The PEN Zuiko 100/3.5 is the smallest and presumably also the least expensive telephoto lens of its system. It’s even a bit more compact than Olympus’ later OM Zuiko 135/3.5 – even more so on a modern mirrorless camera, taking the diminutive size of the PEN Zuiko adapter into account. Especially the diameter of the lens barrel is smaller than on comparable lenses.
This is part 3 of a series of 3 blog posts about Olympus PEN Zuiko lenses for Fuji:
- Part 1 – The Introduction
- Part 2 – The 38/1.8
- Part 3 – The 100/3.5
The 100/3.5
According to the drawing that Frank Mechelhoff posted on his photographica website, the 100/3.5 features 5 lenses in 4 groups. As with the other lenses of the system, mechanical construction is of high quality, and has a nice “delicate” feel to it. Hard to describe: It’s not built like a tank in the way old Nikkors are. It’s more finely crafted. I found my 100/3.5 on ebay and paid around 70 Euros for it.
Flange distance (the distance between the lens mount and the sensor) is 28.95mm for PEN Zuiko lenses. Fuji X has a flange distance of 17.7mm so the adapter that you need to mount the old Zuiko on your Fuji body, will be 11.95mm deep – a welcome change from the usual bulky adapters for other SLR systems!
The lens itself is, of course, manual focus. On my copy, the focus ring is really easy and very smooth to turn – very little resistance – which makes manual focusing a breeze. Smallest aperture is f/22 and you can twist and turn the aperture ring to reveal a second scale that reads from 1 to 6 instead from f/3.5 to f/22 – this is only needed if you use the old Olympus PEN FT body and it’s built-in metering system. The minimum focus distance is 1.5 metres. In contrast to the 38/1.8, this means close focus capability of this lens is really somewhat limited, compared to more modern offerings: Fuji’s own 90/2 lens can focus as close as 0.6 metres, for example.
Pictuces and optical characteristis
For this review, I took the following set of pictures with the 100/3.5 on a Fuji X-E1 body. (My X-E3 currently is under warranty repair.) All these pictures were edited to taste in Lightroom, yes – but I did not correct for distortion, CA or any other color fringes, or vignetting:
(Please, don’t be distracted by the EXIF showing 75mm; this is a manual lens so you have to enter correct data by yourself in the camera’s menu – which I did not care to do.)
To put things short: This lens is a true gem! It’s sharp from edge to edge right at open aperture. There also isn’t a big amount of vignetting as the many pictures above that were taken at open aperture show. It has some slight color fringes that diminish once you stop down. At f/5.6, I’d say it’s just about perfect – at least on the Fuji X-E1’s 16 MP sensor. If you stop down at night, it will produce very clear and nice 10-pointed sunstars from its 5-bladed aperture.
Here’s a 100% crop of one of the pictures above, taken at open aperture, with the Fuji X-E1. This was processed in Lightroom with standard “landscape” sharpening settings. No CA or color correction applied. Click on the picture to reveal full size:
The only criticism that I’d have is that contrast is a bit down compared to more modern lens designs – especially if stray light comes in. A lens hood is really recommended here.
I have to admit I am a real RAW photographer – maybe if you only shoot JPG, you’ll notice that more than me. But I am so used to adjust colors, white balance and contrast on almost every of my shots a bit. Not because I find the lenses that I use lack in any way, but just to give the pictures that exact look that I strive for.
So, overall, I am really impressed with the Olympus PEN Zuiko 100/3.5. It’s not a bokeh king as its maximum aperture is rather small at f/3.5 – but it makes up for it with its small physical size and little weight in your bag. 100mm also maybe is the longest focal length that still is easy enough to handle with a Fuji body without built-in image stabilisation – at 150mm I’d expect that the viewfinder image already is shaky enough to spoil the photographer’s experience a bit.
The modern alternatives
The natural modern alternative to this lens will be the Fujinon 90/2. It offers auto focus, a much faster maximum aperture and a much better close focusing distance. On the other hand, it still lacks image stabilisation (this can be more of an issue with longer focal lengths than, say, a wide-angle lens!), it is much bigger, and it’s 10 times the price. Both lenses will give you top-notch image quality. I’m sure on a test chart the new Fujinon will beat the old PEN Zuiko, but real world results of the latter lens are already so good that, frankly, it never left me wanting for even more image quality.
The other modern fixed focal length lens with 100mm I am aware of (as of late 2017) is the Samyang/Rokinon 100/2.8 Macro. So far I never gave it a try so can’t really comment on it – but judging from the performance of Samyang’s other recent offerings, I am sure it will be of very high optical quality as well. It’s a macro lens, though, so it targets a slightly different group than the other lenses. Also being a macro lens means that the physical size is much bigger than the PEN Zuiko 100/3.5.
For as little as 70 Euros, the Olympus PEN Zuiko 100/3.5 still is a very interesting short telephoto option for the Fuji or Sony APS-C systems. I am sure it will often find a place in my bag, especially on long hikes where size and weight matter most!
Other reviews
I did not find any other dedicated review of the PEN Zuiko 100/3.5 anywhere so far. But on flickr, I found this set of images posted by kuaan. They were taken with a Sony A7 camera. Apparently, the image circle that the lens is capable to cover, is big enough for the “full frame” Sonys!
This is part 3 of a series of 3 blog posts about Olympus PEN Zuiko lenses for Fuji:
- Part 1 – The Introduction
- Part 2 – The 38/1.8
- Part 3 – The 100/3.5
Cheers,
Thomas
TOM'S PHOTO AND CAMERA STUFF 
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