User reprt: the Olympus 50-200 SWD lens...

[Razr]

There is no doubt that the new Olympus SWD lenses are very fast and accurate at focusing. Of course any mention of these lenses always goes hand in hand with the professional E-3 body.

I have to tell you though that having really great success with the 12-60 on my E-510, I was eager to see how the newer 50-200 SWD would fair on the same E-510 camera body. Boy - what I in for a pleasant surprise.

Last week, I took my E-3 in to the camera shop to give the 50-200 SWD a test run to see if it could live up to replacing my 80-200 f2.8 for my Nikon D200 - - - or if it would be as so many web posts seem to imply, that there is no way to get creamy smooth backgrounds and ultra fast auto focus with the four thirds system because of it's small sensor size resulting in greater depth of field for any lens put in front of it.

On all counts, I found these comments to be unfounded and indeed I could have focus that was razor thin, very fast auto focus when moving from a distant target to a close one, and extremely detailed and sharp images wide open at even the longest focal lengths. At least good enough to suit my own standards - which is to sell quality printed images to my clients.

I also found the feel and handling ability of the 50-200 SWD to be superior to the 80-200 / D200 combination - with the former being very balanced and hand holdable, while the later was is long and front heavy and works best on a monopod.

While image quality was excellent, 2 things that were missing with the 80-200 f2.8 Nikkor were fast auto focus and image stabilization. In order to have those advantages, I would have to fork out $1000 more for the 70-200 VR. With the 50-200 SWD, I have very fast auto focus and image stabilization as a result of that being built into the camera body - - - all for roughly the same price as the Nikkor 80-200.
http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=27287

A user who bought the lens who is satified enough with the lens and E510 body he laid down his Nikon.

[jekostas]

That is an interesting damned post... from reading it, I think he found what a lot of people are starting to find with the Olympus lenses - they perform incredibly well, even though they're routinely much, much smaller than the competition.

Actually, I think Dpreview but it best at the end of the Digital Zuiko ED 12-60mm 1:2.8-4.0 SWD review:



Olympus were in a unique position when entering the digital SLR market; with no legacy 35mm autofocus mount, they were free (or depending upon your point of view, forced) to design a whole new system from scratch. Their chosen solution was to use a relatively small sensor size coupled with highly telecentric lenses, and their subsequent marketing has tended to emphasize the potential size and weight advantage of the E system. However this advantage only appears with relatively few of their lenses, most notably the long telephotos, and for most users the difference is marginal at best. And slightly perversely this marketing approach has tended to obscure a more telling benefit; Olympus appear mainly to have taken advantage of the Four Thirds sensor to deliver lenses which, for any given size, weight and cost, simply perform to a higher and more consistent standard than those optimized for larger formats, with the 12-60mm being a prime example.

Size really becomes telling once you get into zooms, and coupled with the quality of the new Olympus glass, the Four/Thirds system is really coming into it's own.