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.