Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Zuiko 28mm f/2.8

Olympus · Olympus OM · 1983 · Retrofocus, 6 elements in 6 groups, all air-spaced

single source, unconfirmed via machine translation — corrections welcome

Also known as: Zuiko MC Auto-W 1:2.8 f=28mm · OM-System Zuiko MC Auto-W 28mm f/2.8 · OM-System Zuiko Auto-W 28mm 1:2.8 · Zuiko Auto-W 28mm f2.8 · Olympus OM 28mm f/2.8 · OM Zuiko 2.8/28 · ズイコー 28mm F2.8 · ZUIKO AUTO-W 28mm F2.8

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Zuiko MC Auto-W 1:2.8 f=28mm Olympus OM — — —
Zuiko Auto-W 28mm f/2.8 (MC dropped from the engraving) Olympus OM — — —
  1. The launch year is given three ways. mir.com.my says the lens was "introduced quite late by Olympus at early '80" and that the first MC-engraved example "was believed to have been introduced in 1981/2"; OM-mania places it in the early 1980s alongside the N-series bodies; Radojuva says "produced since 1983", and lens-db's page title carries 1983 (the page itself could not be reached from here). The frontmatter carries 1983, the only bare year any source prints; a 1981 or 1982 lens is not ruled out by any of them.
  2. The F.Zuiko version. Olypedia finds a "F.Zuiko MC Auto-W 1:2,8/28 mm" only in Günther Kadlubek's lens catalogue, with no photograph or other mention anywhere. The F prefix means six elements, which fits, but the letter prefixes had been dropped from the range before this lens appeared. It is recorded here and not carried as a variant.
  3. Prices. OM-mania gives a launch price of ¥47,000, without saying which year's list it comes from; it is the only yen figure found and carries the single-source badge. Olypedia gives 273 DM from "der große Foto-Katalog 92/93".
  4. The blade count and the 169 g are Radojuva's, measured on the review lens; Olympus's own sheet gives 170 g and no blade count.
  5. Radojuva's English pages are translated from the Ukrainian original; the review is carried with the machine-translation flag.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • The only OM 28mm that stops down to f/22; the f/2 and f/3.5 lenses stop at f/16
  • Six elements in six groups; the f/3.5 it replaced has seven in seven, and is 1mm shorter and 10g heavier
  • Front ring reads Zuiko MC or plain Zuiko; no silver-nosed or letter-prefixed example is known

Zuiko MC Auto-W 1:2.8 f=28mm:

  • MC engraved on an all-black front ring; Olypedia knows of no silver-nosed example
  • Aperture ring runs f/2.8 to f/22, the only OM wide-angle that stops down to f/22
  • 32mm long and 170g, with a 49mm filter thread; the shortest and lightest OM 28

Zuiko Auto-W 28mm f/2.8 (MC dropped from the engraving):

  • Front ring reads OM-System Zuiko Auto-W with no MC; still multicoated

Serial-range notes

any number
No published serial table. CHLNGR's Zuiko list says each lens type started at 100,000 and ran its own series; Radojuva's review lens, an MC example, is no. 131417. That is all the sources give and no range is invented here.

Specifications

Formula
Retrofocus, 6 elements in 6 groups, all air-spaced
Construction
6 elements / 6 groups
Aperture range
f/2.8–f/22
Diaphragm blades
6
Min. focus
0.3 m
Dimensions
60 × 32 mm
Weight
170 g
Filter
49 mm
Years manufactured
1983
Country
Japan
Coating
Multicoated on every known example; engraved MC at first, then not engraved at all
Original price
¥47,000 at launch (OM-mania, single source); 273 DM in the 1992/93 German catalogue (Olypedia) (today ¥63,000)

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

Aggregated from the reviews above — follow the links for the full picture.

Vignetting
slight wide open
Flare & ghosting
well controlled
Distortion
low, slightly barrel
Optical formula — Retrofocus, 6 elements in 6 groups, all air-spaced

History

The last of the three OM 28s and the one most people own. Olympus introduced it in the early 1980s, a decade after the system, to replace the G.Zuiko 28mm f/3.5 that had been in the range since the M-1: mir.com.my dates the first MC-engraved example to 1981 or 1982 and Radojuva to 1983, and OM-mania places it in the years the N-series bodies appeared. It is a six-element lens in six air-spaced groups, 32 mm long and 170 g, which is a millimetre longer and ten grams lighter than the seven-element f/3.5, and Olympus’s own sheet calls it the lightest lens in its class. It takes the 49 mm filter of the rest of the OM wide-angles, focuses to 0.3 m, and is the only OM wide-angle that stops down to f/22. It has no floating group; mir.com.my regrets that, since the f/2 has one. OM-mania records a launch price of ¥47,000 against ¥100,000 for the f/2, and Olypedia has it at 273 DM in the German catalogue of 1992/93, when the f/2 was 703 DM.

There are only two engravings. The first is the Zuiko MC Auto-W, on an all-black front ring; Olypedia has never seen a silver-nosed one, which fits a lens that arrived after the silver nose had gone from the range. The second drops the MC, as every OM lens did once the whole range was multicoated, and Olypedia finds no constructional difference between them. A third name, the F.Zuiko MC Auto-W, exists only in Kadlubek’s catalogue; nobody has produced one, and the letter prefixes had been dropped before this lens appeared, so it is noted here and not treated as a version. mir.com.my says the f/2.8 probably outsold both other 28s from its introduction on, and the number of examples on the market agrees.

The reviewers like it more than its price suggests they should. David Braddon-Mitchell calls it very sharp across most of the frame, very high in contrast, good against flare and very small, a lens that makes sense as a student purchase; he has heard that the corners are a little worse than the f/3.5’s and cannot confirm it. OM-mania rates it four and a half stars for image quality, the highest of the three OM 28s, for its contrast, colour and shadow detail, and argues that the redesign from seven elements to six improved the power distribution as well as adding half a stop. Ad Dieleman is the dissenter on one point: he found a wavy field curvature, with a mid-zone that is less sharp than either the centre or the edges and most visible at f/5.6 and f/8, and he preferred the f/3.5 for landscapes. Radojuva, testing on a Canon 5D, found it optically “not bad” with good resolution stopped down and low distortion, and listed the six straight blades and the short 90-degree focus throw among its faults.

What to check is mostly mechanical. The focus ring is short in travel and the front group moves forward on a helicoid as the lens focuses, so a stiff or gritty ring means old grease; the aperture ring has no half-stop clicks, which is how Olympus built it. Olympus’s sheet gives 170 g and Radojuva weighed his at 169 g, so the figures agree for once. No serial table has been published; CHLNGR notes that Olympus started each lens type at 100,000, and Radojuva’s MC example is no. 131417, which is the only number found here that can be tied to a version.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo taken with the Zuiko 28mm f/2.8
Kokudō Station, Yokohama; Olympus OM-1 with the Zuiko Auto-W 28mm f/2.8 — yamauchi, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Sample photo taken with the Zuiko 28mm f/2.8
Tsurumi Station platform, Yokohama; OM-1 with the Zuiko Auto-W 28mm f/2.8 — yamauchi, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Sample photo taken with the Zuiko 28mm f/2.8
Botkin trail, Crimean mountains; OM-4Ti with the Zuiko 28mm f/2.8 on Ilford HP5 Plus — sovraskin, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Zuiko 28mm f/2.8? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $150 across 41 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-18 (middle half $130–$190). First day tracked.

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

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Listings updated 2026-09-18. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Zuiko 21mm f/2 · Zuiko 24mm f/2 · Zuiko 28mm f/2 · Zuiko 35mm f/2 · Zuiko 50mm f/1.8

Sources (11)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this lens, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.