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20mm on E-P1...noisy!

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daggerlee

Guest
I bought the 20mm here in Hong Kong...and I tried it out on my E-P1.

It's my first time using a AF lens on this...and I noticed that the lens keeps on stopping down when I point it around, especially at bright light sources.

The DPReview mentions that it will stop down to around 2.8 automatically on the E-P1...but mine seems to stop down more than that. When I point it at a fluorescent light, it stops down to what looks like 5.6 or greater.

This is before I press the focus button...

My E-P1 is firmware 1.1 and the lens is 1.0. Any ideas on how to stop it from constantly stopping down? It's quite noisy!
 
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daggerlee

Guest
OK I just had a look at Brian Mosley's impression at dpreview and he seems to have the same problem.

I agree...this is annoying! maybe I should have forked over extra money for the GF1...
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Can't speak to the E-P1, but the Panny 20 absolutely ROCKS on the GF1!
 

barjohn

New member
I have now sold my E-P1 so i can't test that for you. What mode is the camera set to? I notice that in IA mode the GF1 goes into a continuous AF tracking mode and is noisy and in shutter priority the aperture continuously changes as the lighting changes but it is quiet.
 

PeterB666

Member
I normally use aperture priority on my E-P1 and any other camera come to think of it so wouldn't be an issue for me.
 

Brian Mosley

New member
I wouldn't say the ticking noise as the E-P1 does the 'aperture dance' is noisy... and after a day of shooting, I've stopped noticing it unless I focus my attention on it.

But it's definitely something I'd like to see covered in the next firmware upgrade from Olympus.

Cheers

Brian
 

Diane B

New member
Mine does not do that in A on the GF1. Could it be due to some setting on the EP1? The only time I noticed anything similar was when i tried it in iA for someone which has AF tracking.

(I had to add---my sentence construction makes it sound as though the 'someone' has AF tracking LOLOL--not so)>.
 
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Terry

New member
Mine does not do that in A on the GF1. Could it be due to some setting on the EP1? The only time I noticed anything similar was when i tried it in iA for someone which has AF tracking.
Yes, apparently the Pen live view is at f2.8 so when you have the lens wide open the camera keeps opening and closing the aperture. My 25 lux was making clicking sounds on the Pen and I wasn't sure what it was.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1041&message=33260046
 

madmaxmedia

New member
So I guess if you are using Aperture Priority at f/2.8, that would be the only way to eliminate this noise. I guess it would be easy to test this-
 
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daggerlee

Guest
Not quite - the camera will stop down to what looks like 5.6 or 8.0 even when you have it set at 2.8, if you point it at a bright enough light
 
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daggerlee

Guest
it makes me wonder if we are damaging our sensors when shooting with manual lenses that are faster than 2.8
 

Brian Mosley

New member
No, not damaging sensors - I think it's just an approach to give a live view image which reflects the selected aperture.

The Panasonic cams do it too, but they go from fully open to f8 (as required by light levels) rather than f2.8 to f8 in steps (as the Oly E-P1 does)... I think that Panasonic use electronic gain to adjust the live view image in the middle ground.

Cheers

Brian
 

PeterB666

Member
I was using my Panasonic 45-200 on my E-P1 on the weekend and noticed that it does the same sort of thing. My Olympus 14-42 lens aperture is silent so either the Olympus lens doesent keep changing the aperture when metering or the aperture movement is silent.
 

PeterB666

Member
I think Pan and Oly are deliberately crimping each other lens compatibility... So far I'm staying with Pan .
I think both of them are ripping off consumers. The Panasonic lens mount on the 45-200 looks like it was pressed out of a disposable drink can and the trim around the front element has come straight from a $99 camera, complete with the notch to locate it before it is glued in place. I also noted that it is suseptable to flare especially at 200mm and the bokeh isn't particularly pleasing.

The Olympus 14-42 telescoping elements also has the slop of a $99 camera so doesn't come out of it scott free either.

Considering the pricing of these lenses as separate item (if bought that way), it isn't good enough.

Travelling with my collection of lenses on the weekend, Olympus 14-42, Panasonic 45-200, Schneider 40mm f/1.9, Olympus OM 28mm f/2.8 and Olympus OM 200mm f/4 I had some surprising results.

The one lens that was the standout was the 50 year old Schneider 40mm f/1.9 which is as sharp as the modern lenses when stopped down to f/4, easy to focus in all lighting conditions thanks to what I call H-AF (Human-Activated Focusing - you have to have some snazzy initials), wasn't bothered by flare (which is surprising for a 50 year old uncoated optic) and did what I wanted it to every time.

One thing I did notice about the 45-200 Panasonic is that every now and again it would mis-focus in good lighting. This happened at both close and long distances. I always use S-AF and almost always use pre-focus so isn't really a problem. It was just surpising.

It is fairly obvious that Olympus and Panasonic are pulling out all stops to make as much profit as possible as quickly as possible. Understandable in some respects as digital cameras are pretty much disposable items these days. The electronics will be shot in 5 to 10 years but that is well past the designed in obsolesence of newer models coming out every 9 months.

Edit: - Don't get me wrong, I still like my E-P1 and would buy it over the GF1 just for the built-in image stabilisation. I would prefer either to any dSLR.
 
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