Olympus M.Zuiko 14-42mm - Soft images?

Donnie

Donnie

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Just converted to m4/3 and love it, have the OMDEM10 Mark 1 which came with the kit lens and I quickly snapped up a 40-150 too off ebay for less than £40.

Have been going out a few times this last week or two and the other night was messing with some images from one particular day where id used both lenses and noted on 100% crop that the 14-42 seems a bit soft etc whereas the 40-150 is superb.

Are all the kit 14-42's just a bit amateurish in their rendering or do i have a duff copy I wonder?
 
Donnie said:
Just converted to m4/3 and love it, have the OMDEM10 Mark 1 which came with the kit lens and I quickly snapped up a 40-150 too off ebay for less than £40.

Have been going out a few times this last week or two and the other night was messing with some images from one particular day where id used both lenses and noted on 100% crop that the 14-42 seems a bit soft etc whereas the 40-150 is superb.

Are all the kit 14-42's just a bit amateurish in their rendering or do i have a duff copy I wonder?
Click to expand...

I can't speak for the Olympus versions of these lenses, but I have the Panasonic 14-42mm mk II kit lens and it is absolutely superb.

Simon.
 
I think this will depend on how picky the individual is. I was never 100% happy with my 14-42mm EZ (Pancake) as thought it was a bit soft, but others couldn't see it in my images. I tried the Panny 12-32mm Pancake and thought that was better (although AF wasn't as snappy at the long end). I now have the 12-40mm f2.8 which is the best of the bunch, although imo it's still softer than I was expecting wide open.
 
Donnie said:
Just converted to m4/3 and love it, have the OMDEM10 Mark 1 which came with the kit lens and I quickly snapped up a 40-150 too off ebay for less than £40.

Have been going out a few times this last week or two and the other night was messing with some images from one particular day where id used both lenses and noted on 100% crop that the 14-42 seems a bit soft etc whereas the 40-150 is superb.

Are all the kit 14-42's just a bit amateurish in their rendering or do i have a duff copy I wonder?
Click to expand...
ROTFL (is there a smiley for this??)
I can help.
Which kind of Olympus 14-42 do you have? That's the first question,
meaning : the power-extending "EZ" 14-42 pancake is sometimes a soft example and that's just bad luck.
The manually-extending collapsible 14-42 is usually good and sharp, with only the occasional shutter-shock softness at certain shutter speeds.
Posting an example of a soft frame will let us know.

There are alternatives which are almost always sharp but are either older (Lumix 14-45) so not trendy, or Snerkler's 12-40 pro which is expensive.

There is also ... a humungously cheap OLD 14-42MkI which you might find for cheapo price on e-bay and which might solve your problem ;)
 
Ulfric M Douglas said:
ROTFL (is there a smiley for this??)
I can help.
Which kind of Olympus 14-42 do you have? That's the first question,
meaning : the power-extending "EZ" 14-42 pancake is sometimes a soft example and that's just bad luck.
The manually-extending collapsible 14-42 is usually good and sharp, with only the occasional shutter-shock softness at certain shutter speeds.
Posting an example of a soft frame will let us know.

There are alternatives which are almost always sharp but are either older (Lumix 14-45) so not trendy, or Snerkler's 12-40 pro which is expensive.

There is also ... a humungously cheap OLD 14-42MkI which you might find for cheapo price on e-bay and which might solve your problem ;)
Click to expand...
I've had the pancake 14-42mm and the predecessor, both were as sharp as each other but neither I would call sharp, nor amateurish, they were adequate ;)
 
I had the 14-42 with my em10 and it was fine. Ok, it's not "prime sharp" but it did the job well enough and wasn't what I'd describe as soft
 
Donnie said:
... yeah its the collapsible manual extending one, not the pancake.
Click to expand...
I would assume in that case you have a soft example of a usually sharp lens,
although as you have found, a sharp 40-150mm can be really really good!

(buy a Lumix 14-45 if you can get one cheaply)
 
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