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[OM] Re: lipstick on a pig?

Subject: [OM] Re: lipstick on a pig?
From: Chuck Norcutt <chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 04 Sep 2006 07:57:09 -0400
The wide angle ZD lens line is one of the reasons I chose not to go with 
Olympus for digital.  I was initially attracted by the ZD 14-54 
f/2.8-3.5 as it seemed like it would make a great walk-around lens. 
Plenty fast and a wider range than the competition at that quality and 
speed.  But when checking lens availability at the wide end the 11-22 
seemed like a total waste.  Not really quite wide enough and most of its 
range overlapping the 14-54.  The 7-14 was clearly designed to pair with 
the 14-54 and is reputedly a superb piece of glass but I don't need its 
extreme wide angle and the price was simply not justifiable for me.

$1640 is well more than half way to the price of a 5D where I could use 
my 17mm OM mount Tokina which is as wide as I've ever needed and that 
only rarely.  I think Oly missed the boat on the 11-22 decision.  It 
should have been 9-18 which would probably have allowed a much less 
expensive lens than the 7-14.  The 7-14 is so expensive that its low 
manufacturing volume probably contributes signficantly to its price.  A 
7mm f/4 non-fisheye prime could have rounded out the line much less 
expensively for those who really needed it.

On a related point, the very long delay in producing the 7-14 made me 
very suspicious of Oly's claims of superior wide angle performance for 
4/3 digital.  Remember all that market speak about digital wide angle 
lens mounts needing to be large relative to the sensor size?  Light rays 
need to strike the sensor more nearly perpendicular than for film. The 
very lens that was required to prove the claim was non-existent for a 
very long time after the E-1 hit the market.

Chuck Norcutt


William Sommerwerck wrote:

> Now that I have a competent dSLR (E-500), two lenses, and a flash, I've
> started looking for other lenses. I love wide angles, so I looked at the
> Olympus 7-14mm lens for this camera.
> 
> Do you want to know what it costs? Do you really want to know? It's $1640.
> 
> No, that leading 1 isn't a typo. It really costs that much.
> 
> Olympus claims this lens has the world's first molded-aspheric element using
> ED glass. That's great. But it's a lens for a
> not-really-professional-but-wanting-to-look-like-one camera, whose sensor is
> 1/4 the area of a frame of 35mm film. Shouldn't it cost a lot _less_ than a
> comparable 35mm lens?
> 
> I checked Adorama's listing for Canon digital-specific lenses for their
> APS-C sensor cameras. The comparable lens, a 10-22mm zoom, is $690. Not
> $1690 -- $690. The closest 35mm lens is the Canon 16-35mm, for $1400.
> 
> I'm starting to think I made a really, really big mistake. Oh, well...



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