A remnant from my old days when roaming and buying indiscriminately all sorts of accessories and stuff. Most of it got lost or given away, but some is still with me, like this superb Hoya zoom lens. This is a OM mount lens, and it was the regular lens on my OM1 and OM10 for a number of years, and then it was relegated to just sitting on a shelf. Fond memories 🙂 .
This Hoya HMC Zoom 38-70/3.5 is very compact, not super heavy, and a wonderful glass, if you ask me. No idea how good or bad can be judged against say a Zuiko OM lens, but I haven’t noticed anything amiss with this lens. At max extension, it may flare a bit, but nothing to ruin a good photograph. Across the frame, sharpness is good, with some softness radiating from the centre at 3.5, but from 5.6 everything is sharp.
To be honest, I didn’t used to photograph with this lens extended very often; there were times when that was needed, yes, but I usually left it at 38mm. Being a bit wider than my usual 50/1.8 Zuiko, and a bit tighter than the 28/2.8 Zuiko, it would appear to be a decent compromise. And indeed, it had served me well, either in the city or in wider areas.
I had tried it even with portrait photography; providing the lighting is good, rather pleasant results.
