Dawid Loubser
Member
Hi all,
I had a chance to compare one of Canon's sharpest primes (EF 200mm f/2.8L II) with a Four/Thirds mid-range pro lens, the Zuiko 50-200mm late last year, and never posted the result.
Both were shot wide open at the same 35mm-equiv focal length (around 250mm) tripod-mounted, the Canon on a EOS-1D MkIIN (ISO200), the Zuiko on an Olympus E-3 (ISO100 - shower shutter speed acceptable because of in-body IS). We shot this just as the E-3 came out, so no RAW converter conveniently available for apple, so the zuiko shot is out-of-camera JPEG, and the Canon shot RAW processed with Aperture (no processing other than slight USM - absolutely no noise reduction or any other fiddling)
These are 100% crops centre-frame:
Canon prime on the left (at f/2.8), Zuiko zoom on the right (around f/2.9).
This was a tricky exposure, and the Canon handled it much better (the E-3 had blown the flower's sunlit reds to the point of bright orange) and I couldn't recover it because of JPEG shooting - so please ignore exposure differences.
This image proves my statement over in an E-3 post that one generally has to use Canon primes in order to get the performance of the zuiko zooms - very impressive! We did many tests, and the 200L generally outperformed the Zuiko, but to such a slight manner as to be almost insignificant.
This shot also shows the much shallower apparent DOF a near-35mm system has to the four/thirds system at the same apparent angle of view.
We also compared the Zuiko 50mm f/2.0 Macro to Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro (for taking portraits), and, again, the results were for all practical purposes identical (and Canon's 100 macro is a near-perfect lens).
Then, of course, there is the great jealousy-maker Zuiko lens, the 7-14mm. Though my 16-35L MkI is, in some aspects, sharper in certain areas of the image (and an f/2.8, of course) in all other aspects the Zuiko lens trashes any Canon wide-angle lens (including the 14mm prime) for sharp, distortion-free images across the frame. And it is so so so incredibly wide! It looks like the new Nikon 14-24 may match or exceed it, but at a huge cost and size.
I am sure we will do some more testing in the future as time allows... and post the results.
I had a chance to compare one of Canon's sharpest primes (EF 200mm f/2.8L II) with a Four/Thirds mid-range pro lens, the Zuiko 50-200mm late last year, and never posted the result.
Both were shot wide open at the same 35mm-equiv focal length (around 250mm) tripod-mounted, the Canon on a EOS-1D MkIIN (ISO200), the Zuiko on an Olympus E-3 (ISO100 - shower shutter speed acceptable because of in-body IS). We shot this just as the E-3 came out, so no RAW converter conveniently available for apple, so the zuiko shot is out-of-camera JPEG, and the Canon shot RAW processed with Aperture (no processing other than slight USM - absolutely no noise reduction or any other fiddling)
These are 100% crops centre-frame:
Canon prime on the left (at f/2.8), Zuiko zoom on the right (around f/2.9).
This was a tricky exposure, and the Canon handled it much better (the E-3 had blown the flower's sunlit reds to the point of bright orange) and I couldn't recover it because of JPEG shooting - so please ignore exposure differences.
This image proves my statement over in an E-3 post that one generally has to use Canon primes in order to get the performance of the zuiko zooms - very impressive! We did many tests, and the 200L generally outperformed the Zuiko, but to such a slight manner as to be almost insignificant.
This shot also shows the much shallower apparent DOF a near-35mm system has to the four/thirds system at the same apparent angle of view.
We also compared the Zuiko 50mm f/2.0 Macro to Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro (for taking portraits), and, again, the results were for all practical purposes identical (and Canon's 100 macro is a near-perfect lens).
Then, of course, there is the great jealousy-maker Zuiko lens, the 7-14mm. Though my 16-35L MkI is, in some aspects, sharper in certain areas of the image (and an f/2.8, of course) in all other aspects the Zuiko lens trashes any Canon wide-angle lens (including the 14mm prime) for sharp, distortion-free images across the frame. And it is so so so incredibly wide! It looks like the new Nikon 14-24 may match or exceed it, but at a huge cost and size.
I am sure we will do some more testing in the future as time allows... and post the results.