Down by the Lake With An Olympus S.Zuiko OM 35-70mm F4

Digital Moments - Vintage lens test, five (+2) frames with an Olympus S.Zuiko OM 35-70mm F4, sights and scenes down by the lake.

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Of the three manual focus short to medium zoom lenses that I have recently featured in these digital moments sessions, previously the Sigma Zoom-Gamma 21-35mm F3.5~4 and the Tamron SP 28-80mm F3.5~4.2 CF Macro, I find that the S Zuiko Auto-Zoom 35-70mm F4 that I am doing for this session is no slouch either.

S.Zuiko OM 35-70mm 1:4

Sharp as it comes, weighing in around the 380-gram mark, the S.Zuiko OM 35-70mm F4 is a rather bulky affair in its standard Olympus two-touch zoom design with its heavy ridged rubber for the zoom ring and the standard diamond pattern focus ring. The MC 1:4 version is actually one of four versions of 35-70mm zoom lenses that Olympus produced.

The earliest version was slightly bulkier but said to be a sharper 35-70/3.6 model, this one does not carry the S designation. The second version, which was sold alongside the 35-70/3.6 is what this post is all about. It was the first model to carry the S designation, which is supposed to imply a 'Simplified' version, probably produced to compete directly with lower-cost third-party lenses which were also hitting the market then.

Olympus E-P5, S.Zuiko OM 35-70mm 1:4

The third version is the 35-70/3.5~4.5, a very compact and desirable 35-70mm to carry around with for traveling and shooting on location. The fourth and final version is a 35-70/3.5-4.8 budget model which was sold as a package with the Cosina-built OM2000 SLR. Ultimately, however, if you are collecting and if you are going for overall optical performance, then the 35-70/3.6 is the one to go for ...

The first four of the six images, which have been cropped to 16:9 image aspect, are actually upside-down reflections shot of the water surface. The last two are 4:3 full crops. All shots are taken at f/5.6.

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