17mm F1.8 Olympus lens topic

Vitaliy_Kiselev

Lens was presented at Photokina 2012.

Specifications:

Metal barrel
MF option, like on 12mm
Price: $500

Available at:

Reviews:

http://www.lenstip.com/357.1-Lens_review-Olympus_M.Zuiko_Digital_17_mm_f_1.8.html

stoney

Olympus got it right. 12/2.0, 17/1.8, 45/1.8, and 75/1.8. Only 25/1.8 is missing.

Vitaliy_Kiselev

Still want this cheap plastic T4 lenses :-)

DrDave

It probably will be very good, but sadly not a pancake. Interesting that they chose that size, not my favorite size but certainly there are lots of people with the 20mm who now want something wider. I think they are going for the ultimate quality, not the ultimate pancake, and you can't fault them for that, but I loves my pancakes.

oscillian

If they get the manual focus right and it's as good as the Lumix 20mm I'm switching. Love the 20 for photos though.

John_Farragut

If only it were the price of the 20mm Panasonic. I would trade mine in for the Olympus. Would love to have manual focus with distance scale.

Vitaliy_Kiselev

Image added to first post.

sohus

@DrDave It is 35mm in old terms. So very much desired by many people.

aki_hartikainen

I take from the comments that the manual focus is real and not servo coupled? Missing only aperture ring. So much nicer to adjust aperture from the lens than buttons on the camera. Thus not perfect, but certainly interesting.

Vitaliy_Kiselev

It seems like it has aperture ring, as you can see aperture markings :-)

As it clearly has two rings

aki_hartikainen

Not yet sure about it. It could be that the grooves at the back of the lens only aid attaching and removing the lens. Markings on the front ring appear to be sharp focus range at certain aperture.

But let's hope the ring at the back is for iris. When you have confirmation, please update. This could be the perfect one.

DrDave

@sohus I would say of my legacy glass, the 35mm got very little use compared to the 24, 28, 40, 45 and 58. It's a very nice lens, a Nikkor, and it gets slightly more use as a 70mm on the GH2. Maybe other people used the 35 more often, it seems like I was always reaching for the 24 or the 28 for anything wider than 40, 45 or 50.

Manual controls: these are more important now that we can potentially use the lenses on the BMCC.

balazer

If it's anything like the Olympus 12-mm f/2.0, then the focus ring is not mechanically linked. Olympus calls it "snapshot focus mechanism". When you slide the focus ring down, a focus scale is exposed. The ring has hard stops and fixed focus positions, but it's still focus by wire.

aki_hartikainen

@balazer that is a bit disappointing, if turns out to be the same for this lens. It is possible to build focus-by-wire identical to real manual focus, but requires sophisticated mechanics and electronics. They should do it like Tokina, so that the focus ring slides to another position and engages with the focus mechanism.

Vitaliy_Kiselev

Some photos

John_Farragut

I think it's nice. But since this one probably costs only slightly less than the 12mm, it's still a hard buy. I probably will sell my 20mm, because I like focus ring on Olympus better. Also this seems to have internal focussing, and the 20mm doesn't have that.

Vitaliy_Kiselev

Photo by Igor Drozdovsky (specially for P-V) :

rikyxxx

It will cost 500$:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/2012/11/15/Olympus-m-zuiko-digital-17mm-f1-8-micro-four-thirds-499dollars

A little pricy but cool :-)

Vitaliy_Kiselev

yep.

More reviews or tests:

stoney

25cm minimum focus distance. 0.08x magnification.

igorek7

The more I read reviews of and see the real-life images with 17mm f/1.8, the more it appears to me that this lens is another missed opportunity by Olympus to create high quality lens for the Micro Four Thirds, in comparison with their Four Thirds SHG lenses.It does seem that the 17mm lens tested in these reviews still needs some IQ-"tuning" to explain its relatively high price (in comparison with the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 or Panasonic 20mm f/1.7).

The manual fly-by-wire focus is my other concern, as the prototype that I hold at the Photokina had the same fiddly pull-down ring with sparse DOF and distance scale for zone-focusing, as Olympus 12mm f/2. Moreover, the pre-production 17mm lens focused past the infinity mark as well.

Vitaliy_Kiselev

http://blog.mingthein.com/2012/11/17/olympus-zd-17-1_8/

igorek7

http://www.lenstip.com/357.1-Lens_review-Olympus_M.Zuiko_Digital_17_mm_f_1.8_Introduction.html

stoney

@igorek7 +1. Another missed opportunity by Olympus.

feha

Anyone tried this on GH2, GH3 ?

IvanUskokovic

@feha I have the Olympus 17mm f/1.8 and I use it on a Panasonic GH3. If you have any specific questions concerning the lens and it's use with a GH3, feel free to ask. I'll do my best in answering them.

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