD lenses. A nice faux leather lens bag is included to store the lens.


Cons:
AF does not work well at macro distances. Many times, I find myself tweaking the focus manually when focusing just a few inches away with a very shallow DOF. Plus, the focusing can "hunt" through its long focusing range when there is low contrast. Note: These AF problems may have nothing to do with the lens but rather the AF system in the camera body.

This is a "prime" lens (yes, I also listed this under the "Pros" section but for a different reason). The only way you can control the size of your subject in the field of view (FOV) is to physically move the lens and camera closer to or farther away from the subject. Sometimes this isn't practical.

This is not an internal focusing lens—the length of the lens increases as you focus closer. At its closest focus distance, the lens is twice as long as when it is focused to infinity.


Price Paid:
Purchased new for about US$415 on eBay from a camera dealer. After receiving a $50 mail-in rebate from Olympus, the final cost was US$365. Note: Olympus fulfilled the rebate very quickly.


Other Info:
This lens also works very well with the EC-14 teleconverter. I've used the two together many times.

[totetuti]

Pros: small; light; sharp even at F/2; contrasty, which may not be a big deal with digital; decent bokeh; good built quality;

Cons: slow AF, but it\'s a macro lens so... that\'s sort of expected; better than 1/2 mag would be more desirable

Price: Around $420

Other comments: this should be the reference lens other 4/3 lenses should be measured against.

[First Light]

Greetings,

I recently measured the performance of several legacy lenses on my E-1 and I wanted to compare them to a couple of really good ZD lenses. My best lens is my ZD 150mm f2.0 ED so I measured it to establish a baseline of how an exceptional lens would measure on my E-1. I also measured my ZD 50mm f2.0 ED macro lens. For additional comments about these tests, please see my ZD 150mm (http://www.fourthirdsphoto.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=146) notes or my Tamron 300mm f2.8 (http://www.fourthirdsphoto.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=643) notes. The ZD 50mm results follow...

Measurements
The first graph shows the sharpness of the lens at each full f-stop:

http://fourthirdsphoto.com/components/com_simpleboard/uploaded/images/ZD501.jpg

Notice that I made two measurements at each f-stop. First, I measured the sharpness in the center of the field of view (FOV). Second, I measured the sharpness in one of the corners of the FOV (I used the lower left corner). That way you can see whether a lens is sharper in the center or at a corner.

The ZD 50mm lens is sharpest when its aperture is set around f4.0. There is a slight drop in sharpness as the aperture is widened toward f2.0. This is common for most lenses—even the best. A noticeable exception is the ZD 150mm which is phenomenally sharp all the way to f2.0.

In the other direction, the sharpness also begins to drop as the aperture is closed toward f22. The drop is gradual and is due primarily to diffraction. All lenses, no matter how wonderful their glass is, will begin to lose sharpness at small apertures (high f-stops) because of diffraction as the light passes through the small iris in the lens.

But what do the numbers mean in practical terms? An MTF50 less than 1000 lw/ph should be considered "bad" or "poor" because it will produce a very soft picture with low contrast. You need at least 1150 lw/ph before the picture begins to look "good" and I'd rather see 1450 lw/ph or more on an E-1.

Next, let's see if a good UV filter has any effect on the sharpness. I repeated three of the measurements with a filter on. This is shown below:

http://fourthirdsphoto.com/components/com_simpleboard/uploaded/images/ZD502.jpg

I keep a high-quality Hoya HMC Super UV(0) filter on each of my ZD lenses to protect them and it seems clear from these results that there is no harm to my pictures in doing so. Your results may vary with lesser filters. Nor would I infer from these results that all Hoya filters are this good. The HMC Super line is their best and claims a light transmission rating of 99.7%.

Next, let's see what the Olympus Digital EC-14 1.4x teleconverter does to the sharpness. The following graph repeats all of the previous measurements with the EC-14 installed.

http://fourthirdsphoto.com/components/com_simpleboard/uploaded/images/ZD503.jpg

A 1.4x teleconverter always shifts the aperture range of a lens up by one f-stop. That's why the aperture range is f2.8 to f32 when the EC-14 is installed. The next graph compares the lens with and without the EC-14 so you can more easily see the difference.

http://fourthirdsphoto.com/components/com_simpleboard/uploaded/images/ZD504.jpg

I think the results are pretty clear: We can safely conclude that the EC-14 works extremely well with the ZD 50mm lens and you can expect pictures with excellent sharpness and contrast.

Chromatic Aberration (CA) – This test measures color fringing. I measured CA every time that I measured sharpness. The lens stayed well below 0.5 pixels which is considered "insignificant". The CA also stayed low when the EC-14 was installed. Basically, the ZD 50mm lens is free of CA with or without the EC-14.

Distortion – This test measures whether or not parts of the image are bent, stretched or squished. An extreme example would be the barrel distortion that is common to some wide-angle lenses like a "fisheye" lens. To measure it, a grid pattern of equally spaced horizontal and vertical lines are photographed and measured. This lens is basically free of distorion by itself and never measured higher than -0.431%. However, with the EC-14 there was a noticeable rise in distortion, although at -1.23% it is still very modest and nothing to worry about.

Vignetting – This test measures the light drop-off near the corners of the picture. I used worse-case conditions with the lens focused to infinity. The lens exhibited very mild vignetting by itself (no more than -0.525 f-stops) or with an EC-14 teleconverter (no more than -0.706 f-stops). These levels will drop when the lens is focused closer.

These tests verify the outstanding quality of the ZD 50mm f2.0 ED macro lens and provide an additional baseline for what a good lens looks like when measured on an E-1. Before comparing these results to the results of other testers or reviewers, please read my comments on my ZD 150mm f2.0 or Tamron 300mm f2.0 notes (linked at the top of this message). Comparisons require care to be meaningful.

Copyright © 2006 by Harris Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved.

[Bojan Volcansek]

Wow, great test,
thank you so much!

Sincerely yours
Bojan

[benpoulter]

This is a brilliant lens, i purchased it last week and it arrived 2 days ago, it is the first ED lens that i purchased and already without using the extensions i really like the results that this lens is producing. Of course like all Olympus lenses its a touch on the pricy side compared to the oposition (Sigma) but the extra money is worth it after lookin at the quality comparisons. The lens has opened up a whole new box of creative posbilitys for me to work with.

[baal]

My first prime lense on a DSLR, I have rediscovered this long forgotten pleasure and my 14-54 is taking dust.

Pro: LIGHTWEIGHT, F2, sharpness, Bokeh and color is wonderfull and totally different from a zoom lense, build quality

Cons: Price (come on olympus!), focus hunting (worse than with 14-54). Love it but can't figure a way to have sex with.

Overall: a wonderfull portrait lense but I use it for everything (shoot less but have more keeper).
Would like the same but with a FOV equi 35 between 50 and 80...100 is a tad long.

[assafx]

My work bought this lens for me (with the E-300), two years ago, and by that started my serious photography phase :)
We bought the lens for photographing coins and small finds mostly (tested it on a 4mm (in diameter) Persian coin) but after a short while we found out that it's perfect for almost every kind of finds and not only the small ones. In fact it was even used for photographing big storage jars and small mosaics or elements in a mosaic. In addition this lens is perfect for portraits.
We paid around 2,500 <st1:city><st1>NIS</st1></st1:city> which back then (july 2005) was around 550 us $.
<o></o>

Pros: very sharp, a good combination of light weight and a very good build quality, the Colors are just perfect and the details are coming out strong and sharp.
<o></o>

Cons: AF is flawed and tend to miss completely at some close macro shots as a result on shots like that I use the AF+MF setting and when the AF is going wild I switch to manual. This problem is not frequent and depends on the subject and light.
The hood is too loose for my liking but going with it on the field I must say it worked well and stayed in place.
<o></o>

Conclusion if you want an excellent macro lens the 50mm f2 is just a great one.
<o></o>

And now to the shots (the scale on the coin shot is 1 cm and I had smaller coins then that :) ).

Assaf

http://Assafx.smugmug.com/photos/264936248_76WZY-L.jpg

http://Assafx.smugmug.com/photos/251523369_L6ThP-L.jpg

http://Assafx.smugmug.com/photos/219281252_hWQ9e-L-1.jpg

[assafx]

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a187/assafx/rev.jpg

http://Assafx.smugmug.com/photos/246079753_CmcjF-L-2.jpg

http://Assafx.smugmug.com/photos/189214128_7eErK-L-1.jpg

[Viperman500]

I am getting the chance to try this lens for graduation pictures I am going to be taking tomorrow (I have rented the lens) but I have played a bit with it tonight. I am impressed firstly by the built quality of the lens. It is small (just the right size) but it feels so good. I understand why Olympus has a "pro" grade lineup. The build quality is just so much better than the 14-45mm kit lens I have. The lens is so much well made it makes me think the E-500 is cheaply made (which is not the case when you hold similar cameras from other makers)!

Second thing I like about it, there is a focus distance scale. Personally, I find it useful for finding the right focus especially for macro pictures. Talking about macro, it does a very fine job in that department. You can get very close to the subject without touching it, which is useful when you don't want to get too close to insects, hard objects (keeps the front element scratch-free), etc. The image quality is just phenomenal. I really like the bokeh, especially at F2.0, it is something you need to try out to really understand it.

I personally find the AF to be pretty quick actually. Others complain about it being to slow, but indoors, I find it very quick for non-macro objects. The speed of the AF starts to slow down when you approach the subject (under 12 inches), but I must say the lighting inside my house is not very good. Outdoors, I suspect it will be plenty quick.

I like to use the lens with the FL-36, bouncing the light off the ceiling, to get awesome colors. The flash is also useful for macro pictures and it does not cast a shadow over the subject. I recommend using the lens with a bounce-tilt capacity flash.

In conclusion :

pros : small but very tough (build quality), focus distance scale, F2.0, macro, good for portraits.

cons : a bit expensive for my taste, other than that nothing.

I recommend this lens to anyone interested in macro and portrait (because of the wide aperture). Don't hesitate to try it out before buying it!

[mrm510]

I really look at reviews before I purchase lenses and appreciate those who take time to do it.

I decided to return the favor and offer my review of the Zuiko High Grade 50mm F2.0 macro lens.

I shot test photos at various apertures and cropped a few.
The test shots were taken with the 510 on a tripod at a slight angle from about 10" from the target. The pictures speak for themselves.

With the camera on a slight angle I focused on the bottom of the rail spike in the center of the coin and on the steel tape I focused on the 40 in the center.

The camera being on a slight angle from the target made the top of the target a little farther away than the center and the bottom of the target a little closer than center from the lens. (Hope I explained clearly)

As you look thru the pictures you'll see the varying DOF at the different apertures.

I did this test so I would know DOF at various apertures and know what will be in focus as a result.


My Conclusion:
This lens is impressive, much better IQ than the kit lenses.
Weather proof, solid build and fairly good AF at close range in good light.

The only con is the price but you get what you pay for.


This Link to the test pictures
http://ImageEvent.com/mikes_photos/macrophotography/zuiko50mmf2testshots


Pros: Image Quality is incredible in my opinion.

[Petephoto1]

MRM, very imformative write up in helping many in understanding DOF with this lens or any lens.Seeing it on a photo marked with the F stop, really brings the whole concept together. Thank you . Cheers Pete

[mrm510]

Thanks for the kind comments Pete