[Klaus]

http://photozone.smugmug.com/Reviews/olympus17f18

 

[joachim]

Looks like late summer - early autumn in northern climates to me. You get anything that deserves the name winter?

35 equiv is a nice focal length for the kind of pictures you show. I am curious for your review. Will you be keeping it?

Did you get, while being in the bush, that this is a kit option for the new E- P5?

[Klaus]

Well ... if it helps - we had less than 20C ... in the shadow. ;-)

But we do get snow in the Snowy Mountains. Not in Sydney though.


I'm not yet sure whether I will keep it. I just can't keep everything.

[Guest]

I thought you moved to fuji 100%. With regards to the lens what I've been hearing is that it is pretty decent near focus (street stuff) but not so hot for landscape - does that match your findings ?

[Klaus]

Well, there are some landscape shots in there so you can judge yourself. :-)

Personally I haven't spotted a real world weakness. But there may be corner issues at large aperture settings that I haven't experienced. The lab will tell.

[thxbb12]

Well, there are some landscape shots in there so you can judge yourself. :-)

Personally I haven't spotted a real world weakness. But there may be corner issues at large aperture settings that I haven't experienced. The lab will tell.

 

The samples look good overall and the sharpness at f/1.8 is good enough IMO.

Stopped down it's also sharp enough throughout the whole frame too.

 

If you had to have only one, which one would you choose between this one and the Pana 20mm? (and why?)

 

Thanks, Klaus!

 

PS: one great thing about Australia is the very little crowded paths compared to what we are used to in Europe. Many "wild" places are so filled with people that it feels like being at Disney Land... How are the hikes around Sydney? Nice selection of good ones?

[Klaus]

Oly vs Pana - tough choice without having looked deeper into the Oly.

The Pana is a tad too long for my taste maybe. The Oly feels more mainstream here.

 

As far as hikes in the Sydney region are concerned - well, in the blue mountains it can be like Disney Land as well. Katoomba is a nice town with great views into the canyons but its not the place to be alone in the surrounding bush - at least during weekends. However, true wilderness still exists here. The nice thing about Sydney is the variety pack with the mountains in the backyard, some rain forests, the vast coastline and all the underwater world. Some stuff is amazingly close to the city - in fact Lane Cove National Park (Ok, not that fancy) is just down the road from my apartment for instance.

Of course, Oz is no paradise either. The Telco & IT job market is pretty bad - at least for migrants. R&D jobs are extremely scarce which is developing towards a real problem for our plans here actually.

[Guest]

From webshots (I own neither) I would think the olympus has a nicer look (bokeh et all) than the panasonic. The panasonic lens (to me) is a bit harsh.

 

On the other hand in Klaus sample images the olympus lens has a lot of CA (or is it loca).

[Klaus]

Hmmmh, while I liked the lens in the field, the MTFs are not that hot.

There is some heavy distortion correction going on which spoils the game.

[Guest]

Which is more important; the results you get from the field or the test MTF ?

 

Ok maybe this is a bit of a loaded question; but I sometime wonders if testing spoils a good lens (I'm not claiming the 17f1.8 is a good lens but I'm sure there are a few nice lenses out there that test lower than less nice lens (where 'nice' represents field results vs test scores).

 

Hmmmh, while I liked the lens in the field, the MTFs are not that hot.

There is some heavy distortion correction going on which spoils the game.