Olympus E-M1 Mk.II and MZD 12-40/2.8

Image Samples: Crofton Lake

Swapper
My other articles related to the Olympus OM-D System.

Back to E-M1 Mk.II Lens Fest, Part 1

12 mm | 25 mm | 40 mm

Update of July, 2018: Added samples for F/16 and F/22; retrofitted with Swapper.

F = 12 mm

12 mm

F/2.8

F/4.0

F/5.6

F/8.0

F/11

F/16

F/22

This is a premium lens, and it shows. It is tack-sharp fully open at center and very close at far sides (nothing of interest in corners, sorry!). There is not much space for improvement, but stopping down to F/4 makes the center just a tad sharper and brings the sides to the same level. Things stay this way all the way to F/11, where some softening due to diffraction is visible, to become quite bad at F/16.

At F/2.8 some light fall-off (vignetting) can be seen in corners, disappearing at F/4. It is, however, quite moderate and the camera can fix this (I just have this option inactive for testing and samples).

A close look at the branches in the top-left corner shows no traces of chromatic aberration or purple fringing. I believe this can be (and is) addressed at the stage of raw-to-RGB conversion, so it becomes a non-issue in newer cameras.

The same branches show some sharpening artifacts of the common "bounce" type. One more reason to dial sharpening down by a notch, even in a camera as advanced as this one.

Back to E-M1 Mk.II Lens Fest, Part 1

F = 25 mm

25 mm

F/2.8

F/4.0

F/5.6

F/8.0

F/11

F/16

F/22

Same impression as above; the difference between the first two apertures seems to be in local contrast rather than resolution. The sides become a little bit sharper at F/4, but this is just for the record, the differences are really hard to see.

Diffraction effects, again, spoil the party starting around F/11.

Back to E-M1 Mk.II Lens Fest, Part 1

F = 40 mm

40 mm

F/2.8

F/4.0

F/5.6

F/8.0

F/11

F/16

F/22 <--->

At this focal length the pattern repeats itself, except that the slight loss of sharpness at F/2.8 is somewhat more visible, especially in corners. There is not enough of it, however, to start avoiding this aperture.

Back to E-M1 Mk.II Lens Fest, Part 1


My other articles related to the Olympus OM-D System.

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Posted 2017/04/01; last updated 2018/07/23 Copyright © 2017 by J. Andrzej Wrotniak