Hello.
My first post.
I have a 35-100 f4-5.6 Panasonic lens. Question is whether improved sharpness would be noticeable in A3 prints if I used an OM 40-150 f4 pro at my usual setting of f5.6 to f8 ? Sometimes on a tripod and sometimes with a monopod. I am aware of differences such as weatherproofing and extended focal length but I am interested in image quality. Can anyone advise please from personal experience ? There is a big difference between trade in value for the Pana and price of the OM used from a reputable dealer so that could be an indicator of image quality or maybe it is pro quality construction etc.
Will be grateful for any advice.
Jeff
Hi Jeff,
I don;t have specific comparison info on your 2 lens Q, but I do have some info on the Oly 40-150 f4 PRO compared to an Oly 40-150 f4-5.6 R (plastic Fantastic).
I bought an Oly 40-150 f4 PRO a month or so ago. And I’ve learned to ‘test’, in my way, the lens I get against some parameter I might have/expect. In my case, I had a 40-150R, which I thought was OK. I had expectations that the F4 PRO should exceed it and maybe get close to what an Oly 40-150 f2.8 PRO provides.
So I did a bunch of ‘real life’ test shots, in the full focal range available, at f8, at 400 ISO, at 1/400 SS.
I put my results up in DPR here: PRO vs Plastic: Micro Four Thirds Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review
You’re welcome to review and come to your own conclusions.
I decided to use a static landscape type shoot, since shooting anything else (birds/animals, etc) would not provide a consistent subject or exposure. I don;t do test patterns because they don;t give DOF and most are not consistent from center to edge; So why bother?
The center AF focus was ‘small spot’ with center/weighted meter. The focus point was in center - the right side of the window, which also had some small objects/fine detail.
I expected and got a bunch of flack, LOL! Bad test, not good subject, CA, yadda, yadda yadda… One poster went so far as to shot his ‘Test’ using his 40-150 f2.8 PRO v his own 40-150 Plastic R - NOT the 40-150 f4… WHAT? and then he applied a bunch of POST, including sharpening !!! WHAT?
I avoid non-sensical argument or discussion as much as possible… LOL!
The images are in the thread (slow loading because they are full res, no crop and NO POST!)
They might give you an idea of the 40-150 F4 PRO which I received…
I expect sample variation… But at more than 4x the cost of the Plastic Fantastic, I saw no reason to keep - I returned it…
I expect that thread to remain as part of DPR archive, but whether the images are retained after APR 10, I wouldn’t bet on it.
Hope this informative for you , in some fashion.
Thx Yuri
1 Like
Thanks for your considered reply.
It was a fine clear day yesterday so went up on the moors for a walk and thought I would do more testing on the 35-100 f4 -5.6. I thought maybe I had some camera shake despite the Oly image stabilisation. So I used the iso to 800 and used shutter speeds 1/1000 to 1/6400. On looking at the pictures on my monitor screen this morning they looked sharp despite the iso. I put a file through DXO3 using standard sharpening and it was over sharpened. The original file with a little clarity and slight sharpening printed fine at 12" x 16". Pictures using from f5.6 to f7.1 all look good on my monitor. My thoughts now are that my aged hands must shake a bit and/or the image stabilisation is not working well. That now needs investigation with firstly using sis auto instead of sis 1. Or maybe saving up for a 20mp Olympus.
An interesting further question would be how results from the Oly + 40-150 kit lens compare with those from a Nikon Z50 with telephoto kit lens - a jump I considered making.
Regarding replies to your DP post it confirms that some people quickly move away from the point at issue.
Cheers
Jeff