{"id":2029,"date":"2009-09-04T16:40:44","date_gmt":"2009-09-04T06:40:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/?p=2029"},"modified":"2009-09-04T17:34:41","modified_gmt":"2009-09-04T07:34:41","slug":"lens-tests-ii-85mm-focal-length","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/?p=2029","title":{"rendered":"Lens tests II &#8211; 85mm and 100mm focal lengths"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Following on from my last post where I <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/?p=2024\">tested lenses at 135mm focal length<\/a> on the Panasonic GH-1, I have performed the same tests using lenses at <strong>85mm focal length<\/strong> but with camera moved closer to the target to maintain the target magnification at a constant.<\/p>\n<p>All performed on tripod with self-timer.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In order of resolution (best to worst):<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Olympus ZD 50-200mm f\/2.8-3.5 SWD at 85mm at f\/3.1, f\/4, f\/5.6 (little difference between them) &#8211; almost no purple fringing even wide open<\/li>\n<li>Canon EF 24-105mm f\/4L IS at 100mm at f\/4 &#8211; almost no purple fringing<\/li>\n<li>Canon EF 85mm f\/1.8 at f\/1.8, f\/2.8, f\/4 &#8211; all very sharp, but severe purple fringing at f\/1.8, moderate at f\/2.8 and almost gone by f\/4.0<\/li>\n<li>Olympus ZD 50mm f\/2.0 macro + ZD EC-20 2x teleconverter &#8211; some CA though<\/li>\n<li>Panasonic Lumix 14-140mm f\/4-5.8 HD at f\/5.8 &#8211; not far behind the others, but definitely a touch softer<\/li>\n<li>Olympus OM 100mm f\/2.8 &#8211; but very compact, and a great option at f\/4 or f\/5.6 when it becomes as good as the Lumix albeit without optical image stabiliser but the extra aperture will partly compensate<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Interestingly, although not surprisingly, the <strong>Canon EF 135mm f\/2.0L<\/strong> on a tripod <strong>even wide open gave more image detail than any of these lenses (but only just)<\/strong>, even when placed further away to ensure the same subject magnification. And, it achieved this with almost no purple fringing &#8211; just remember, this lens really needs to have the lens hood on as internal flare tends to be a problem which lowers image contrast.<\/p>\n<p>For its size and versatility, <strong>the Panasonic Lumix does at good as most people need<\/strong>, and I would expect the differences in resolution to disappear once you hand hold them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Olympus ZD 50-200mm is just a great lens<\/strong> and has the advantage over the Panasonic of not only being sharper with less CA but wider aperture (f\/3.1 vs f\/5.8 at 85mm) however, is best suited to an image stabilised Olympus Four Thirds dSLR given its size and weight, and lack of AF on the MFT.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>Canon EF 85mm f\/1.8 lens<\/strong> is a very well regarded Canon lens &#8211; said to be the best of the non-L lenses, and this test showed it was very sharp even wide open. <strong>Unfortunately, as is the case with most legacy film lenses, it shows very severe purple fringing at f\/1.8<\/strong> which is still a bit annoying at f\/2.8.<\/p>\n<p>I had hoped the Canon 85mm would have made a nice portable wide aperture lens for the Panasonic GH-1 or, better still the Olympus E-P1 with its image stabiliser, but unless you want to post-process all that purple fringing, I think other options may need to be sought.<\/p>\n<p>For comparison, I also tested <strong>the beautifully compact Olympus OM 100mm f\/2.8<\/strong> lens a little further away to maintain subject magnification. It was not quite as sharp as the Lumix lens at f\/2.8 and f\/4 but very close by f\/5.6 &#8211; in the field, hand held, the differences would not be an issue. Purple fringing was problematic at f\/2.8 but acceptable at f\/4.<\/p>\n<p>Thus <strong>the OM 100mm f\/2.8 would be more suited to the Micro Four Thirds than the EF 85mm f\/1.8 given its compact size,<\/strong> ability to change apertures and is best used at f\/4 or f\/5.6, but at least it offers a very compact 200mm f\/4 lens in 35mm focal length reach with the option of opening it up to f\/2.8 if you had to.<\/p>\n<p>If you were going to take the EF 85mm f\/1.8 lens for a little more sharpness than the Lumix or OM 100mm, I would set it at f\/2.8 (some purple fringing but better than the OM 100mm at f\/2.8) or f\/4 (minimal purple fringing).<\/p>\n<p>See some of my photos taken with the GH-1 and OM 100mm f\/2.8 lens combo <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/gary\/JAlbumAll\/ByLens\/PanasonicGH1\/OM100mm\/index.htm\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, I thought I would compare the superb <strong>Olympus ZD 50mm f\/2.0 macro lens mated with the ZD EC-20 2x teleconverter<\/strong> to make 100mm actual focal length as with the Olympus OM 100mm f\/2.8 lens.<\/p>\n<p>This combo even wide open at f\/2.0 (f\/4.0 for exposure measurement when taking into account the 2x TC), was as sharp as the EF 85mm f.\/1.8 but showed some CA at f\/2.0, f\/2.8 and even at f\/4 &#8211; again, hand held, I would opt for the more compact OM 100mm f\/2.8 for use on the MFT cameras.<\/p>\n<p>See photos taken with the 50mm f\/2.0 macro plus EC-20 2x TC <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/gary\/JAlbumAll\/ByLens\/OlympusdSLR\/ZD50mmMacroTC2x\/index.htm\">here<\/a>, taken with the Olympus E510 dSLR.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following on from my last post where I tested lenses at 135mm focal length on the Panasonic GH-1, I have performed the same tests using lenses at 85mm focal length but with camera moved closer to the target to maintain the target magnification at a constant. All performed on tripod with self-timer. In order of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[44,18,149,14,15],"class_list":["post-2029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lenses","tag-canon","tag-four-thirds-micro","tag-lens-tests","tag-olympus","tag-panasonic"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2029\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}