Sony vs Pentax vs Olympus Lenses
Check out Canon vs Pentax lenses article with new updated lens collection.
This post will analyze Olympus, Sony and Pentax lenses
It is not fair to compare Pentax, Oly and Sony collection
to the giant Nikon and Canon, so I will just compare three of them here.
But I will mention Canon/Nikon occasionally.
As we can see in the table, Olympus doesn't have much to offer in
wide angle prime, in fact Oly only has a fish eye.
Sony and Pentax does not have many to offers either, quality nor quantity.
In this category, SONY has more lens and variety including fish eye,
and its lenses has better IQ than Pentax so
Winner: SONY
For the Telephoto Prime categories
Pentax has two pancakes: 70mm and 77mm, while they are nice lenses, but
you can't make a collection out of only two almost identical lenses.
Olympus has interesting lenses, 150mm = 300mm and 300mm
= 600mm very nice for wild nature environment or even sporting
events.
Sony has more variety in its collection, from 85 to 500mm, so
SONY wins this category.
Next..
Again, Olympus does not offer many, in fact if Oly does not
launch E-420 with 25mm pancake lens, Oly does not have any
Standard Prime. Oly users has to get from Sigma (30mm) or other places.
SONY has 2 lenses, the regular 50mm 1/4 and hi quality 35mm f/1.4.
PENTAX has several set of primes, the pancakes 40, 43mm and
also 35 and 50mm that perform very well.
Winner: PENTAX
In Zoom lens category (Interesting because most of photographers beginners/pro use these lenses a lot).
SONY has the most lenses, but I don't feel the collection
is outstanding. The only lens that stand out is Sony-Zeiss 24-70mm
It has outstanding Image Quality. Compare to the Canon and Nikon,
the price is between Canon's and Nikon 24-70mm.
Pentax has interesting lenses. 16-50mm DA which has SDM that
make focusing smoother than other Pentax lenses. (Pentax camera
is very slow especially in low light) so this SDM hopefully will help.
It is also very affordable. $760 comparing to Canon 17-55mm = $1000
and Nikon's $1200. Plus free hood and weather sealing.
Other interesting lenses are 11-17mm, and 12-24mm
Olympus lenses are also interesting, Oly does not have many in
its arsenal, but most of them are high quality.
Oly boasts in the ads that 12-60mm SWD is the fastest AF in the world
with E-3. It also has 14-35mm SWD, 7-14, and 11-22mm which all
of them are produce very high quality images with solid built.
So, Olympus has better collection (range, quality and AF speed)
It is very close with Pentax, but OLYMPUS takes this category.
In telephoto Zoom category, we have a clear winner, It is OLYMPUS
again. Olympus has successfully exploited the crop factor of 2 and
small sensor to make lenses that can reach far away.
90-250mm f2.8 for example, equal to 180-500mm
or approx. 100-400mm in Canon/Nikon. Compare to Canon & Nikons Lens,
This lens has fixed aperture and advantage of 2 stops, plus
built in body image stabilization. the short lens of 250mm, make
this lens light gathering power a lot better than Canon and Nikon's.
Pentax and Sony is no match for Oly in this category.
Finally, the macro category. each of the brands has 2 lenses.
And after examination, I will say Olympus win again in this category
Oly lenses are not only very good in term of Image Quality, focal length,
but also the pricing are lower than the other brands.
Winner: OLYMPUS
In Conclusions:
PENTAX wins Standard Prime Lens categories
SONY wins Wide Angle Prime and Telephoto Prime category
OLYMPUS wins Telephoto Zoom, Wide-Tele (Standard) Zoom, and Macro
The Winner: OLYMPUS
Special Note: After researching these three brands, I found out
Olympus collection is very interesting, because of the small sensor
and big crop factor and built in body stabilization, Oly get
an advantage especially in tele end. In addition, the lenses and
camera are lighter than others make it easier to move around
and great for travelling.
That's explain many Olympus' ads has safari theme.
I feel SONY want to catch up real fast to NIKON and CANON, I heard
rumor that they are developing their full frame pro flagship camera
soon, so we can expect many quality lenses joining the current collection.
SONY trying to push long zoom lenses, like 18-70 for their kit lenses,
and also 18-200mm, 18-250mm, while other brands have shorter kit lens
(18-55mm). The image quality for this long zoom lenses are just not
good enough.
I like PENTAX because its pancakes lenses. PENTAX is a pretty
innovative company, unfortunately PENTAX doesn't read the customers
well. Pentax pushing heavily in weather seal even for their entry level
camera, but its AF and image processing+metering is still behind
from the competitor.
Of course everyone here will have different opinion, it is fine
because this assessment is subjective, it is an opinion + fact.
The nice thing about this photography there is no exact science,
because image involve arts, feeling etc.
But let me know your opinion on these results
Thank you
Check out Canon vs Pentax lenses article with new updated lens collection.
This post will analyze Olympus, Sony and Pentax lenses
It is not fair to compare Pentax, Oly and Sony collection
to the giant Nikon and Canon, so I will just compare three of them here.
But I will mention Canon/Nikon occasionally.
As we can see in the table, Olympus doesn't have much to offer in
wide angle prime, in fact Oly only has a fish eye.
Sony and Pentax does not have many to offers either, quality nor quantity.
In this category, SONY has more lens and variety including fish eye,
and its lenses has better IQ than Pentax so
Winner: SONY
For the Telephoto Prime categories
Pentax has two pancakes: 70mm and 77mm, while they are nice lenses, but
you can't make a collection out of only two almost identical lenses.
Olympus has interesting lenses, 150mm = 300mm and 300mm
= 600mm very nice for wild nature environment or even sporting
events.
Sony has more variety in its collection, from 85 to 500mm, so
SONY wins this category.
Next..
Again, Olympus does not offer many, in fact if Oly does not
launch E-420 with 25mm pancake lens, Oly does not have any
Standard Prime. Oly users has to get from Sigma (30mm) or other places.
SONY has 2 lenses, the regular 50mm 1/4 and hi quality 35mm f/1.4.
PENTAX has several set of primes, the pancakes 40, 43mm and
also 35 and 50mm that perform very well.
Winner: PENTAX
In Zoom lens category (Interesting because most of photographers beginners/pro use these lenses a lot).
SONY has the most lenses, but I don't feel the collection
is outstanding. The only lens that stand out is Sony-Zeiss 24-70mm
It has outstanding Image Quality. Compare to the Canon and Nikon,
the price is between Canon's and Nikon 24-70mm.
Pentax has interesting lenses. 16-50mm DA which has SDM that
make focusing smoother than other Pentax lenses. (Pentax camera
is very slow especially in low light) so this SDM hopefully will help.
It is also very affordable. $760 comparing to Canon 17-55mm = $1000
and Nikon's $1200. Plus free hood and weather sealing.
Other interesting lenses are 11-17mm, and 12-24mm
Olympus lenses are also interesting, Oly does not have many in
its arsenal, but most of them are high quality.
Oly boasts in the ads that 12-60mm SWD is the fastest AF in the world
with E-3. It also has 14-35mm SWD, 7-14, and 11-22mm which all
of them are produce very high quality images with solid built.
So, Olympus has better collection (range, quality and AF speed)
It is very close with Pentax, but OLYMPUS takes this category.
In telephoto Zoom category, we have a clear winner, It is OLYMPUS
again. Olympus has successfully exploited the crop factor of 2 and
small sensor to make lenses that can reach far away.
90-250mm f2.8 for example, equal to 180-500mm
or approx. 100-400mm in Canon/Nikon. Compare to Canon & Nikons Lens,
This lens has fixed aperture and advantage of 2 stops, plus
built in body image stabilization. the short lens of 250mm, make
this lens light gathering power a lot better than Canon and Nikon's.
Pentax and Sony is no match for Oly in this category.
Finally, the macro category. each of the brands has 2 lenses.
And after examination, I will say Olympus win again in this category
Oly lenses are not only very good in term of Image Quality, focal length,
but also the pricing are lower than the other brands.
Winner: OLYMPUS
In Conclusions:
PENTAX wins Standard Prime Lens categories
SONY wins Wide Angle Prime and Telephoto Prime category
OLYMPUS wins Telephoto Zoom, Wide-Tele (Standard) Zoom, and Macro
The Winner: OLYMPUS
Special Note: After researching these three brands, I found out
Olympus collection is very interesting, because of the small sensor
and big crop factor and built in body stabilization, Oly get
an advantage especially in tele end. In addition, the lenses and
camera are lighter than others make it easier to move around
and great for travelling.
That's explain many Olympus' ads has safari theme.
I feel SONY want to catch up real fast to NIKON and CANON, I heard
rumor that they are developing their full frame pro flagship camera
soon, so we can expect many quality lenses joining the current collection.
SONY trying to push long zoom lenses, like 18-70 for their kit lenses,
and also 18-200mm, 18-250mm, while other brands have shorter kit lens
(18-55mm). The image quality for this long zoom lenses are just not
good enough.
I like PENTAX because its pancakes lenses. PENTAX is a pretty
innovative company, unfortunately PENTAX doesn't read the customers
well. Pentax pushing heavily in weather seal even for their entry level
camera, but its AF and image processing+metering is still behind
from the competitor.
Of course everyone here will have different opinion, it is fine
because this assessment is subjective, it is an opinion + fact.
The nice thing about this photography there is no exact science,
because image involve arts, feeling etc.
But let me know your opinion on these results
Thank you
Check out Canon vs Pentax lenses article with new updated lens collection.
Labels: dslr lenses
posted by Enche Tjin at
6:26 PM
1 Comments:
Hi, Great effort on the comparison. I see that you have miss out some important Pentax lenses in your analysis. Since you post it in July 2008, several pentax lenses are in the market for a while now, eg, Pentax DA* 50-135mm, DA* 200mm, DA* 300mm, DA55-300mm, DA 17-70mm, DA 35mm Macro Limited.
After Photokina, which was last month, Pentax introduced another 4 more lenses, eg DA 55mm, DA 15mm Limited, DA* 60-250mm, DA L 18-55mm
Maybe time for analysis II?
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