Continuing my series on old Olympus OM lenses on the Sony A7 III, here is a series of images from the Olympus OM 28mm f/2 Zuiko Auto-W lens on the A7III using the K&F dumb adaptor. In terms of handling, this lens is a little larger than the 24mm f/2.8 (tiny) or the 35mm f/2.8. But it is still small compared to modern AF alternatives, and it is a joy to use on a modern full-frame mirrorless camera.
Of the lenses I tried, this was the one that surprised me most with how much fun it was.
It certainly suffers from many of the same drawbacks as the 24mm — a tendency to haziness against the light, strong vignetting wide open, some weird moustache distortion, and colour fringing — but they are less pronounced. Moreover, the lens is easier to focus thanks to its maximum aperture of f/2. Zone focusing using the depth scale on the lens works extremely well.
The bokeh is extremely busy at f/2, but I think it becomes progressively pleasanter as the lens is stopped down.
Where I would use it for zone focussing (f/5.6-f/11) it is very nicely sharp (except the extreme corners), and the vignetting is controlled well enough.
It is not a perfect lens by any means by today’s standards. If I didn’t already own one, I probably would not buy it because the price of examples in good condition is getting quite high. But I think it would be a lot of fun to take out for a day’s street photography using one-camera-one-lens.
Note the haziness of the image where the building meets the bright sky behind
Similar to the image above, the haziness is quite obvious. However, the image is nicely sharp all across. f/5.6
Distortion is not as bad as the 24mm f/2.8, but it is still there. If you are not shooting architecture, it would probably not be a problem.
Stopped down, the sharpness is pretty good, and the vignetting is not intrusive.
f/2. The image is nice and sharp in the centre, but there is strong vignetting and the bokeh is distracting
f/2.8
f/4
f/5.6
f/8. There is some residual vignetting, but the overall look of the image is fine with good sharpness, and much tamer bokeh.
f/11
f/16