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Lens review

Olympus Zuiko Digital ED 12-60 mm f/2.8-4.0 SWD

3 November 2009
Arkadiusz Olech

9. Ghosting, flares and transmission

The ZD 12-60 mm has no problems with the work against bright light. You can hardly notice any artifacts when wide open. After significant closing the aperture you may notice very weak, greenish tinge but it is neither bothersome nor common in any case, which can be seen very well in the pictures below.


Olympus Zuiko Digital ED 12-60 mm f/2.8-4.0 SWD - Ghosting, flares and transmission

Olympus Zuiko Digital ED 12-60 mm f/2.8-4.0 SWD - Ghosting, flares and transmission

Olympus Zuiko Digital ED 12-60 mm f/2.8-4.0 SWD - Ghosting, flares and transmission



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Olympus ZD 12-60 mm contains 10 groups of lenses, so it means that there are 20 air-glass boundaries to cover with antireflex coatings. These coating have to be really good if we want from the instrument to give a flat transmission profile on a high level. How does it look in case of Olympus ZD 12-60 mm, we can see in the picture below.


Olympus Zuiko Digital ED 12-60 mm f/2.8-4.0 SWD - Ghosting, flares and transmission

We get the highest transmission at 92% level for the red light. It means that around this wavelength there is 0.4% of light lost on each boundary. It's a very good result, although not the best one. We already know the coatings which reflect only 0.2-0.3% light on one surface. What may concerns a little, is a slow drop of transmission level in the shorter wavelength range. In the middle of the visible spectrum it reaches the level of 90% and in the blue light drops to only 85%. It's not a bad result, but we would expect something more from the lens of such a high class. For example Sigma 24-70 mm f/2.8 HSM lens got 2-3% higher result in this category and in its case there were 4 additional air-glass surfaces to cover.