Customer Reviews

Olympus 17mm f/2.8 Lens

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is small lens. That's its main claim to fame, not the speed at f2.8, nor the focal length, the equivalent of about 35mm in 35mm photography. But on the small Olympus PEN body, this lens gives you a small package that takes quite good pictures without messing around with a zoom. In particular, it works well as a walking-around street camera, much like an old Leica or a Canon rangefinder of the 1950s/1960s. (See also the optical viewfinder which has image lines specifically for this 17mm lens.)

I tried this package out, camera, lens, and viewfinder, and got a good number of excellent images walking through crowds of people downtown. It's wide enough to catch people in their immediate environment. The camera is unobtrusive and really helped with the casual picture taking. I'd strongly recommend the setup to folks looking for a forgiving digital imaging setup with modern features but much of the ease of handling and casual ability of old rangefinders (without having to focus of course).

1. I should technically give this lens a 4 star, just because 5 stars should be reserved those extraordinary lens (ex: Zeiss Distagon 21mm 2.8).

2. With that being said, I just like this lens: it's light, it's obviously small, and it's a no brainer for all EP-1 /2 users to have this lens (or the panasonic pancake). Even though I have the 14-42mm kit lens, it's just... fun to slap this lens on the EP-1 and take shots. One of the unexpected joys and surprises of using this lens, that it made me think of the "good old days" of using prime lens 100% of the time and at the same time, has made me rethink my overall strategy of whether or not to utilize more primes etc...

3. For me and for the photography I utilize the EP-1 for, the 17mm is "good enough" in re: focusing speed, sharpness, color / contrast etc... With "pixel-peeping", I'm very happy with the output image quality.

4. All in all, a great lens for all EP-1 / 2 users to have simply because it brings back the joy of photography. I really hope that Olympus / Panasonic continue to develop more compact prime lens.

The M. Zuiko 17/2.8 has a bit of a bad rap because people often compare it to the outstanding Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 lens. However, 17mm is very different from 20mm, and if you want that "standard wide" angle of view (similar to a 35mm lens on a 35mm frame camera) in a tiny lens, this is the one. Fortunately, it is plenty sharp, and the distortion and color fringing are easily addressed (automatically for Olympus in-camera JPEG shooters as well as by some 3rd party RAW converters). Although I use my Pana 20/1.7 more often, I enjoy using the tiny M. Zuiko 17 when I want that angle of view. It's a good little performer. You can see some samples taken with this lens here: [...].

The Oly 17mm f/2.8 pancake for micro four-thirds is just about as small and light a lens as you'll find. It's basically a 35mm focal length on its native cameras. Its sole advantage is its size. It is far from optically perfect, with fairly strong chromatic aberrations and some corner softness (surprising, given its crop factor of 2). Still, the Oly E-P1 does recognize the lens and post-processes its images specifically to improve as much distortion as possible.

All things considered, I can't really claim that this lens is an excellent optical value for anyone who doesn't really need the compactness it offers the E-P1. The 14-42mm kit lens is a better performer at this focal length, also very light, and far more versatile. But if you're willing to make compromises for smallness this is THE lens for you.

The 17mm f/2.8 lens for Micro FourThirds system is a classical focal length, approx 34mm. As a primary lens for the EP-1 it does excactly what it is supposed to do, provide a quick, easy to use lens, with good quality images. Updated to software 1.1 the autofocus speed and precision is improved, but even so the lens is a little slow to focus. Manual focus is easy, precise and gives very good results.
Pros: lightweight, solid, good colours.
Cons: not as sharp as te 14-42 mm zoom.
Good primary lens for the EP-1.

This a Lens that provides ease of use , and is really quite good in terms of results ! I recently used it solely at Gettysburg , Pa , and I was rewarded with superior pictures ! Technical differences aside from other Reviewers , until Olympus produces a wider version , it is My Primary Lens ! With an adapter the Pen Body is another world of photographic opportunities !

Simply said: buy the Panasonic 20mm.

I found myself frustrated with the so-so image quality as others reported. While it's a very compact package, I think it's really worth spending some extra for the Panasonic 20mm lens which became the lens I use 95% of the time with my E-P1. You get much better sharpness, even at wide open at 1.7. The image quality from this lens is no better than the Panasonic lens wide open.

This is a great little lens. the smallest lens for M43. the Panasonic 20mm, which is also labeled a "pancake", is the size of the 14-42 kit Olympus kit lens (in transport position), that is, quite a bit larger than this lens.

As others state, first off it is very compact.

Image quality is very good. I am not sure why some say that the kit lens is sharper. I can't see it. What may happen is that this lens, having a bigger aperture, has far more lungs to play the depth of field game than the kit lens. The kit lens stops at 3.5 at the 28mm equivalent, this one is 2.8 at 35, far more open. It can blur parts of the picture... if you want it to, for some compositions. It is very sharp in the middle, it may soften some to the edge.

The only reason I am not giving it 5 stars is its somewhat limited scope and price. At $270-something it is pricey considering it is neither the fastest not the widest lens. If it was the traditional f1.8 the Ply used to have in the OM lenses, different story. I hope they get there. Also consider the Panny 20mm, but of course it's over $100 extra.

I ordered this lens with my new E-PL2. I believe it's important to mention that this is my first time using a mirrorless camera, and the contrast AF, which seems to have trouble in certain situations. That said, the 17mm 2.8 seems to focus reasonably fast. There is some breathing, to be certain, more or less depending on the situation, and how close the subject is to the lens (the closer the subject, the more breathing required to focus), though in general it is pretty quick.
In my limited use, the lens has exhibited relatively low distortion considering its size, though supposedly the E-PL2 (along with the Panasonic models as well) corrects lens distortion in camera. There is still some barrel distortion present, so that may mean that the lens actually has fairly pronounced barrel distortion, but it doesn't really matter considering it will likely always be used with a camera that corrects such a thing.
The IQ of the lens is pretty good. Not great though, and I find the 14-42mm kit lens to be sharper, which is fairly disappointing.
f2.8 isn't the fastest, and with a Panasonic 20mm 1.7, and a 14mm 2.5 (the one I just ordered to replace this one, as I am returning it) running around, one gets the idea Olympus could have done at least a little better.
Another tiny gripe I have is that the macro ability could have been just a tad better. Not only is minimum focus distance fairly unimpressive, the breathing the lens goes through to focus at such a distance makes it more annoying than it should be.

That all said, I think the price pretty accurately reflects its worth, which is good, and it means you can pick up a decent prime lens for pretty cheap. I ended up spending quite a bit extra for the Panny 14mm, but I'm hoping it will be worth it to me in the end.

Small, sexy, light--this lens came in a small package but really delivers the goods. I really love this lens!!! I was contemplating between this and the panny 20mm, but I just don't seem to like a panny on an oly. This lens is pretty darn sharp wide open! Give it a try before pocketing 300$ for a panny 20mm.