Robin Wong reviews Olympus 7-14 f2.8 Pro

[Holoholo55]

I thought someone would have posted about this already, but in case you haven't seen it, Robin Wong wrote a review of the Olympus 7-14 f2.8 Pro lens.
http://www.robinwong.blogspot.com/2015/05/olympus-mzuiko-7-14mm-f28-pro-lens.html

I was impressed. Check it out!

 

[jeffryscott]

Looks pretty darn good!

 

[tkbslc]

He makes every lens look good, though, doesn't he?

 

[Jonathan F/2]

He makes every lens look good, though, doesn't he?

I think Olympus was smart to hire him!

 

[Deleted member 20897]

He makes every lens look good, though, doesn't he?

He is pretty free with his processing methods. He works from RAW and used Olympus Viewer 3 as a start and then a bunch of freeware processing software. If you do a search for it, you can find a few blogs he wrote, outlining the process. I've used it myself here just recently and the OV3 works way better than Lightroom CC in retaining details from the RAW files.

 

[Clint]

Thanks for the link. I do wish if people wanted to call a threesome of lenses a "trinity", they do just that.

 

[Holoholo55]

Robin gets wonderful results. His macros, portraits, and street shots are just amazing. I think he would get good results with any camera and lens because he's just very good, but there's no question that lens is outstanding. Did you check the corner crops? Very nice.

 

[GFFPhoto]

1) Looks like a great lens, and 2) He is the Don Draper of the photo world. A really skilled marketing guy!

 

[johnvanatta]

To be fair, almost all the lenses Olympus has released recently have been excellent or superb; he's not the only one saying it.

 

[GFFPhoto]

No, but he is paid to say it. Its advertising.

 

[tyrphoto]

Every lens he tests looks wonderful. A credit to his skills as a photographer.

The only thing disappointing about the lens, to me, is the inability to use filters.

 

[wjiang]

Good examples of the pros and cons of a rectilinear UWA. I'm not sure I agree with his gushing written assessment of corner performance though.

 

[Klorenzo]

He is pretty free with his processing methods. He works from RAW and used Olympus Viewer 3 as a start and then a bunch of freeware processing software. If you do a search for it, you can find a few blogs he wrote, outlining the process.

Are you sure about this? I've read all his articles and many comments and he states often that he uses only OV3 with minor tweaks.

EDIT: see point 3 of the disclaimer:

3. All images were shot in RAW and converted directly to JPEG (High Quality) via Olympus Viewer 3.

(of course I cannot say if it is true but I never find the pictures to be overprocessed)

 

[pinoyborian]

Are you sure about this? I've read all his articles and many comments and he states often that he uses only OV3 with minor tweaks.

EDIT: see point 3 of the disclaimer:

3. All images were shot in RAW and converted directly to JPEG (High Quality) via Olympus Viewer 3.

(of course I cannot say if it is true but I never find the pictures to be overprocessed)

if you check out the particular blogpost on his workflow you would know that he also uses Snapseed (desktop version) and ACDSee for editing - http://robinwong.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/my-post-processing-for-blogging-purposes.html

 

[Klorenzo]

I think that images shown in personal blog post (the "shutter therapy" kind) could be processed differently than images used for official reviews (as stated above).

Anyway I do not find any extreme processing here: Snapseed for B&W and ACDSee Powerpack: not exactly tools for complex processing.

 

[Lcrunyon]

Good examples of the pros and cons of a rectilinear UWA. I'm not sure I agree with his gushing written assessment of corner performance though.

I do see some distortion in the corners, especially on the astrophotography shots. But is this something one must simply accept with UWA lenses, or can it be managed better?

 

[mcasan]

When you head into UWA and fisheye territory, distortion is part of the entry criteria. But you have worlds of post processing tools to bend and crop the image as you see fit.

 

[Narnian]

I would have loved this lens or the Panny 7-14 but the lack of filters is a deal killer so I will stay with my 9-18 Oly until they come out with a super wide prime. I wish they had added the ability to do drop-in filters in the rear.

That or give us 5 ISO in the camera

 

[Klorenzo]

I would have loved this lens or the Panny 7-14 but the lack of filters is a deal killer so I will stay with my 9-18 Oly until they come out with a super wide prime.

I've just read here that this from Lee filters may be an option.

 

[Narnian]

I used to use square gel filters when I shot medium and large format but when I returned to more serious photography AK (after kids) I decided to downsize to MFT and using the larger gels are cumbersome on the small cameras. I have some ND gels I have used on occasion but find them a pain when I go hiking.

And yes, if you ever saw some idiot hiking on the Appalachian Trail 40 years ago with a view camera, that was probably me.