At 05:13 PM 11/1/1998 +1100, Stephen you wrote:
>I would also be interested in peoples experiences with third party zooms. I
>have one 28-80mm zoom from the early eighties that is really good.... for
>keeping the dust out of my bodies when I can't find the body cap :-)
>
>Has anyone had any experience with the wide angle Vivitar (17 or 19-35mm I
>think), considering that it would be occasional use and used for producing
>prints up to about 8"x10"
>
>Or am I bordering :-) on being cast out for mentioning other brands?
>
>Stephen
>
Hi Stephen,
You'll not be cast out by me. I can only talk about my own experiences with
third-party zooms, and frankly my main interest has been to supplement the
Zuiko 35-70 and 75-150 zooms I own. To this end I picked up a Sigma 21-35
and a Tokina SZ-X 60-300/f4.
For the latter I was really more interested in something like a 150-300.
But Gary Schloss (hope he weighs in on this thread) had recommended it and
I found one LN. This lens is really like a stretch 80-200, so it has the
benefit of being a good walkabout lens. I found myself on "light" days this
fall going out with the 60-300, my Vivitar 100/f2.8 macro and Zuiko
28/f2.8, and tripod.
The Sigma 21-35 I have really enjoyed. This is not a lens for all
occasions, of course, but it has done all I've asked of it so far. It's
quite sharp and apparently has good coatings since I don't have problems
with flare. The results with this lens are somewhat different from my
Zuikos, and I want to say perhaps that the difference is either in
coloration or contrast, but I can't decide. But it's different.
An advantage of the third-party zooms is that they are usually faster and
often constant aperture throughout the zoom range. A disadvantage which is
not entirely photographically related is the aesthetic loss one might feel
in mating a gargantuan and/or unwieldy non-Zuiko to your OM-whatever.
Neither of my third-party zooms looks like it belongs on an OM. You gotta
get over that part. Neither of mine is two-touch. I really like two-touch
zooms and I wish this were not viewed apparently as an inferior design by
the thirds. Another issue is the filter sizes. My Sigma 21-35 takes 77mm
filters! "Would you like a zoom to go with that polarizer, Sir?"
Joel
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