Solar spectrum lens test - Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 EZ

[Dmitry]

LENS: Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 14-42 mm f/3.5-5.6 EZ, a pancake kit lens.

Camera: Olympus E-PM1 full spectrum converted myself.

 

 

Full spectrum, no filter

 

ZWB3 (2mm) + QB21 (2mm)

 

ZWB2 (2mm) + QB21 (2mm) Same exposure as above.

 

ZWB2 (2mm) + QB21 (2mm) Exposure 3x longer to reveal more details.

 

ZWB1 (2mm) + QB21 (2mm) Transmits too much IR to get anything visible in UV)

 

The lens transmits too much IR compared to UV, so it is not usable without a QB21 filter to cut IR.

 

All photos processed from RAW without any color correction.

[Andrea B.]

This is completely fascinating and I really want to try it myself !! Thanks for posting Dimitry.

 

 

It appears that the QW filters do not completely supress the IR transmission in the ZWB filters? However, the thickness of the filtration is quite important to know before making a judgement about the ZBW filter quality. Even the good Schott or Hoya glass needs a sufficiently thick IR-blocker based for each thickness of dual bandpass U or UG glass.

 

So, do you have the thicknesses for each of the filters you used above? Please let us all know. Thanks!!

[Dmitry]

All my filters are 2mm thick. And need to fix myself again, it was qb21

[Dmitry]

I have only one 5mm noname filter and its close to zwb2 with nearly zero IR transmission. Good news it big enough to mount on 12-40 f2.8 pro lens.

[Andy Perrin]

We usually avoid the ZW and QB filters because those are the questionable Chinese glasses, right? So possibly not the same from glass sample to glass sample. I don't know how much we can conclude from these tests except in comparing the lenses relative to each OTHER, since presumably the same ZW/QB filters are used in all the tests.

[Dmitry]

There are visible Fraunhofer lines, so we can guess wavelengths. Yes, comparing lenses.