Some thoughts on ergonomics.

In Part I I looked at some of the design aspects of the Olympus 9-18mm MFT lens for the Panasonic G1. My Olympus 9-18mm MFT lens duly arrived on schedule, Bert the Border Terrier viciously attacked the UPS person (always a fun time) – and I have had a chance to try it on the G1. My first impressions relating to fit, finish and ergonomics follow.

Size and weight:

Collapsed the lens is smaller and lighter than the excellent 14-45mm kit lens. (Note: For Full Frame Equivalent focal lengths simply double what you see here, making the kit lens 28-90mm, etc.) The first thing I did was to attach a good quality B+W F-Pro UV-Haze filter for protection, identical to the one used on my 14-45 and 45-200 Panny lenses. I can confirm that there is no trace of corner vignetting even with the 9-18mm at its widest setting of 9mm.

Shutter interlock:

I rambled on about collapsible lenses in Part I and the bottom line is I do not like them. The Olympus is a collapsible lens. However, the maker has done a fine job of designing the collapsing feature. Attach the collapsed 9-18mm to a switched on G1 (no need to turn it off) and you get the “Please check that the lens is attached correctly” message. Press the shutter release and nothing happens. Now turn the zoom ring, which is very smooth (unlike the stinker on the 14-45mm) counterclockwise (anti-clockwise to our former oppressors in the UK) and you will feel a gentle click and the viewfinder of the G1 comes to life. There’s no need to depress the release catch on the barrel – just turn the zoom ring. For that matter, when extending the barrel you can simply pull it out by hand and give the zoom ring a slight tweak to lock it. The only time you do have to slide the release button forward is when you wish to collapse the lens for storage, which requires that you turn the zoom ring clockwise all the way – clockwise as viewed from the rear of the camera or by simply pushing the barrel in with the catch depressed.

Zooming:

Zooming is the opposite to that adopted by my two other Panny lenses (14-45mm and 45-200mm), meaning wide is clockwise and telephoto is counterclockwise. That will take some getting used to! Of the three lenses, the Olympus has the smoothest zoom action – you can operate the zoom ring easily with one finger, useful for street snapping. No way you do this with the gritty zoom ring of the 14-45mm and the 45-200mm is best held from below when zooming. The latter’s zoom ring is very smooth though it tightens up noticeably at 160-200mm. The Olympus is longest at 9mm and shortest around 15mm, extending a little from 15-18mm. The wonders of modern optics seem to have turned everything on its head.

Lens caps:

I hate lens caps and never use front ones, replacing them with a UV filter for protection. The rear is a matter of lens design. The 45-200mm needs no rear cap as the glass is always well recessed at any focal length. The 14-45mm does need a rear cap for while the glass is well recessed at 45mm you will likely put it away at 14mm and the rear elements are very exposed. The 9-18mm is a mixed bag. If you are prepared to store it extended the rear element is most exposed at 9mm but not especially so. At 18mm it is well recessed. No rear cap needed. However, once collapsed the rear element is every bit as exposed as that of the 14-45mm at 14mm and a rear cap makes sense. My inclination is to carry the 9-18mm non-collapsed for that reason and for the reason that all that collapsing and extending just results in wear. In that configuration a three lens outfit needs just one rear lens cap – for the 14-45mm. when it’s not on the camera. I like that. In no case does any of the three have a rear element which protrudes beyond the lens flange, so standing any of these lenses on a flat surface will not damage the rear glass.

Size in practice:

Why would you keep the 9-18mm extended at all times? Take a look – there’s little difference in size when it’s at 18mm from the 14-45mm and a little more at 9mm.

The Olympus lens at 18mm.

The Olympus lens at 9mm – its largest physical size.

Clearly it’s a practical answer to simply keep the Olympus in your bag set to 18mm and forget all the collapsing/extending nonsense.

Auto focusing:

Like the other two, the lens is near dead silent when autofocusing. Rather oddly it seems to ‘bounce’ beyond the focus point then comes back a bit and while that’s unnerving at first it’s also very fast and after a few frames you forget about it. Subjectively it’s marginally slower to lock on than the 14-45mm but the difference is minimal in practice. The 45-200mm is slower than both and has that disconcerting habit (which it shares with the Canon 100mm EF Macro at close focus distances) of going the wrong way through the focus range now and then before locking on. But I’m prepared to forgive that wonder lens this occasional quirk in exchange for a pocketable 400mm FFE optic. Thanks to the magic of the EVF it doesn’t matter what the lens aperture is or how poorly lit the subject. The EVF will make the subject equally bright under all conditions, even with the lens stopped down to check depth of field. Magic. So the modest f/4-f/5.6 (at the long end) aperture of the Olympus lens is simply not an issue. Sure, there’s no anti-shake technology unlike on the two Panny lenses, but this is a really wide lens – it’s hard to get camera blur at these wide angles. Use this lens on an Olympus MFT body and you benefit from the in-body anti-shake technology, if that’s important to you.

Indexing:

Only two manufacturers have ever got indexing of lenses right, in my opinion. Leica and Pentax. Both adopted a really large hemisphere of plastic (red on Leica lenses, white on Pentax’s) which you could feel even with gloved hands. Knowing from memory where the related dot was on the bayonet flange on the body of the camera, changing lenses by feel was a dream. You did not have to look. No way you are going to do this with the G1. Sure Panny thoughtfully provided indexing plastic blobs on its lenses but they are so small and hidden behind a flange on the rear of the lens as to be useless. Olympus’s approach is even worse and consistent with their earlier designs. They use a recessed red paint-filled index marker and the only way you are going to use that is by looking hard for it when mounting the lens on the body. Shame. A one cent piece of glued-on plastic could fix this so easily. It’s just lousy design thinking. You can clearly see the issue in the above pictures.

Fit and finish:

(i) Focus ring: The only time you need touch the focus ring is when focusing manually. Like with the two Pannys, the focus ring has no stops and is dead smooth. Set the G1 up right and apply a first pressure to the shutter release and you have what is easily the best high precision manual focusing system on the planet. Even with the camera on autofocus, as soon as the focus ring is turned the image in the EVF is greatly magnified and the lens switches to manual focus. And it’s really, really critical manual focus, owing to the magnification. Let go of the shutter release and the picture returns to normal size.

Now you really do not need this with a lens as wide as the 9-18mm which is very tolerant of focusing errors, but with, say, a macro, it’s a killer feature.

The Olympus uses a scalloped alloy zoom ring whereas the Panasonic lenses use rubberized grips. There’s no difference in practice but 35 years with Leicas make me a huge fan of the elegant scalloped design compared to the utilitarian rubber version. Sadly, Leica dropped that design when the accountants took over but Oly is sticking with it. Nice.

(ii) Feel: The lens is exceptionally light but nothing about it feels cheap.Some have accused it of feeling ‘plasticky’ which is meaningless to me. It feels fine. What did you expect? Stainless steel and brass in a 5.5 ounce ultra-compact optic? These people probably expect a Porsche 911 Turbo to deliver 100mpg too.

(iii) Wobble: All lenses with extensible mounts, be they zoom or collapsible, exhibit wobble. Grasp the front of the lens and you can feel it move from side to side as you work it. That was true of my Leica collapsible lenses, is true of the 24-105mm L zoom for the Canon 5D and is true of all three lenses for my G1. So here are my subjective ‘wobble’ evaluations, with each lens set to its longest dimensions:

• 45-200: – very, very slight. No impact on definition.
• 14-45: – very slight. No impact on definition.
• 9-18: – same as for the 14-45.

(iv) Does the Olympus lens coexist with a Panasonic body?

I have encountered no issues with the use of the Olympus lens on my Panasonic G1 body. Except for the zoom ring turning the other way all camera functions are unchanged. Actually, I did have rather a funny thing happen when first looking through the EVF (I never use the LCD screen, considering it one of man’s worst inventions). Every time I focused by taking a first pressure on the shutter release the image would continue to wobble. Wait a minute, I said to the resident Border Terrier. What gives? I haven’t been close to the hard stuff in weeks and it’s only early afternoon. Even at my age I don’t wobble that early in the day. So I tried the two Panny lenses and there it was again. Everything wobbled after focus was achieved. Well, a quick check disclosed that I had accidentally moved the top left dial on the G1 from AFS (single point focus) to AFC (continuous focus) and what I was seeing was the lens hunting in modest internal light as it oscillated about the optimal focus point. Phew! Switching the dial back to AFS (Panny really needs to make the clicks stronger) all was well again.

None of the lenses discloses any discernible fit issues at the lens flange end.

Firmware:

My G1 is on firmware v1.5 (current version) and the Olympus is 1.0. At this time there are no firmware updates for the Olympus lens – the one out there is for the non-MFT similar spec lens.

So that’s about it for the ergonomics.

In Part III I show some pictures taken with the Olympus lens and comment on the optical performance in real life. If you want test charts, go elsewhere. I use my camera to take pictures, not test charts.

One final thought. Here’s my global travel outfit – total weight 4 lbs. Isn’t technology wonderful?

G1 kit and friends.

The current range of Micro Four-Thirds lenses appears below, with the ones I own circled in red. Using regular Four Thirds or even larger APS-C or full frame DSLR lenses denies the concept of the MFT system and makes no sense to me, generally sacrificing automation and adding bulk. If you need them, use them on the bodies they were designed for.

A new addition to my G1 kit.

I confess that when I first bought the Panasonic G1 a year ago it was with the sole intention of dedicating it to occasional street snapping forays. Small, inexpensive, light, fast and quiet with a killer kit lens, it offers everything a street maven requires. For ‘serious’ photography there was no question in my mind that my Canon 5D with its battery of lenses and accessories would continue to be the ‘go to’ hardware.

That scenario is increasingly being disproved, as I find that the 5D molders in its gargantuan kit bag while the petite G1 accompanies me everywhere. And the only good camera is the one you have with you.

A trio of discoveries has brought about this turn of events.

First, I added the compact Panasonic 45-200mm zoom. This immediately showed itself to be a superb performer at all focal lengths and apertures but, startlingly, offered the possibility of a pocketable 400mm (Full Frame Equivalent) monster lens without the weight and bulk of anything similar for a full frame body. Add built-in anti-shake technology and you have a compelling argument for the Micro Four-Thirds concept.

Second, I’m out of wall space for huge prints and I have done my big-print-one-man-show thing, so the need for pin sharp definition at big enlargement ratios is no more.

Third, the increasing affordability of big display canvases, also known as flat screen TVs, obsoletes the big, static print in much the same way that the iPod obsoleted the CD, and Netflix On Demand movie streaming is obsoleting space- and capital-wasting DVD collections. And given that the quality delivered by even a modest $150 point-and-shoot digital is more than adequate for display on a 40″ TV screen, the desire for the level of resolution that has made pixel peeping a favorite pastime – for those equipment fetishists incapable of taking a good photograph – makes no sense. And if you want an even better display medium than your TV, try the iPad’s 10″ screen. It’s the perfect venue for photo eBooks as my several recent examples here illustrate and is a whole lot nicer to ‘read’ than a computer screen.

This is a long winded way of saying that the 5D’s days are likely numbered chez Pindelski. Click on categories->photography->technique->ebooks in the right hand column above to see what I’m going on about, and do make sure to upload these files to your iPad. Most of these snaps were taken on the Panasonic G1. A few dozen snaps well displayed on a small screen beat one huge static print on the wall. And the latter not only takes huge amounts of time, cash and equipment to create, it also gets boring really fast. There are simply too many images I want to show to remain content with a static wall print.

So while I have been a huge fan of the big print for as long as I can remember, I do think its days are numbered. Times change. Change or die.

All of which brings me round to the topic of today’s column, the newest addition to my G1 kit.

Olympus 9-18mm MFT lens for the G1. Image from DPReview.

My hot little hands await in glee.

I expect to have this little wonder in my hands today, but if you want to read the geeky stuff about how it performs there’s no better place to do so than at DP Review which has done an excellent job of reducing the myriad tables and measurements which technical reviews generally present into a single, sophisticated, interactive chart. (You cannot see the chart on an iPad as it uses Flash, so use a laptop or whatever). Interestingly their charts show that in almost all respects, regardless of focal length, the lens performs better at large apertures. I suspect that, with the small physical size of the diaphragm, diffraction effects are hurting definition at smaller apertures.

I’m no great fan of lens test charts, goodness knows, but DPR’s work does at least offer the comforting assurance that my money hasn’t been blown on a dog.

Here’s what this little charmer ran me at B&H PhotoVideo – I splurged on a costly B+W filter because the same one works well on my two G1 lenses and on two day shipping as it was dirt cheap:

The only competition in the super-wide zoom category is Panny’s 7-14mm which, while optically outstanding by all accounts, costs almost twice as much, cannot accept a protective filter owing to its bulbous front element and is a tad bulkier. The filter thing is important to me as I refuse to use lens caps which are just one more impediment to getting a lens into action and because our eight year old is increasingly getting into photography but still has the uncanny ability of sticking his grubby fingers into a front lens element at a moment’s notice!

Of course, let’s not forget the collapsible part of the Oly’s design, and I do not mean that is a good thing. To make the lens usable you have to press a button and extend the barrel. This increases the bulk of the lens, though that’s not so bad a thing.

It can still be made much smaller for storage when collapsed as there is no rear protrusion, but it does mean one more thing to do to make the lens usable and suggests another thing to wear and go wrong in the long run. I have had more experience with collapsible lenses than most, having grown up with two Leica 50mm Elmars and one 50mm Leica Summicron in collapsible mounts for my Leica M bodies, but the collapsible feature of these was simply poor design. You see, when the lens was ‘collapsed’ what formerly stuck out in front now stuck out in back. The overall size of the lens barely changed! Leica’s design dicate was that, as long as you kept the lens on the body of the camera, things did in fact get smaller as the absence of a reflex mirror permitted retraction of the lens barrel into the camera’s innards. True. But, once you took the lens off, the design made no sense. And, by the way, if you forgot to extend the lens it was perfectly easy to take a bunch of out of focus blobs in lieu of pictures as there was no shutter interlock. A solution looking for a problem.

The poorly designed Elmar – as big collapsed as open.

The Oly avoids this issue as the above picture shows, the whole of the extensible optics portion being housed in the existing space of the focus unit.

The Oly lacks one other thing compared with the Panny 7-14 (neither has anti-shake). Width. Meaning the Olympus at its widest has a focal length of 18mm (FFE) whereas the Panny is considerably wider at 14mm. Flashing back to my Leica days again, I remember when all we impoverished Leica M users lusted after the seemingly impossibly wide 21mm Super Angulon, later the 21mm Elmarit. Lust was the emotion of the day as it comes into play any time you want something that’s more than you can afford. (Women, Ferraris, Leicas, you get the idea). When you did eventually get the coin together for the 21mm SA you also had to blow an additional egregious amount on a simply lousy clip on viewfinder as the Leica M’s built-in finder could at best go to 35mm or, later, 28mm at a stretch, and that was solely for those who did not wear glasses.

But 21mm was really wide and remains so for me to this day.

A simple test of how wide is wide is to question how often you find yourself cropping those ultra-wide snaps when processing. If it’s more often than not, then you do not need something that wide. However, I’m consoling myself here. 14mm is nicer to have than 18mm but the trade-offs in expense, bulk and weight allow me to rationalize in favor of the Olympus lens.

One final point. With three lenses in my G1 kit I have an FFE range of 18-400mm. And just look at the weight of these optics:

• 9-18mm – 5.5 ounces
• 14-45mm – 6.9 ounces
• 45-200mm – 13.4 ounces

So a total of 1.6lbs. – the same as an iPad – for a focal length range one would have dreamt of a few years back. That’s what MFT is all about and you can bet on one thing. Sensor technology will continue to improve so that, before we know it, the MFT body of tomorrow will be equal in resolving power to the 5D of today. And the need (as opposed to desire) for anything greater is limited to 0.01% of the world’s working professionals.

In Part II I look at the ergonomic aspects of this interesting optic.