I had heard from others that the 14-54mm was prone to this problem too and
just ignored that my particular sample was often out a bit when zoomed. Like
you Richard I use MF on the E-1 most of the time, though I really should try
that AEL/focus button feature sometime, thanks for reminding me. In addition
I had also heard that getting the lens serviced would often cure the
problem. I would assume that the hands on time of servicing is great than
during manufacturing for this model. It wasn't until last summer when I had
the pleasure of my E-1 falling over while on a tripod that I had the tales
proved to me. The E-1 body was completely unscathed during the incident but
the zoom mechanism of the lens was totally shot. A quick trip to the Oly
service dept I was very pleased to find the lens was much better at staying
in focus while zooming between the ends of the range. Olympus also had the
lens back to me in about 8 days as well which was considerably faster than I
was expecting.
Dan S.
-----Original Message-----
From: olympus-owner@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:olympus-owner@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Richard Lovison
Subject: [OM] Re: ZD 14-54mm questions
Moose wrote:
<snip>
> It is easier to design and cheaper to make a varifocal lens, one that
> changes focal length, but doesn't maintain perfect focus as it does so.
> A few of these were made in the MF era. It is possible that makers of
> AF zooms cheat a little, as the AF doesn't care. I'm not accusing Oly
> of this, only speculating about all makers. The temptation to make
> this compromise to get smaller, lighter, cheaper lenses with equal
> optical performance must be considerable in a competitive market where
> almost no-one manually focuses AF zooms.
The Zuiko Digital 14-54 behaves in this fashion in that it doesn't maintain
focus as you change zoom settings. I'm one of those "no-ones"
that uses manual focus quite often. I've got the E-1 set so the AEL button
activates auto-focus and thus, is removed from the shutter button. I set
the camera to manual focus, use the AEL button to initially set focus and
then manually focus the lens to fine tune.
Works for landscape images quite nicely. :)
Richard L
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