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| | Customer Reviews: | | | Average Customer Review: ( 19 customer reviews )
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47 of 48 found the following review helpful:
 Olympus PEN + this lens + optical viewfinder = Modern remake of the rangefinder Sep 18, 2009
By Michael A. Duvernois
This is small lens. That's its main claim to fame, not the speed at f2.8, nor the focal length, the equivalent of about 35mm in 35mm photography. But on the small Olympus PEN body, this lens gives you a small package that takes quite good pictures without messing around with a zoom. In particular, it works well as a walking-around street camera, much like an old Leica or a Canon rangefinder of the 1950s/1960s. (See also the optical viewfinder which has image lines specifically for this 17mm lens.)
I tried this package out, camera, lens, and viewfinder, and got a good number of excellent images walking through crowds of people downtown. It's wide enough to catch people in their immediate environment. The camera is unobtrusive and really helped with the casual picture taking. I'd strongly recommend the setup to folks looking for a forgiving digital imaging setup with modern features but much of the ease of handling and casual ability of old rangefinders (without having to focus of course).
24 of 24 found the following review helpful:
 I was very pleasantly surprised Jan 08, 2010
By Harry M. Shin
1. I should technically give this lens a 4 star, just because 5 stars should be reserved those extraordinary lens (ex: Zeiss Distagon 21mm 2.8).
2. With that being said, I just like this lens: it's light, it's obviously small, and it's a no brainer for all EP-1 /2 users to have this lens (or the panasonic pancake). Even though I have the 14-42mm kit lens, it's just... fun to slap this lens on the EP-1 and take shots. One of the unexpected joys and surprises of using this lens, that it made me think of the "good old days" of using prime lens 100% of the time and at the same time, has made me rethink my overall strategy of whether or not to utilize more primes etc...
3. For me and for the photography I utilize the EP-1 for, the 17mm is "good enough" in re: focusing speed, sharpness, color / contrast etc... With "pixel-peeping", I'm very happy with the output image quality.
4. All in all, a great lens for all EP-1 / 2 users to have simply because it brings back the joy of photography. I really hope that Olympus / Panasonic continue to develop more compact prime lens.
21 of 21 found the following review helpful:
Underrated, tiny lens Apr 19, 2010
By Amin Sabet
"Amin Sabet"
The M. Zuiko 17/2.8 has a bit of a bad rap because people often compare it to the outstanding Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 lens. However, 17mm is very different from 20mm, and if you want that "standard wide" angle of view (similar to a 35mm lens on a 35mm frame camera) in a tiny lens, this is the one. Fortunately, it is plenty sharp, and the distortion and color fringing are easily addressed (automatically for Olympus in-camera JPEG shooters as well as by some 3rd party RAW converters). Although I use my Pana 20/1.7 more often, I enjoy using the tiny M. Zuiko 17 when I want that angle of view. It's a good little performer. You can see some samples taken with this lens here: [...].
30 of 34 found the following review helpful:
Compact Compromise Sep 12, 2009
By K. Tanaka
The Oly 17mm f/2.8 pancake for micro four-thirds is just about as small and light a lens as you'll find. It's basically a 35mm focal length on its native cameras. Its sole advantage is its size. It is far from optically perfect, with fairly strong chromatic aberrations and some corner softness (surprising, given its crop factor of 2). Still, the Oly E-P1 does recognize the lens and post-processes its images specifically to improve as much distortion as possible.
All things considered, I can't really claim that this lens is an excellent optical value for anyone who doesn't really need the compactness it offers the E-P1. The 14-42mm kit lens is a better performer at this focal length, also very light, and far more versatile. But if you're willing to make compromises for smallness this is THE lens for you.
11 of 11 found the following review helpful:
Good Pancace Lens Oct 21, 2009
By Anders Utgaard
The 17mm f/2.8 lens for Micro FourThirds system is a classical focal length, approx 34mm. As a primary lens for the EP-1 it does excactly what it is supposed to do, provide a quick, easy to use lens, with good quality images. Updated to software 1.1 the autofocus speed and precision is improved, but even so the lens is a little slow to focus. Manual focus is easy, precise and gives very good results.
Pros: lightweight, solid, good colours.
Cons: not as sharp as te 14-42 mm zoom.
Good primary lens for the EP-1.
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