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[OM] Re: ?? Mid-tele zoom w/49mm filters??

Subject: [OM] Re: ?? Mid-tele zoom w/49mm filters??
From: "John A. Lind" <jalind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 16 Apr 2005 10:46:34 -0500
At 07:40 AM 4/16/2005, Piers wrote:

>The one in my hand reads "Olympus OM-System Zuiko Auto-Zoom 1:4 f=75~150mm
>400793".  It is not an S Zuiko, and is not MC as far as I can tell.

Yes . . . I was mistaken about the "S" (but IVHO it was designed and priced 
for the same market segment).  There is a solid plus for it left out of 
anything posted yet . . . eight aperture blades . . . which helps improve 
bokeh . . . all of the mid-tele zooms made by Olympus have eight blades 
(all the shorter ones except the 35-70/3.6 and 35-80/2.8 have six).

Regarding the "MC" designation:
The lens was introduced circa 1974 and continued through 1985 in the 
literature, and the "MC" designation is found in late 1985 just before it 
disappeared.  If there are any they would be comparatively quite rare given 
just over a decade and large numbers of  "SC" production prior to that.

>  As far
>as design and build quality are concerned, it seems on a par with other
>Zuiko lenses, and is certainly not the same trombone design as the S Zuiko
>100-200/5

All the (true) Zuiko lenses I've owned are very consistently high in 
materials and manufacturing quality.  I've never had any reservations about 
those aspects leaving me to muse over their optical qualities which range 
from a passable "pedestrian" to stellar.  Never encountered "poor" optics 
unless the lens was thoroughly thrashed and abused which is user induced, 
not design or manufacture.

Regarding the OM 75-150 and 70-210, my benchmark "comparator" for their 
optics (and other mid-tele zooms) is the Tamron Adaptall 80-200/2.8 
ED.  Its optics are quite excellent and with (IIRC) nine aperture 
blades.  It's also bigger, noticeably heavier (enough to have its own 
tripod mount), much more costly, and well outside "mid-tele zoom with 49mm 
filter ring" class.  It has slight pincushion at the long end but not 
enough to be problematic unless there is a very strong, straight line very 
close and parallel to a frame edge, and running along at least most of 
it.  Its filter ring also rotates with focusing.  Nevertheless, it provides 
an example of what is possible in a mid-tele zoom without being an 
"elephant tusk" and a standard against which the compromises made for 
smaller size, lower weight and less cost can be measured.

-- John Lind


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