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17mm F1.8 Olympus lens topic
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  • I love this little lens, but I have noticed something very odd. When in normal focus mode, it focuses at a very close distance, but when in manual mode with the ring pulled back it does not focus as close. Is this just how the lens is? I wish the focus ring had a little more resistance in normal mode, but other than that I love this thing. The black metal looks so sexy too.

  • I have a Panasonic GH2 for video and some daily life photography. I want to have a nice lens kit but I'll buy it one lens at a time. I thought it's mandatory to start with a 35mm equivalent because of its versatility. After some research these were the choices I had on the table:

    • SLR Magic 17mm: lacks auto focus for my daily photography (street, parties with friends, roadtrips)

    • Voiglander 17,5mm 0,95: too expensive for my first kit, I could buy two more lenses with the spare money

    • Olympus 17mm 1.8: Fills my needs but I don't know how it performs on the GH2. For photography I'm wondering if I can switch between auto-focus and manual with the ring only. For video, I've heard about a clicking sound that many people experienced and I'm worried that it has no image stabilization. I like that it can be complemented with 12mm, 25mm, 45mm, and 75mm from the same series.

    From your experiencewhat do you think? And are there other alternatives? What are the pros and cons?

    Please HELP! Thank you.

  • @joaopeixoto:

    I personally would go for a stabilized lens. The GH2 "feeling" is quite different with a good stabilized zoom lens for example. I though that I have a completely new camera as I used it over a whole summer with the new Panasonic Power OIS 14-140mm F3.5-5.6 lens. Though: If you want something better, check out the 12-35mm F2.8 - Less jitter than the 14-140mm, constant F2.8 aperture, better dust and moisture resistance, very nice wide angle (12mm) and a stabilized lens just makes more sense on Panasonic bodies ^^.

    Didn´t use the Olympus 17mm F1.8 more intensively (just tested it in a local shop) - But it seems like it´s definitely not the best "out of the bunch". Corner / Edge sharpness seems to be way lower. And the Olympus lenses are also not fully corrected on Panasonic bodies. Beside the missing smooth "HD" aperture control on the Panasonic lenses (which the 12-35mm lens has). And the 12-35mm is also not THAT much more expensive (used), compared to the 17mm F1.8 list price (difference is about 100 to 200 bucks max. here in Europe for example). ^^

  • Thanks you @Tscheckoff!

    The problem for me is that I want something faster than 2.8. And for that price I can start considering going a bit further for the Voigtlander (even though it has no auto-focus). That's probably what I'm gonna do, wait some more time and buy some "difference-making" glass. Or even the Panasonic LX100!

    It's a shame that it doesn't behave so well on the GH2 since I loved the characteristics of this lens.

  • To be honest I also sold my GM1 about a week ago to wait for a good LX100 deal. It has a lot of pros: Good internal 4K, better image quality than the GM1 and GH2 (sensor AND lens wise), jitter free video recording, the lens is even better than the 12-35mm (image quality wise, jitter wise, aperture wise, better flare resistance and also size wise) - And also the EVF is quite nice (beside the small form factor). Quite a bargain with all it´s features. Also had to choose inbetween 12-35mm (for the GH2) or LX100 - And I think I will go for the LX100 ^^.

  • @Tscheckoff The only reason I didn't go for the LX100 is that somehow I didn't like the aspect of its image when the camera was moving, it looked a bit strange. But I was also selling all my lenses and gh2 to go for it. I sold the lenses but then I couldn't sell the GH2, I think I have feelings for it x) Meanwhile I dropped the 17mm olympus deal and luckily got a 20mm 1.7 in a very cheap deal. I'm happy about it. Now I'll keep using it and wait to see if some day it will be worth it to buy the 17,5mm voigtlander. I also think that the LX100 would be perfect for trips around the world and daily shooting, both video and photography, its a tiny powerfull monster. It all depends on one's needs I guess. But I keep recommending the LX100 to all my friends as an "everything you'll ever need" camera for their pockets.

    Good luck out there, and thank you very much once again!

  • Hey everyone,

    I'm looking for a 17mm (~35mm,35mm equiv.) night lens. I'm between this and the Voigtlander 17.5mm. I'm doing video on a GH3, I care about sharpness, barrel distortion, and chromatic aberration. How is barrel distortion, does it get corrected? How does it compare for video to Voigtlander 17.5mm? How does CA look at night? Is it sufficiently sharp wide open? Please post samples from GH3 if you have.