Good morning list (well, at least on this side of the Atlantic ocean).
Years ago I linked on this list a reference to an intriguing Olympus Zuiko
prototype shown at the Olympus Technology Fair in 1989 (see:
http://www.geocities.com/maitani_fan/camera_technologies.html#grin). It was
an almost mythical lens: the 85mm f/1.4 with a GRadient INdex lens (made
with a glass widely adopted in fiber-optic cables, with a refraction index
varying throughout the lens volume).
On the 'Photography In Malaysia' site (a huge source of information for
everything Olympus in the film-era: see
http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/classics/olympusom1n2/
) I recently saw a link pointing to an Italian site where the above
mentioned lens was examined in its most subtle details, starting from its
prototypes (12, according to the lens patent) and going further deep into
the production one (yep, I said PRODUCTION).
The production lens (according to the info, 50 of them were made!) sports a
large fluorite lens, a gradient index one and a floating lenses system made
of two asolidal elements.
It was one of the most technically advanced lens ever produced, and this
tells a lot about why it never was mass-marketed.
The link to the italian site is this:
http://www.luciolepri.it/lc2/marcocavina/articoli_fotografici/Zuiko_OM_85_1,4/00_pag.htm
It's really worth a reading: unfortunately just the abstract had been
translated into English. If many of you think it would be an interesting
read, I'd attempt to translate it in the spare time and then post the result
to the list.
The same site lists some really interesting articles covering many of the
most exotic lens ever conceived or produced
(http://www.luciolepri.it/lc2/marcocavina/articoli_tecnici_fotografici.htm
).
Going Olympus, it lists a 100/2 vs other competitors' 100mms backlight test,
together with a comparative test with the old 100/2.8 (mounted on a Canon
EOS 5D) that shows how well does the cute little one compare with its big
brother (
http://www.luciolepri.it/lc2/marcocavina/articoli_fotografici/TEST_backlight/00_pag.htm
).
I've to admit that I spent quite a hour in reading all those articles and
tests: what intrigued me most was the huge amount of technical scheme and
references the author did examinate.
It took me little effort to discover that they all were retrieved through
the google patents search engine (http://www.google.com/patents): hence,
thanks to a never too welcome period of idlety in my daily work, I tried to
search for other patents that should relate to our beloved zuikos.
Results are the following:
18mm f/3.5 (1) : http://www.google.com/patents?id=bkowAAAAEBAJ
18mm f/3.5 (2) : http://www.google.com/patents?id=jKE3AAAAEBAJ
18mm f/3.5 (3) : http://www.google.com/patents?id=_Q0wAAAAEBAJ
18mm f/3.5 (4) : http://www.google.com/patents?id=laA1AAAAEBAJ
21mm f/2 : http://www.google.com/patents?id=bBA2AAAAEBAJ
21mm f/2 prototype? : http://www.google.com/patents?id=_A0wAAAAEBAJ
24mm f/2.8 : http://www.google.com/patents?id=fNg2AAAAEBAJ
28mm f/2.8 : http://www.google.com/patents?id=MPI9AAAAEBAJ
28mm f/2.8 prototype? : http://www.google.com/patents?id=bRA2AAAAEBAJ
28mm f/3.5 prototype? : http://www.google.com/patents?id=BFYzAAAAEBAJ
35mm f/2 : http://www.google.com/patents?id=nws6AAAAEBAJ
35mm f/2.8 : http://www.google.com/patents?id=WRM0AAAAEBAJ
40mm f/2 : http://www.google.com/patents?id=-9ExAAAAEBAJ
50mm f/1.4 : http://www.google.com/patents?id=Jh80AAAAEBAJ
50mm f/2 macro prototype? : http://www.google.com/patents?id=344zAAAAEBAJ
50mm f/2.8 macro (non-AF version) :
http://www.google.com/patents?id=mTYyAAAAEBAJ
85mm f/1.4 GRIN : http://www.google.com/patents?id=G9MdAAAAEBAJ
85mm f/2 : http://www.google.com/patents?id=Igc7AAAAEBAJ
90mm f/2 macro : http://www.google.com/patents?id=g2g7AAAAEBAJ
100mm f/2 : http://www.google.com/patents?id=tp4zAAAAEBAJ
100mm f/2 prototype : http://www.google.com/patents?id=BpI6AAAAEBAJ
100mm f/2.8 : http://www.google.com/patents?id=u7ArAAAAEBAJ
135mm f/2 prototype : http://www.google.com/patents?id=04wxAAAAEBAJ
250mm f/2 (1) : http://www.google.com/patents?id=sZUtAAAAEBAJ
250mm f/2 (2) : http://www.google.com/patents?id=WKUvAAAAEBAJ
Browsing through all this patents is very instructive: everyone of them
explicitly shows the effort that Olympus engineers put into designing
compact and well corrected lenses (lens size was one of the project main
parameter, as we all know) who - incidentally! - performed exceptionally
well.
The 135mm f/2 prototype is one of the biggest surprise, as the 28mm f/2.8
and f/3.5 prototypes that strongly resemble what eventually turned out to be
the 21mm f/3.5.
Every patent lists the lens curvature and glass refraction and diffraction
characteristics, together with the floating mechanism specs (if any).
Now, if only I could access a decent glass manufacturer facility I'll
definitely build me one of those 250mm f/2 I dream of!
Or, more humbly, if I'll ever manage to get a copy on an optical simulation
suite, I'll try and see what the (calculated) MTF of these jewels will be...
Just dreaming, of course.
Enjoy! :)
Fabio Fiorellato (Rome, Italy)
--
The definitive answer to the meaning of life, universe and everything else
is: 42.
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