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[OM] Re: Whose wide angle? [was lipstick on a pig?]

Subject: [OM] Re: Whose wide angle? [was lipstick on a pig?]
From: Mark Dapoz <md@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2006 15:07:25 -0400 (EDT)
On Mon, 4 Sep 2006, Moose wrote:
> Mark Dapoz wrote:
>>
>> The 7-14mm is a pro-grade lens and clearly isn't targeted to the E-500
>> market.  You really have to use this lens to appreciate both its image
>> qualities and build quality.  Olympus went all out with this lens and it
>> really shows.  The Canon 10-22mm isn't in the same league,
> I have no dog in this fight, as I am not in the market for either one -
> neither will work on the 5D. However, I'm curious whence comes your
> information about this. I'll concede whatever you want about
> construction quality, sealing, etc. I'd be interested to know if there
> are comparable tests of the two to show differences in optical quality

The reviews I've read about the Canon 10-22mm say it's very soft at the
edges when at 10mm.  The 7-14mm on the other hand is very sharp throughout.
I've had the 7-14mm for over a year now and I couldn't be more pleased with
it.  Sharpness and distortion are far better than the OM's 18mm, and
chromatic aberration is nearly non-existant.  The only real downside of the
7-14mm lens is its size, it is larger and heavier than the most of the
other ZD zoom lenses.

> I'm curious how many people - other than the serious WA folks who would
> buy the 7-14 in preference to a cheaper $ & quality 9-20 anyway - really
> use something wider than the 21 mm on their film cameras more than once
> in a blue moon. 24-40 or so was a pretty common idea of a super WA zoom
> in MF film days. That's probably how Oly chose the range for their
> standard WA zoom and then added some range on the low end. Oly seems to
> hark back to film camera thinking more than some others.

It would be nice to have a smaller ultra-wide angle lens, something similar
to the ZD 8mm fisheye but rectilinear.  I wouldn't want it to replace the
7-14mm zoom since that lens is so versatile, but rather compliment it for
when you don't want to carry its bulk.  I'd still get both though since to
me image quality is more important than weight.  As much as we complain
about the weight of these new ZD lenses, they're still lighter than the
top end OM lenses such as the 35-80/2.8.
                                        -mark

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