Why choose Olympus DSLR over other brands??

[Hacker]

Is the D200 really that bad? So far, what I gathered is only that so long you shoot in good light or manage exposure well, the noise level will be acceptable for the D200... and oh, many mentioned that one should shoot RAW as well.

The newer batches are not bad (banding issues solved). As for ISO, I know that the D200 is not bad even at 1600. Most users will shoot using RAW.

 

[VR Man]

im real close to getting an olympus dslr.

now im just wondering if i can live with the high ISO noise and the 2x crop factor (i like wide angle)

then again, it seems the lenses are pretty damn good. argh...:angry:

It is not the 2x crop factor that determines how wide the lens is. Well yes and no. It is the actual effective focal length that matters.

The 7-14 on a 35mm film camera would be a 14-28mm.
The 11-22 would be a 22-44mm. The 8mm fisheye would be a 16mm fisheye.

That should be wide enough to cover the entire range of 14mm to 35mm in the 35mm format world.

I went with OLY because they are the only guys with a real wide angle lens at 14mm(35mm film camera format terms). Your Nikons have at best the AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 12-24mm* f/4G IF-ED which after a 1.6 crop factor gets you an 18-54 at a SRP of $1950. Not quite worth it when you compare to the OLY 11-22mm f2.8-3.5.

So you dont have to worry about not having the wide angles for the E-system. All the angles from 14mm onwards are covered.

As for your ISO concerns that is a different story.

 

[nightpiper]

I went with OLY because they are the only guys with a real wide angle lens at 14mm(35mm film camera format terms). Your Nikons have at best the AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 12-24mm* f/4G IF-ED which after a 1.6 crop factor gets you an 18-54 at a SRP of $1950. Not quite worth it when you compare to the OLY 11-22mm f2.8-3.5.

ur maths failed in school lah, fren... 12-24 on a 1.5x (Nikon) will give u 18-36mm FOV / on a Canon 1.6x will give u 19.2-38.4mm FOV. there's is a whole lot of diff between 18mm & 22mm, fyi. the only lens oly has to compete is the 7-14mm.

but u need to consider the perspective distortion factor, do u like it? i know Oly ZDs have very low barrel & pin cushion distortion, the perspective distortion is a diff thing altogether.

lastly, dun forget Nikon has 3rd party lens support, there's also a 10-20mm (15-30mm FOV)from sigma. lens quality aside, if u want the range, its there at a reasonable price.

 

[ykkok]

I wonder if Perspective Distortion is worse on a smaller PnS CCD that's less than 1/2.5" and yet with physical focal lenght of only 5mm to get equivalent 28mm (which is even wider than 7mm on the 7-14)

 

[Hacker]

I wonder if Perspective Distortion is worse on a smaller PnS CCD that's less than 1/2.5" and yet with physical focal lenght of only 5mm to get equivalent 28mm (which is even wider than 7mm on the 7-14)

It's the same isn't it except for the DOF.

 

[VR Man]

Pai seh pai seh :embrass:

fingers too fat lah ;p

 

[VR Man]

Nightpiper,

Is the barrel distortion visible on the 7-14? Assuming that the camera is levelled.

Thanks in advance

 

[nightpiper]

I wonder if Perspective Distortion is worse on a smaller PnS CCD that's less than 1/2.5" and yet with physical focal lenght of only 5mm to get equivalent 28mm (which is even wider than 7mm on the 7-14)

may or may not depends on the design of the lens. i have seen quite bad ones.

Is the barrel distortion visible on the 7-14? Assuming that the camera is levelled.

Thanks in advance

there will be barrel distortion but Oly has kept it very very well under control, which is not an easy feat cos of the ultra wide angle. tomcat is probably a better person to furnish u with more hands on experience cos he owns one. :devil:

 

[tomcat]

there will be barrel distortion but Oly has kept it very very well under control, which is not an easy feat cos of the ultra wide angle. tomcat is probably a better person to furnish u with more hands on experience cos he owns one. :devil:

So does Hacker

I don't see any so far... but then I'm not sensitive to barrel or pin-cushion distortions and they would have to be really obvious before I notices them. There are a lot of perspective distortion though especially at the wide end but this could be desireable for creative effects with the right subject and composition.

Those who have good eyes for barrel distortion can always go through those 7-14mm pixs that I have posted here and see if there's any that's discernible.

 

[nightpiper]

The newer batches are not bad (banding issues solved). As for ISO, I know that the D200 is not bad even at 1600. Most users will shoot using RAW.

i also thot the newer batches of D200 have the banding issue resolved untill i saw this....

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1021&message=18408835

this post was only a few days old (Vesak day) & its a newer batch. *GULP!!* suddenly an old song came to my head... "can't touch this...." MC Hammer anyone? :sweat:

(ps. there's no extreme pushing/processing the pics to see the banding like many wud think)

 

[wind30]

ur maths failed in school lah, fren... 12-24 on a 1.5x (Nikon) will give u 18-36mm FOV / on a Canon 1.6x will give u 19.2-38.4mm FOV. there's is a whole lot of diff between 18mm & 22mm, fyi. the only lens oly has to compete is the 7-14mm.

but u need to consider the perspective distortion factor, do u like it? i know Oly ZDs have very low barrel & pin cushion distortion, the perspective distortion is a diff thing altogether.

lastly, dun forget Nikon has 3rd party lens support, there's also a 10-20mm (15-30mm FOV)from sigma. lens quality aside, if u want the range, its there at a reasonable price.

Here is some pics showing distortion on the tokina 12-24mm. Taken at 12mm (18mm after crop factor)

First pic. Can you see any distortion?

Quite ok if there isn't any straight lines near the edge.


If I frame a line parallel to the edge then it is very obvious like this

Quite bad huh? One thing about olympus is that it is not that it doesn't have any distortion but the digital lens corrects them automatically digitally. There is an option in the olympus software where you can turn of the correction to see the distortion of your lens.

but still it is a 1 min work to correct it with the lens distortion filter in CS2

corrected image

Anyway this is one of the major disadvantage of olympus. They don't have a CHEAP ultra wide. When I had a 14-54mm, I wanted to go wider but there aren't many options out there. only 11-22mm is within my budget. $1+k to go from 28mm to 22mm.... The tokina cost me like $860 with 2 years warranty... Olympus should make a cheap 9-18mm f4-f5.6 for like $800. The market for such a lens will be quite big. esp with the auto distortion correction they have built in, their ultra wides will beat very other competitor. Coupled with the 18-180mm lens, you have 9mm-180mm range at a very affordable price.

 

[tao]

Anyway this is one of the major disadvantage of olympus. They don't have a CHEAP ultra wide. When I had a 14-54mm, I wanted to go wider but there aren't many options out there. only 11-22mm is within my budget. $1+k to go from 28mm to 22mm.... The tokina cost me like $860 with 2 years warranty... Olympus should make a cheap 9-18mm f4-f5.6 for like $800. The market for such a lens will be quite big. esp with the auto distortion correction they have built in, their ultra wides will beat very other competitor. Coupled with the 18-180mm lens, you have 9mm-180mm range at a very affordable price.

Cheap thing no good, my friend.

Also, I want to say that the ultra wides from Olympus, even without the inbuilt body correction, are inherently very distortion free and optically superior to any wide angle zoom lens I have seen in the market. If you have ever used the 11-22mm, you will know what I mean. Barrel distortion is almost non-existent throughout its entire FOV and you are right on that... with the in-camera processing, that little bit of barrel distortion virtually disappears. Also, based on usage, at 11mm, I find its equivalent FOV 20mm and that is probably because of the 4/3 image ratio.

If you have tried out the 7-14mm, that lens is plain amazing, virtually no barrel distortion at all throughout the range, unbelievable and no need for software correction at all. That is reflected by its price, of course.

Considering that the Tokina already costs you $860, if I am you, I will rather top up another $150 and get the 11-22mm in view of the superior optics... of course, we cannot really debate on this as it really depends on the camera mount you are using. But I can bet that it is not the price of Olympus' lenses that make you switch to Nikon. That is another discussion altogether.

 

[VR Man]

Buy it cheap, buy it twice.

Try www.kekus.com or PTMac for barrel distortion corrections.

I miss using my friend's Zeiss 15mm T* Distagon. That is one super piece of wide angle lens. BTW, anyone tried the new Zeiss ZM lens on the E-system bodies?

 

[ch5800]

Buy it cheap, buy it twice.

Sound so familiar

It is human nature that we like to have more choice, it doesn't matter the quality of those choices. Everyone has their own scale of price vs quality vs usage

Not having a CHEAP xxx (cheaper by $150) is definitely Not a disadvantage of Oly, but it can be a turn off for people who are looking for choice. Good thing is C&N is also there.

For me, I rather see that Oly sell more lens and their price can come down and Oly SG can offer some pricing similar to US. Maybe is a fat hope unless got more 3rd party to develop 4/3 lens to put in a bit of competition directly at lens choice.

 

[totoro17]

Advantage:focus length multiplier 2x , taking advantage to shooting long distance ;everything x2,example 50-200mm lens, become 100mm-400mm distance....Canon and nikon are 1.5x, not sure! ;someone can correct me!

limitation: can't not take preset WB with HoYA R72 infra red filter :cry: only use software to adjust WB (E-500 model, not sure other model)

whats WB?

 

[Hacker]

whats WB?

White Balance.

 

[totoro17]

White Balance.

can explain more about that? first time i hear...hope u dun mind...

 

[drakon09]

Huh, this thread got revived?

 

[harmony]

can explain more about that? first time i hear...hope u dun mind...

You can try this Olympus Digital School. In there are two chapters on White Balance.