Being small and fast means the camera is easy to work with, doesn’t get tiring to hold, and your subjects don’t pay attention to it. In fact it is very easy for the camera and lens to become virtually invisible. Good gear does that… but the larger the camera the harder to forget about its presence in your hands. This lens disappears. Maternity portrait with a touch of glow There's a pleasing manual focus ring that's the perfect width and has just the right amount of knurling, though this employs a focus-by-wire system that old school purists who prefer mechanical focusing may not be a fan of. Olympus PEN E-PL7 + Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.8 (1/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO200) (Image credit: James Artaius) Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.8: Verdict The obvious difference in price, size and design may already be enough to convince you one way or the other but we cannot help but ask ourselves: how big a difference is there between the latest optical wonder and the first portrait prime for the system released six years ago? Let’s find out!

Reasons Why I Love Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm F1.8 Lens Reasons Why I Love Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm F1.8 Lens

Still i'd like to remark that this report, intended to be about the new Olympus 45 mm lens, could be somewhat shortened: This lens is a perfect portrait lens and is very good at taken photos at anything, because the lens does all the work for you. The auto focus is pretty darn fast and the colors are great too. For people who are not in to portraiture the Olympus 45mm is still an outstanding lens to have. Gorgeous rendering that rivals other classic rangefinder glass like the Contax G Carl Zeiss T* Planar 45.The blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges. Averaging them out gives the red weighted column. The only thing I dislike is that it is not a pancake lens, like e.g. the Panasonic 20 mm or the Olympus 17mm... One thing I think that is worth touching upon (intentional pun) is how much more useful the touch screen for selecting AF points becomes on the EP3.

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 45mm 1:1.8 review | Cameralabs

In fact, I have a friend who had a Nikon D7000 with the kit lens and after seeing my pictures with the 45 1.8 and the size/weight advantages, she just switched to m4/3! Its size is a crucial selling point, too. Unlike other mirrorless formats, where the cameras may be small but the lenses are still chunky, Micro Four Thirds lenses can be positively diminutive –because they have a much smaller image circle to cover. So if you want a truly lightweight or portable lens, the Olympus f/1.8 primes are what mirrorless was made for.With excellent test results, this is a no-brainer of a conclusion - it's a great and inexpensive addition to your Olympus PEN kit, especially if you're a portrait shooter. I found some traces of chromatic aberration at the fastest apertures in images with strong contrast like the picture below. It is present in both the JPG and Raw versions. However it is easily removable in Lightroom. DMC-G7, 1/4000, f/ 1.7, ISO 200 Olympus PEN E-PL7 + Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.8 (1/2500 sec, f/1.8, ISO200) (Image credit: James Artaius) Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.8: Performance Levels of distortion are also very low, as you might expect for a prime lens like this. Imatest managed to detect 0.215% barrel distortion, which will be very difficult to spot by eye, even with straight lines close to the edges of the frame. Given the cloudy and partially rainy day, I couldn’t test the flare resistance capabilities of this lens. I especially wanted to see if some purple fringing would appear like on many other Micro Four Thirds lenses. I noticed some in low light with artificial light sources like in the picture shown below. DMC-G7, 1/50, f/ 1.7, ISO 1600

Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.8 review | Digital Camera World

In the two tables below you’ll see how the Lumix 42.5mm f1.7 compares against the Olympus 45mm f1.8, first in the middle of the frame, then in the corner. Note due to its slightly longer focal length, the Olympus is delivering a slightly tighter field of view and therefore resolving slightly finer details. The thing to look for in the comparisons below are the overall sharpness and contrast.

Design and Ease of Use

Of course I couldn’t resist taking an additional set of comparison shots with the Nocticron 42.5mm f/1.2, currently the best portrait lens for Micro Four Thirds in terms of image quality. But the Nocticron is larger, heavier and more expensive (3 times the price of its little brother). The Leica designed lens also has a stronger build, comes with a metal lens hood and has a nice aperture ring that works on Panasonic bodies only. The 20mm is over twice as wide and is more of a general purpose lens as is the 17mm. The 45mm would be a rather poor choice for general landscapes frankly.

Olympus M.Zuiko Premium 45mm f/1.8 lens - Photo Review Olympus M.Zuiko Premium 45mm f/1.8 lens - Photo Review

Steve if you can get hold of a Zuiko 50/1.8 MIJ (Made in Japan) serial 5million+ would be grateful if you would kindly compare it to this new 45/1.8 for sharpness wide open, colour, bokeh. What we've added is the ability to convey personal impressions of some of the more interesting items that cross our desk. Wide open at f/1.8 and from a distance. This shot was also taken with the Ricoh GXR and Leica 50 Summitar HERE.A topic that cannot be forgotten is low-light performance. Since they both have a fast maximum aperture, they are incredibly useful for work in venues with poor lighting such as a church, wedding reception, concert hall or auditorium. Sell the kit you’re not using to MPB. Trade in for the kit you need to create. Buy used, spend less and get more. Buy. Sell. Trade. Create. and please dpreview- stop claiming that YOU asked for it and the manufacturers replied- are you really this arrogant?