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Zuiko 40mm

guybat

guybat

[+]
Having cheap thrills at the moment with an Olympus OM-2 and Rollei Retro at 1.49E a roll home-developed in Caffenol.

But the 50mm f/1.8 is a bit narrow,and the 35mm f/2.8 a bit wide. 40mm has always seemed the perfect focal length to me, but the Zuiko 40mm f/2 seems hard to find, and often expensive. Anyone tried one? Worth the money?
 
Have never heard of it, and I was 'collecting' OM bodies and lenses for two decades.

Not at all sure it's relevant, but my lenses from 21mm, 24, 28, 35, 50, etcetera show a geometrically progressive factor increase. EG between 21 and 24 is just 2mm; between 24 and 28 is 3, then 6, then.....12 would take you to 47, which is virtually the standard lens. 40mm wouldn't fit into this admittedly haphazard formula, I feel.
 
Guy,

What are they going for if you can find one? If it's silly-money, then there's other fast 40 options. Minolta did a 40 M mount for the CLE and a 40/f1.7 in the HiMatic fixed lens RFs. Voigtlander did some 40/f2s in both M and SLR mount.

Dan
 
Lots of cheap and good ~40mm rangefinders for sure - I've still got Ian's 35RC on loan. But I love the OM and it's huge viewfinder.

Prices seem weird - if you can find one, anything up to $400 or more. Two up on ebay.co.uk at the moment, which was why I was asking - but not sure about the auctions.
 
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Why not just crop your 35mm shots a little? Isn't the required crop about the same as your viewfinder crop (the are rarely 100% on cameras of this age, and 90% or so would mean you'd see 40mm in the viewfinder with a 35mm attached).

Cesare
 
narabdela said:
By an old Olympus Trip 35.

They had an absolutely cracking 40mm 2.8 Zuiko
Click to expand...

This had me scurrying to the loft to find my old Trip; you're right, of course, and it was a very sharp lens, as I remember (though I'd forgotten the lens spec's !).
 
The Zuiko 40mm used to be known as the King of Bokeh

That bloke with the shop in Camden High street will almost certainly have one for sale.
 
as an alternative, Olympus also did a 24-48 F4 fixed maximum aperture zoom lens - that was what I used 90% of the time on my OM4, and mostly a shade in from the 48mm end.

There is also a 35-70 F3.6 lens too.

PS Lee who sometimes posts on here has a 40mm F2 which he uses on a Canon 5D
 
Tried a roll through a camera I bought for 20E on eBay, which I disliked so much on first look and feel, I forgot all about it.

It's a '70s Zeiss Ikon S 312 with a 40mm Zeiss Tessar lens, apparently the last all-German-made Zeiss.

The camera feels shite, with a wobbly lens, squinty viewfinder, and generally crap ergonomics. But the lens is wonderful - dark, gritty, and contrasty:


201107-06-08 by Guy Batey, on Flickr


201107-04-06 by Guy Batey, on Flickr

great for something-out-of-nothing shots.

[Top image replaced a bit flatter]
 
Guy,

But the lens is wonderful - dark, gritty, and contrasty
Click to expand...
Definitely.

Did you do anything unusual when processing or scanning the film? It looks high-key, as though you pushed the middle tones toward the extremes.

Joe
 
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