Tris Schuler <tristanjohn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
<< I wasn't sure about
Zuiko's nomenclature, but I did tell him that in general H. Zuiko is
usually single coated whereas G. Zuiko as a rule indicated MC.
Do I have that wrong? >>
Yes, I think you have it wrong there - er, try this:
With your 21/3.5:
Get the seller to read you the whole thing! G.ZUIKO would be an early
version as far as I know, and on the basis of what I've seen the later
versions will have the focal length written BEFORE the f-number as in 21mm
1:3.5 and probably no MC marking at all (like mine at home).
I don't know if there were any 'middle' versions of the 21/3.5 actually
labelled MC - has anybody seen one?
>From what I've seen and heard (this'll confuse ya!):
1. early lenses:
The G. and H. refer to the number of glass elements in the lens, 7 and 8
respectively, those two letters being the 7th and 8th in the alphabet. Thus
the older 21/3.5s were G.ZUIKO (7 elements), the older 24/2.8s were H.ZUIKO
(8 elements) and the older 50/1.8s were F.ZUIKO (6 elements), etc.
That would be:
OLYMPUS OM-SYSTEM G.ZUIKO AUTO-W 1:3.5 f=21mm SerialNo. Japan
(if there is room for Japan or Lens Made in Japan on the big ones)
2. early-ish lenses:
On quite a lot of lenses, you see just Zuiko MC with no initial at the
beginning; presumably Multi-Coating was introduced as a feature then. Why
they dropped the first initial I don't know, maybe space? My 50/1.8 on my
OM-10 was like that in 1981.
eg on the 21mm f/2 on the front on my OM-2N brochure from 1983:
OLYMPUS OM-SYSTEM ZUIKO MC AUTO-W 1:2 f=21mm SerialNo. Japan
I guess that some of the newer faster lenses at this time had ZUIKO MC
designations from the start, (maybe multi-coating was in their initial
design?) and some or all of the original single-coated system lenses were
also changed over to MC in time.
I think ALL the above have the focal length / f-number marked as, for example:
1:3.5 f=21mm
f-number first.
3. more recently (1990s?):
Later, I think its generally agreed that the "MC" designation was also
dropped (maybe most/all lenses were MC by this time anyway) and so for
instance my 1992 50/1.8 lens with my OM-4Ti just has "ZUIKO" with no initial
and no "MC" either!
AND they seem to have the focal length and f-number written differently, like
this:
21mm 1:3.5
focal length first.
Most of my lenses are like that, e.g. my 21/3.5
OLYMPUS OM-SYSTEM ZUIKO AUTO-W 21mm 1:3.5 SerialNo. Japan
and it looks quite new in condition. New lenses I bought in the 90s were like
this too.
I would assume that they just dropped the "MC" designation because of space
and/or because most/all lenses had some multi-coating?!
Again, this is all for lenses seen in the UK. I don't know if there are
differences between UK/Europe/USA etc.
Epilogue:
I suspect that some lenses went straight from the
version 1: G.ZUIKO ... 1:3.5 f=21mm etc to the
version 3: ZUIKO ... 21mm 1:3.5 ,
WITHOUT having a middle version with
ZUIKO MC ... 1:3.5 f=21mm designation at all. !!
because...
some of my 1982/83 brochures still have G.ZUIKOs etc and then my OM4
brochures also 1983/84 have the 40mm f/2 and other newly introduced lenses
marked in the 3rd way, like ZUIKO ... 40mm 1:2
Best wishes,
Dave Bellamy.
http://members.aol.com/synthchap/
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