Olympus 50-200 SWD versus Pental 50-135 DA

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dharty

Active member
Hello,

I had posted questions about both these lens and now have both in my studio and can offer a few observations about their use on the AF100:

1. The olympus (995 g) needs support. You can see it visibly stress the Panasonic adapter. If you hold the camera, you can actually move the lens slightly up and down on the Panasonic adapter mount. The Pentax lens (665 g) on the Novoflex MFT/pent mount is very solid with no movement. I would be comfortable using it with no support. The Pentax does not increase in length when zooming; the Olympus expands to 9.5" with the mount.

2. The Pentax and Novoflex combo has no communication with the camera, so you must set the aperture and focus manually. The Novoflex aperture ring rotates only about 1/2" from full open to full stopped down, which makes it difficult to set a small change in aperture., and, no f/stop is displayed in the camera or on the lens.

3. The Olympus communicates with the camera and so aperture is easily and accurately set with the camera dial and the f/stop is displayed. The lens works only with manual focus, though my 14-54 works with the Push Auto Focus button.

4. Both lens focus equally well manually.

5. Both lens seem to very well made, though I would guess the extra 300 g of weight in the Olympus is contributing to build quality in some way.

Hope this helps for those considering either of these two lens.

Drew Harty
 
The Olympus lens should work with push AF, 14-35, 35-100 do so .
 
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Yeah I was planning on buying the 50-200 SWD specifically because it had some ability to use the PUSH-AUTO button. Can you confirm that your doing things correctly but the lens still doesn't work? That's a bummer if so.

Also what is a cheap, light, good way to support the lens?
 
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nugat said:
The Olympus lens should work with push AF, 14-35, 35-100 do so .
Click to expand...

The Push AF works on my Olympus 14-54 as well, but with the 50-200 attached, "Manual Focus Only" displays when I press the AF button, whether the camera is set at Auto or Manual focus.
 
Nityananda_SCSMath said:
Yeah I was planning on buying the 50-200 SWD specifically because it had some ability to use the PUSH-AUTO button. Can you confirm that your doing things correctly but the lens still doesn't work? That's a bummer if so.

Also what is a cheap, light, good way to support the lens?
Click to expand...

I don't mind the PUSH AF not working with the 50-200 because it is much quicker to focus the lens manually with the Red Highlights option selected. With my Olympus 14-54 or my micro four thirds Panasonic 20mm 1.7 or 100mm 2.8, I find the PUSH AF to be very, very slow.

I purchased the Cavison RS-15IIM support. It's not nearly the quality of the Zacuto support, but for $165 it is solid and well made, and there are many accessories that can be added. With only a slight adjustment, the 50-200 tripod collar will sit flat one the front rod clamp and be well supported. It also balances the camera well with the 50-200 lens on and my Carrion monitor attached to the camera top handle.

Drew
 
I picked up the 50-200 and a 15 mm Century lens slider bracket ($70)

Also Shape Wlb makes a great shoulder rig
 
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