Structuregraphs

50mm (or thereabout) lens comparison on 4/3

2011-04-23T05:13:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I spent an afternoon shooting the setup shown in the image above with a range of lenses considered "normal" on 35mm, they ranged from 45mm to 58mm focal length including a few zoom lenses set at 50mm. Each lens was shot at every available aperture. The camera body I used was the Olympus E-P1 and focusing was at 10x magnification on the right eyelid of the "model". The camera was set to aperture priority ("A") mode and the resultant images show how the metering system coped with small apertures - generally the smallest aperture images were about 1 stop underexposed. The web size images aren't of any use to judge the resolution of the lenses but give an idea of how each lens renders the subject, e.g. bokeh. The "model" is about 2m from the camera and the far wall about 5m. Check out how the sticks in the vase, the aluminium foil on the stick, the specular reflections on the candelabra and the stripes of the wallpaper are rendered by different lenses at various apertures.

Follow this link to see the comparison.

PORST reflex M-CE

2011-04-21T23:40:00.000-07:00

This was an interesting $15 find at a local Cash Converters shop, the first time I had seen one in 40+ years of looking at cameras. According to CAMERAPEDIA, Porst was a German camera distributor and retailer that rebadged equipment from various manufacturers. The M-CE is evidently a rebadged Chinon CE II Memotron. This example is in poor shape, missing the rewind knob/crank and a few bits of trim, however the 55mm f1.4 M42 lens is scratch and fungus free so might be useful on my Olympus 4/3 gear. An interesting feature of the camera is the vinyl padded panels on each side of the pentaprism and the vinyl padded lens focusing ring.

Hood for M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42mm Mk I

2011-04-21T22:02:00.000-07:00

It seems Olympus originally thought that a lens hood wasn't needed for their micro 4/3 standard zoom lens, the M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42mm. When Olympus introduced the Mk II version of this lens they did provide a lens hood (LH-40) as an (expensive) option, see the image below which I stole from Chris Barker.

As you can see from the image below the front element of this lens is quite exposed to dirt, finger marks and physical damage before getting into the issue of lens flare.

The filter ring for the 14-42 is 40.5mm diameter and I managed to find a few lens hoods with this thread size on that auction site at a reasonable price. The hood I purchased is marked "For LEICA SUMMICRON 40.5mm" and looks pretty good.

The hood provides the physical protection for the front element but causes vignetting at focal lengths less than 18mm so I'll be looking for a different hood or modifying the one I bought.

@14mm

@15mm

@16mm

@18mm - no obvious vignetting

What's happening ?

2007-06-19T05:08:00.000-07:00

Well it's over a month since I started this and nothing much has happened !

...though I did win a 37mm fisheye for the RB-67, well used, but seems to work ok.

Starts here

2007-05-16T05:09:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what I'll use this for, suppose I'll just see what develops.