Looks like the 60mm macro is going back. It is still in the 14 day exchange window we have at work and it is just not winning me over.
As a portrait lens it is good, though redundant, but as a macro, I actually prefer (for my needs) the two handy zooms and 25mm prime. The 12-40 has nicer and more consistent Bokeh, the 12-100 a longer working distance and 1:3 is ample. I cannot help thinking that a little extension tube on my 25mm would probably do if I ever need anything closer.
I tried to justify it’s existence as a filler between the 12-40 and 75-300, but that is at odds with the 12-100’s role as landscape paragon.
Likes;
small, lighter than the 75 and longer than the 45.
weather proof (as are the two zooms)
true macro.
Dislikes;
bland rendering with no “X” factor
iffy Bokeh (quite geometric in shape)
annoying design (focus range lock)
one lens too many in an already over crowded space.
Speaking of one lens too many, based on my last couple of posts, I am looking to possibly get the 25 f1.4 Leica again. This lens, although repeating a focal length for the 4th time has a couple of features I like.
Even though the 20mm is a little more consistent and has nicer Bokeh, and the Olympus 25 (2x?) is mechanically better, optically more consistent and smaller, there is a certain something that I really miss about that Panasonic/Leica look. This is the lens I often site as the one I miss the most when I culled miscellaneous brands*. The Pen and EM-1 have added that more delicate look back into my kit with lenses like the 45mm, so maybe the subtle difference would be redundant and we are talking about a portrait specific application, which I seldom do. I am not sure I am paying into the 3D/flatness thing, yet (although ironically that may be the macro’s issue). I am not a denier, but I am not sure it bothers me that much. I get that some lenses do have a flat and lifeless look, but within reason, the lenses I have are solid and likeable, and I am not using the super fast-over corrected type Yannick Khong has talked about, even by his own measure. I even find the Oly 45 has a similar in feel to the 85mm Canon that he rates much higher.
Also in the mix is the 7.5mm Laowa. Not a huge user of wide angles, let alone super wides, this may open some creative doors for me with landscapes. It is funny that a super wide angle appeals to me more than a regular wide. The tiny little lens has a filter thread, which most super wides do not, it is very good by all accounts when stopped down, but sharp enough in the centre wide open, so some weird street could be possible and it is corrected, not fisheye. This feels a bit forced. If I have no need now, would this be much the same as the macro, a filler or “just in case” lens outside of my comfortable work flow.
Option three is the Pana/Leica 15, which I have always lusted after. This lens could make my much loved 17mm redundant, but i think they are so different I could find a use for them (the 17 is a little heavy handed in flat light, the 15 a little washed out in bright light?). It is small enough to be added to the kit as needed and has genuine edge to edge sharpness for landscapes, but so do both of my zooms!
Option four. A new printer, which seems like the boring, practical but most logical option. Mono files printed on archival matt paper are the weakness of my current printer, which could be easily fixed with a Pro 10s Canon or even the monster Pro 1000. The 1000 would also allow me to print bigger. Ed. I went with this, ordering the Pro 10s.
The fifth option is to hold on to the money and wait to see what the long lens landscape coughs up.
*There are images I have taken with the lens, especially with the harder sensor and processor of the EM5 that had a delicacy and deepness that I lost when I sold it. Sure it had an annoying chinking sound as the aperture blades shifted on an Olympus camera. It was a little big and the hood was huge, but there is a hard to define presence to the lens that, rather than a pedestrian macro, will add something to my kit and my frame of mind.
I do not think I will be chasing those illusive legacy lenses with all of their potential magic, but I will be looking to expand my range of rendering options within reasonable bounds.