Zuiko 8mm Fisheye The Good & The Bad

[gianca_4_3rds]

Jens, these samples look much better than any I've seen of the Zuiko 8mm.
Could it be that they have fixed the fringe issue? Or it is just the particular lens you have tried?

Hi Herman,

here is a couple of 100% crops from my side-by side shoot I made with my Peleng and the ZD 8mm fisheye that Olympus provided to test at Olympus Plaza in Tokyo last year:
As you see, I made a mistake and shot the Peleng at ISO 400 instead of ISO 100. Nevertheless, it is clear that it does not stand behind the ZD lens in sharpness (see the wires at the top platform on the white house), the CAs are comparable but the ZD appears to exhibit better contrast.

Cheers, Jens.

[acme]

Jens, these samples look actually better than any I've seen of the Zuiko 8mm.
Could it be thay have fixed the fringe issue? Or it is just the particular lens you have tried?

That sort of lateral colour is usually a result of design compromises rather than sample variation. It seems to me the ZD 8mm FE was made on a whim, and wasn't considered worthy of the finest glasses. Too bad, too, because the elements are so small compared to a FE like the peleng, let alone the OM f/2.8, they could have splurged for top glass without hurting the price too much.

I expect if they changed the optical design they'd say so.

[jebir]

Hi Gianca,

I have seen that blue-fringing in many sample images taken with the ZD 8mm FE posted on the web but there are also several members of this forum who swear by their lenses that they don't exhibit that CA.

To me it seems like there is (or was) an issue with quality control in the production of the lens. As I mentioned, the particular lens I tested was lent to me by the "Olympus Plaza" which is Oly's show-room in Tokyo. I'm sure they have checked all the lenses there to be as good performing as the design intended, and my guts feeling is that they may have had to put one or two fisheyes back in their boxes...

Cheers, Jens

[jebir]

Hi acme,

the ZD and the Peleng are the same size and I didn't see any blue-fringing in my tests so I think this is just a QC problem.

Cheers, Jens.

[acme]

Hi acme,

the ZD and the Peleng are the same size and I didn't see any blue-fringing in my tests so I think this is just a QC problem.

My bad on the size, the ZD is a lot heftier than I recalled. That only improves my guess that low dispersion glass was deemed too expensive to use, however. Most QC issues won't show the same aberration across each side of centre, while an allowed aberration will. Exceptions being grinding to the wrong formula and (axial) misspacing of elements.

It's really hard to test such a rarified subject, but shots of an overexposed tilted black and white checkerboard pattern, for examination of the corners, would settle the matter, if enough people volunteer to do it!