E-300 and ED 50mm f/2.0 Macro Test Shots

[tomcat]

These are some test macro shots of common garden flowers taken with the Zuiko Digital ED 50mm f/2.0 Macro lens:


Bougainvilla


Small daisy


100% Close-Up crop of centre of flower


Ixora buds


Ixora flowers

[tomcat]

And these are some portraits shots of my cats as taken by the same lens:









Cats are very good models to use for testing the sharpness of a lens, I think.

All in all, I am very happy with this lens which exhibits very high sharpness and good contrast and colours.

[bariq]

nice pics, sure the 50mm lens is value for money and e300 works good with macro and close ups as long as u stay below iso200. you seem to have lots of pet cats

[serene]

Hi Tomcat,
Your cat models are very photogenic. Except for the Singapura, are the rest Persian?
Nice portrait of cats. Add a nice background or make your cats play with something and voila, you will have something very memorable

[tomcat]

Originally Posted by serene Hi Tomcat, Your cat models are very cute. Except for the Singapura, are the rest Persian? Nice portrait of cats. Add a nice background or make your cats play with something and voila, you will have something very memorable

Thanks. They are either pure Persians or Persian-mixed. The first pic is a Persian-mixed; the second pic is a Chinchilla Persian and the fourth is a regular Persian.

[serene]

Hi Tomcat,
No wonder, I thought the first one looked like Singapura but could not be sure coz the fur is so fine.So, the 3rd one is a pure Singaporean (oops, Singapura), right? (sorry for the OT about cats)

[tomcat]

Originally Posted by serene Hi Tomcat, No wonder, I thought the first one looked like Singapura but could not be sure coz the fur is so fine.So, the 3rd one is a pure Singaporean (oops, Singapura), right? (sorry for the OT about cats)

Not Singapura lah ! Purebreed Singapuras are very expensive and rare. Cannot afford to get one. She's just a local stray I adopted because she was so affectionate and has such a good temperament.

[chii]

nice looking picture.

looks good even after cropping..


next target...

[jodie_tan]

wow...so many cats...

[Merciless_Knight]

Indeed good lens and body combo. Thinking of buying this Marco len.

[serene]

Originally Posted by tomcat Not Singapura lah ! Purebreed Singapuras are very expensive and rare. Cannot afford to get one. She's just a local stray I adopted because she was so affectionate and has such a good temperament.

Oh, I thought the 3rd pic is a Singapura, because of its slender shape. Actually, I want to ask you how to tell a pure Singapura but the rest here will hate me for misdirecting this thread. Anyway, the 50mm really produce very nice portraits credit to the photograher)

BTW, is there a section on this forum about animal photography?. There is ample on female model photograhy though

Tomcat, will you lend/rent out your cats for photoshoots??

[nightpiper]

the first cat.... the eyes..... now where have i seen it before.... Oh yes.... its master little precccioussss....

GREAT DETAILS!! STUNNING LENS!!

[serene]

If I am not wrong, the magnification of the 50mm lens is 1:1. Can someone confirm this?

[chii]

Originally Posted by serene If I am not wrong, the magnification of the 50mm lens is 1:1. Can someone confirm this?

based on the 50mm marco spec.

Maximum Image Magnification: 1:2 (1:1 35mm equivalent)

[nightpiper]

Originally Posted by serene If I am not wrong, the magnification of the 50mm lens is 1:1. Can someone confirm this?

its 50mm 1:2 on 35mm equiv. this macro lens only 'becomes' 100mm 1:1 when mounted on the E sys. the reason is becos of the 2x crop factor. so if u have a nikon 60mm 1:1 macro lens, & mount it on the E sys, u get 120mm 2:1. can be handy at times.

[tomcat]

The lenses in the E-Systems are more compact in design than those for 35mm system. They are all capable of the same performance at half the length ie half the focal length. So the ED 50mm Macro is capable of offering the same angle of view as a traditional 100mm lens in the 35mm system.

A 60m Nikon Macro lens if mounted on a DSLR using the APS sensor with 1.5x crop factor would produce an image which looked like it came from a 90mm lens in the 35mm system but it would still have the angle of view of a 60mm lens. The cropped image come about because only the centre portion of the actual image projected by the lens on the film/sensor plane is capture and used. It is like if you scan a slide taken with 35mm camera, crop off the centre portion equal to the size of the APS sensor and then resize it in Photoshop to full 35mm size. The angle of view (or perspective) is still the same as that of the original 60mm slide.

The Image Magnification of the ED 50mm Macro is 1:2 in the E-System, ie the image of the subject is 1/2 true size on the four-thirds CCD in the E-System. But because the focal length of lenses in the E-System is half those in the 35mm system, the equivalent image size when extrapolated in the 35mm system is actually double ie 1:1. And... the angle of view is actually that of a 100mm lens in the 35mm system.

There is strictly speaking no cropping in the E-System. The entire image projected by the lens is capture by the four-third sensor fully and not 'cropped' off like in the DSLRs with APS sensors. It is just that the focal plane is half the distance away from the front of the lens in the E-System as compared to the 35mm system. This is what gives the E-System lenses the capability to achieve double the magnification with a lens half the size.

[Evilmerlin]

How is this lens as a general use lens? Kinda tempted by the F/2.0 aperture. The macro is just a bonus to me.

[Bean]

Originally Posted by nightpiper its 50mm 1:2 on 35mm equiv. this macro lens only 'becomes' 100mm 1:1 when mounted on the E sys. the reason is becos of the 2x crop factor. so if u have a nikon 60mm 1:1 macro lens, & mount it on the E sys, u get 120mm 2:1. can be handy at times.

magnification of 1:2 on a 4/3 system will still be 1:2 on a 35mm system or MF or APS etc system, am I right?

[tomcat]

Originally Posted by Evilmerlin How is this lens as a general use lens? Kinda tempted by the F/2.0 aperture. The macro is just a bonus to me.

For general use, it is a very sharp and fast 50mm (100mm 35mm-equivalent) prime lens. I do find the focusing a bit noisy though. Don't know if it's just my copy or if it's normal for this lens.

Originally Posted by serene Tomcat, will you lend/rent out your cats for photoshoots??

I would love to make some money out of them after all the money I spent on their food and upkeep, but they would only sit still and pose for me. They would all disappear and go into hiding whenever strangers are around.

[tomcat]

Here are 2 more test shots taken today of some asters (I think) using only available light: