E-P1 75mm lens compared

[Terry]

OK next boring but revealing lens test. Today we have the Voigtlander f2.5, Leica Summicron f2.0 and the Panasonic 45-200.

All on tripod. Image Stabilization - off. ISO 100 (didn't have fast enough for shutter speed at ISO 200 wide open). Aperture priority.

All shot as superfine jpeg with standard settings. All imported to Lightroom. NO adjustments. Export - sharpening for screen at standard. Kit lens at 75mm I slightly missed the 75mm mark on the lens (oops).

There are 31 shots to post. Please don't respond until I put up a post saying I'm done.

Full Scene - you will see the focus point on the first set of crops (bridge vertical) Leica f2.0 Summicron @ 2.0

F2.0
Leica

F2.5/F2.8
CV

Leica

F4.0 Panny @ F4.4
CV

Leica

Panasonic

 

[Terry]

F5.6

CV

Leica

Panny

Nothing too much changes at F8 and F11 but can post if people want.

Next up the problem area CA.....

 

[Terry]

So, we know that Panasonic lens are corrected for CA in the opcodes embedded into the RAW files. Lightroom can read the opcodes. It looks like the E-P1 is taking that information from the Panasonic lenses.

F2.0
Leica

F2.5/F2.8
CV

Leica

F4.0/F4.4 (panny)

CV

Leica

Panasonic

 

[Terry]

F5.6

CV

Leica

Panny

OK CA all cleared an no need to go any further.

All done.

 

[Terry]

Here are the full shots reduced to 1200 pixels all at f5.6

CV

Leica

Panasonic

All done!

 

[Mike Hatam]

Terry - thank you!

I shot my 75 Summarit vs the Panny 45-200, and saw similar results to what you show here. The Leica lens is visibly better (in my opinion). The CV 75 is a bit of a disappointment here - not even as good as the Panny zoom.

Mike

 

[Terry]

Hi Mike the CV surprises me and yes I agree that the Leica is visibly better. If there was no visible difference at 10x the price I would be a bit upset. The CV lens on my M8 was a joy (however many of the joyful shots wouldn't show some of the faults that are coming out here). Did you have CA on the Summarit at f2.5??? Gone at f4 or f5.6?

 

[Mike Hatam]

Yes, a touch of CA (near the edges) at f2.5, less at f2.8, and pretty much completely gone by f4.

 

[nostatic]

wow. I guess that extra money is buying something other than a logo

Love the Leica shots.

 

[Guy Mancuso]

Not much is going to beat a 75 cron. I did extensive tests on it the 75 lux and the 75 summarit. End of day the cron will win the resolution part. The Lux will win the look test and the Summarit is just a very nice balance between them. Plus the money is right on it and I like the focusing as well.

 

[jonoslack]

Excellent Terry - not boring at all.

Some would say that the 75 'cron is simply the sharpest lens you can get . . .

What really surprises me here is how excellently the panny is doing at 75 - especially at the edges - a cheap zoom really doesn't deserve to be that good.

It reinforces what I've always felt about 4/3 in general, which is that it's the quality of lenses which keeps me coming back - even the humble lenses which you would expect to be mediocre.

The fact of the new lighter AA filter makes the EP-1 into a real contender.

 

[f6cvalkyrie]

Thanks for this very interesting shoot-out, Terry.

The performance of the kit-zoom is indeed surprising.
I would be very interested in seeing a similar shoot-out at longer FL, eg at 150 or 200mm, because I seem to always come home with unsharp pics when shooting at such FL, but, from what I see here, that may well be me to blame, and specially my old shaky hands

C U
Rafael

 

[kweide]

Thanks for this very interesting shoot-out, Terry.

The performance of the kit-zoom is indeed surprising.
I would be very interested in seeing a similar shoot-out at longer FL, eg at 150 or 200mm, because I seem to always come home with unsharp pics when shooting at such FL, but, from what I see here, that may well be me to blame, and specially my old shaky hands

C U
Rafael

Did you implement the new Update???
It includes the Double IS feature against shaky hands ))

 

[f6cvalkyrie]

I searched the internet to no avail, Klaus, I could simply not find any firmware upgrade for my old shaky hands

Would you have a link to share ???

C U
Rafael

 

[Guy Mancuso]

Thanks for this very interesting shoot-out, Terry.

The performance of the kit-zoom is indeed surprising.
I would be very interested in seeing a similar shoot-out at longer FL, eg at 150 or 200mm, because I seem to always come home with unsharp pics when shooting at such FL, but, from what I see here, that may well be me to blame, and specially my old shaky hands

C U
Rafael

Seriously you may want to think about a monopod. You can gain about 3 stops in shutter speed.

 

[Mike Hatam]

Thanks for this very interesting shoot-out, Terry.

The performance of the kit-zoom is indeed surprising.
I would be very interested in seeing a similar shoot-out at longer FL, eg at 150 or 200mm, because I seem to always come home with unsharp pics when shooting at such FL, but, from what I see here, that may well be me to blame, and specially my old shaky hands

C U
Rafael

At 200mm (400mm equiv), I can't get a sharp image without either a ton of light (shutter speed of 1/500 or better), or bracing the camera on something. In a free standing position, my images always have a touch of motion blur.

If I lean against a pole, or sit down and rest the camera on my knees, then I am getting quite sharp images from the 45-200 lens on the E-P1. The in-body IS can handle those small tremors, but not my full-body sway when I'm free standing and zoomed all the way in.

Mike

 

[Terry]

Thanks for this very interesting shoot-out, Terry.

The performance of the kit-zoom is indeed surprising.
I would be very interested in seeing a similar shoot-out at longer FL, eg at 150 or 200mm, because I seem to always come home with unsharp pics when shooting at such FL, but, from what I see here, that may well be me to blame, and specially my old shaky hands

C U
Rafael

Rafael,
I don't have anything longer than a 75 in leica, voigtlander or any other lens that fits on m4/3 to compare the 45-200 lens to.

 

[Greg Seitz]

Terry,

Great info. Thanks for comparing these. Do you happen to have the raw files for these shots? I'd love to let Raw Developer take a crack at them and see how they look. www.mediafire.com is a great way to post them if you don't already have a way to do so...

Thanks,

Greg

 

[Terry]

Greg - I will get you the files tonight. I can put them on my "iDisk" and send you the link tonight. I also have files from the other lenses (12mm and 7-14 zoom)

 

[Greg Seitz]

Greg - I will get you the files tonight. I can put them on my "iDisk" and send you the link tonight. I also have files from the other lenses (12mm and 7-14 zoom)

That would be great! Much appreciated.