| I didn't "do the homework" on this lens before buying it, and even though it 'only' drops the focal length by .8, I'm kind of glad I went ahead and tried it versus some of the other alternatives. In my research after-the-fact, I've seen many say that it's difficult to significantly shorten the focal length without accepting image quality that ranges from poor to just plain awful. The good news: Image quality to MY untrained eye seems identical to that provided by that of the camera's onboard lens alone. The bad news: Everyone familiar with the lens noted the obvious issues of viewfinder and flash blockage. There's no way to mount anything this big without dealing with those issues. Other observations: It's a lens that's aesthetically pleasing to handle and the user certainly gets a sense of the quality of workmanship that went into the lens. Value observations: It's not the kind of lens you'd recommend as one of the first purchases on a tight budget. I had at first thought of returning it because of the modest (35->28) improvement offered, but as I evaluated the results and read about other lenses, I decided that a near flawless .8 was probably worth more than shorter focal lengths with obvious problems. The lens also came with the Oly 43-55mm step up ring, which I needed to buy anyway for the B-300 I'm also getting from B&H, currently on back order. The Net: I'm keeping the lens. If your camera has an even longer "shortest focal length" then you'll likely appreciate the lens and use it more often. And a final curiosity: Indoors, mounted on tripod with a fixed aiming point, the 3040Z would routinely fire the flash with the built in lens, and would NOT use the flash with the wide-angle mounted. This came as a surprise, since I'd read that adding lenses usually results in LOSS of light to the camera. If anything I might have guessed the opposite result flash wise, even though the lens is advertised as working 'without reducing aperture'. |
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