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Zuiko Silvernose 50 f/1.4 Vs Zuiko "Made in Japan" 50 f/1.8 Vs Canon EF 50 f/1.8 Vs Zuiko 28 f/2.8

So, recently I ended up having loads of spare time on my hands and thought about setting up a small project to keep me busy. I purchased an OM-to-EOS adapter and decided to put 4 lenses to a test. The Silvernose Zuiko 50 f/1.4, the "Made in Japan" Zuiko 50 f/1.8, the Zuiko 28 f/2.8 and the Canon EOS EF 50 f/1.8 . And this is what I did:

The set up
The idea is this: No lens test is ever valid/complete without taking pictures of newspapers on walls. Living my photographic life by that motto, I went along and put some newspaper on the wall, mounted the camera on a tripod and positioned it in a distance of 3 meters away. The camera (Canon EOS 10D) is a 6 megapixel camera, set up to fine quality JPEG and ISO 100. For focusing
The main setup
I used the camera's electronic focus confirmation with the Zuikos and AF with the Canon. The camera was set on aperture priority. For the 28mm lens, I moved the camera forward so that the newspaper occupy the same percentage of the picture as with the 50mm lenses. Not terribly scientific but good enough to give an indication. I took a shot with every lens on every aperture and compiled them together in one picture. I also took two pictures with all the lenses, the pictures of the dandelion flower. I used these as a high contrast scene, one with the dandelion in the centre and one at the corner of the frame at two different apertures - wide open and at f/4. These pictures were taken with the camera handheld.
All pictures are jpeg's taken straight out of the camera without any post-processing. I used GIMP to put them together and saved the pictures as a high quality (100%) jpg. So here is what I found out...

Centre of the frame
f/1.4 : The Silvernose 50 f/1.4 is soft in the centre and has a glow. Despite this, it is better than the rest :)
f/1.8 : At f/1.8, the Silvernose has sharpen up and performs better than the other two 50mm lenses. The "Made in Japan" ("MIJ" from now on on this review) appears sharper than the Canon by quite a lot!
f/2.8: The Zuikos are still ahead of the Canon. The multicoated lenses produce higher contrast than the Silvernose - the Silvernose seems to still have a slight glow - but by looking on the jpgs, the Silvernose records just as much detail (if not more actually).
f/4 : Eventually the Canon has started catching up with the Zuikos. The glow from the Silvernose seems to die down at f/4 and records good contrast (see the dandelion picture).
f/5.6 - f/11 : Very little difference between the lenses. You wouldn't be able to say which one is which.

Corner of the frame
This is interesting stuff. Have a look.
 f/1.4 : The Silvernose 50 f/1.4 is blurry at the corner of the frame but still you have the option of the f/1.4.
f/1.8 : The Silvernose started sharpening up. MIJ is just as blurry as the Silvernose was at f/1.4. The Canon is a mess.
f/2.8: Just look at how much the Silvernose improved (!), the MIJ is getting better, the 28mm is good, Canon is still a mess (how disappointing...)
f/4 : The silvernose is still ahead in terms of sharpness. MIJ has started catching up, the 28mm is good, the Canon keeps trying ....
f/5.6 : The rest Zuikos have caught up with the Silvernose. Canon is still not there yet...
f/8 - f/11 : At last, Canon caught up with the rest. All lenses perform just as well.

Conclusions
I have to say that I was so surprised with the Canon's performance. For a modern multicoated lens, I had high hopes. I have to say thought that I have been using this lens for 5 years now and I cannot complain much about its performance in "real life". As we all expected, all multicoated lenses produced better contrast than the Silvernose which is single coated. My suggestion would be to use a lens hood with this lens and try shooting b&w film.
I wish I had kept the older F.Zuiko 50 f/1.8 version (single coated) to compare with the other two. If I come across another, I will update this post.

So, in a nutshell:
  • Zuiko Silvernose 50 f/1.4: I was so pleasantly surprised by this lens. It has a reputation of a "soft lens" but comparing it to the newer "Made In Japan" 50 f/1.8, soft doesn't mean less detail. The Silvernose seems to be more consistent than the rest with very good sharpness across the whole frame. In open apertures and up to f/4 this is probably the sharper lens - or just as sharp as the "Made In Japan" 50 f/1.8 I own. The Silvernose seems to be the star of this test.
  • Zuiko 50 f/1.8 "Made In Japan": I didn't learn anything that I didn't know already about this lens. It is probably one of the best value-for-money lenses around. Has excellent contrast and resolves a lot of detail. For £25 it is a must-have lens for Olympians (and not only). Another good news is that they seem to be plentiful - be mindful of the sticky aperture (read my previous post on Zuiko lenses <here> for ideas). If you have one, stick with it, the f/1.4 has nothing more to offer if you do not need the extra half stop.
  • Canon EOS EF 50 f/1.8: So disappointed with this one. This used to be my benchmark lens. I am wondering if anything went wrong here. AF problems? (although the pictures do not seem to be mis-focused. Just soft!)
  • Zuiko 28 f/2.8: Came out of nowhere and gave a fantastic performance. Sharp wide open, gets even better once stopped down. I was very pleasantly surprised with its performance, probably the sharpest 28mm I ever had (and I had quite a few). Top notch!
 A few test shots

Silvernose at f/1.4 (Click for bigger size)
Zuiko 28 f/2.8 at f/5.6 (Click for bigger size)

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