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Re: [OM] 35-80 for reasonable price

Subject: Re: [OM] 35-80 for reasonable price
From: Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 20 Mar 2009 10:24:25 -0500
>
> They're great, Frank.  I really like "Path".
>


I agree!

I'm seeing a distinct "look" to the 35-80 photographs that I never noticed
before.  When used for my standard bread-and-butter shots (like
Grip-and-Grins) or even standard "focus at infinity" landscape shots, the
lens is just plain sharp.  On "flat scenes" the images are pretty much
interchangeable with any other Zuiko of equivalent focal length.

However,

On scenes where you have distinctly separate distances to the subject and
background, the images from this lens take on a look I haven't seen from my
other Zuikos.  Frank's pictures illustrate it well.  But the problem is, to
somebody who hasn't used the 35-80 you're probably not going to see it.
It's only through using the 35-80 that I've noticed this. I'm not sure how
to describe it either. There is a specific "signature" to this lens--one of
those that once you identify it, it jumps out at you ever after.  Way back
before the OM system was killed by Olympus, those of you who had bought the
35-80 mentioned something about this, but I never saw it myself because I
didn't really know what I was looking for.  Now, my conversation might be
like this:

"That photograph was taken with the 35-80/2.8."

"How can you tell?"

"I just know."

I have a wonderful selection of terrific lenses, but just like the 300/4.5,
the 35-80/2.8 goes far beyond its specifications and yields images unlike
anything else out there.  I definitely haven't seen ANYTHING like it in the
digital world--regardless of format or manufacturer.

As I've been using the 35-80, I've been seeing something "different" but
wasn't quite sure if my eyes were playing tricks on me. Then I looked at
Frank's pictures and here is the same thing staring at me in the face.  It's
actually very wierd, because you know it's a Zuiko for some traits, but then
it has some characteristic unlike any other lens.  In my experimentation for
portraiture, the lens is on equal footing with my 100/2.8, but each has a
certain twist which gives them distinctly different looks. They are not
interchangeable!

Like I said previously, I survived nicely for two and a half decades of OM
system use without the 35-80/2.8, but I won't be without one again.  This is
a lens which would be on my immediate replacement list if anything ever
happened to it.  It has some flaws, but it definitely delivers the goods.

I really should have bugged that guy selling all those 35-80 lenses for a
commission.

AG
-- 
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