Olympus OM Zuiko 35-80mm F2.8 Test

In love with this lens lately so I decided to bring it along with me today for some tests.

The camera that I was using was the Sony A7RII. The lens was mounted on a K&F Concept OM-LM mount and then on a HAWK LM to E mount. The double mounting thing is weird but I like the look of it as my third party lens mount looks ugly. I have no idea if this leads to one of the issues that I will mention in the latter part of this post.

Anyways, let's get started.

Firstly, handling. The lens is slim, long and heavy. Overall it feels very good in the hands. That said though, if you hold it for a day your hand may get a little bit sore and that's what I experienced today. The lens focusing ring and zoom ring are slightly tighter than other Zuikos, meaning it has more friction when you turn the rings, so sometimes if you want very fast focusing, it's a bit difficult as it's a 2 ring operation plus the added friction. This increase in friction might be the result of having 16 elements to move.

Secondly, the look. It looks good. I particularly like the markings on the lens barrel. People look at it and wonder what lens it is. I guess most of them have no idea what lens it is. One drawback, which is also a common issue among Zuiko lenses, the barrel paint is very fragile, especially the paint on the aperture ring, they fall off easily even if you are not putting the lens on any hard surfaces. This copy came with very minute user marks but they tend to fall off even if you pamper it, so the only way is to either keep it unused, get an extra copy or use it like you don't care at all.

Thirdly, picture quality. I think as a vintage zoom lens, it's very good.

At the 35mm end

At 35mm this is pretty sharp. Zoom in, the large fonts on the top of the building is quite sharp.

One more shot for reference. Probably this was shot at F5.6.

Corner sharpness is acceptable but does have some purple fringing.

At the 80mm end

The photo is pretty sharp, I guess this was shot at again F5.6.

For a vintage zoom, I think it truly can beat some prime lenses.

Lastly, problems of this setup.

Now the lens is a manual focus lens. With the lens adapter(s) I experienced the following problems.

The HAWK adapter is a close focusing adapter, meaning it has a moving ring. So with such a heavy lens, it's difficult to move. The bigger problem, it's wobbly due to the moving ring so it affects the handling a bit. Besides, the lens' infinity focus is different at the 35mm end and the 80mm end. If you plan to shoot the street with the setup, either you always keep your eyes to the viewfinder to make sure shots are in focus. If you do zone focusing, it might be tricky as you need to adjust the infinity focus as you zoom in or zoom out.

This was shot after briefly looking into the viewfinder.

This was shot through the viewfinder as well.

Then I tried to snap and things were not in focus.

Missed this one again.

Accidentally got this one in focus.

Overall, the lens is stunning in my eyes (I know I am a bit biased) LOL

Yet, for a vintage zoom lens of this age to have such image quality, I would say it's really quite impressive.

To finish off this sharing, let me include two photos of a waterfall I shot today.

Of course, it's not fair to compare the lens with modern lenses and also they are not of the same focal range.

However, I only had these two lenses with me today so why not give it a try.

Both photos were shot handheld at 1/5 shutter speed at F22.

The first one was shot with the Zuiko 35-80mm F2.8, the second one was shot with the Canon 70-200mm F2.8 II IS.

I would say again the Zuiko has more purple fringing around the edges of the water stream, while the Canon does not.

However, the colour tone of the rock seems to be warmer compared to the cooler tone of the Zuiko.

I should have brought along my Canon 24-70mm F2.8 II to have a comparison.

So this is it. It's only a non-scientific and non-professional test. Just from my hands on experience.

Hope you like it.

Cheers!