There seems to be a problem with the Olympus Zuiko lens when used for macro photography.
Here a comparison of a photo of a Eucalyptus flower (about 1 cm across) taken with an Asahi
Optical 50 mm f/1.4 Super Takumar (left) and the Olympus Zuiko 50 mm f/1.8 lens (right). In
each case the camera was an Olympus E-510. I didn't record the aperture, but the depth of
field suggests that it's f/16. My recollection is that this problem occurs at all
apertures. I didn't find a way to work around it. I have now sold this lens and bought a
ZUIKO DIGITAL
ED 50mm F2.0 Macro lens instead.
Modern cameras have many advantages over those of 40 years ago, but the region of
macro photography is not one of them. From my Pentax Spotmatic days I have a set of
automatic extension tubes (i.e. they stop down the aperture automatically) and the
bellows in the photo above, which also have a cable release connector to stop down the
lens. Today extension tubes are devoid of any logic, so they're actually worse off
than 40 years ago, and a quick look at eBay shows
that most of the bellows on offer are of a similar ago to mine; only 8 of the 287
items were advertised to be for digital cameras, and even then I'm not convinced that
they were correctly listed.
With macro photography, more than anywhere else, good focussing is crucial. The
viewfinders of modern digital SLRs no longer have microprisms or split image, and they
typically have a much smaller field of view than the old film SLRs, all of which makes
things more difficult. I can't believe that this is an unavoidable consequence of smaller
sensors.
My suspicions about the cause of the flare on earlier
macro exposures proved to be correct: it's due to the 50 mm f/1.8 Zuiko lens from the
Olympus OM10. Here photos taken with the 50mm f/1.4 Super Takumar from my Spotmatic and
then the Zuiko lens:
