Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 45 mm F1.8 Lens, Fast Fixed Focal Length, Suitable for All MFT Cameras (Olympus OM-D & PEN Models, Panasonic G-Series), Silver

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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. As a dedicated macro lens – indeed the first macro lens for Micro Four Thirds – the Panasonic Leica 45mm f2.8 boasts a closest focusing distance of 15cm allowing 1:1 reproduction. In contrast the Olympus 45mm f1.8’s closest focusing distance is a modest 0.5m, allowing just 0.11x magnification, or a reproduction that’s almost ten times smaller. You can see the difference in practice in my Olympus 45mm f1.8 macro results. The Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.8 is a lens that I never leave the house without. (No exaggeration; my everyday camera bag consists of an Olympus PEN E-P7, Olympus M.Zuiko 14-42mm Pancake, and an Olympus M.Zuiko 9mm Body Cap lens). The fact is that Nikon and Canon have not made any kind of real effort just yet to get into this market because they probably do not want to destroy their SLR sales which in turn would make their lens sales drop. They had a good thing going for a while (and still do of course) but these little cameras have certainly put a dent into the big bulky SLR market.

Olympus M.ZUIKO Digital 45mm f/1.8 Review | Photography Blog

As noted earlier the wide, ridged focus ring is not mechanically coupled but works very much as if it was - except that it has no stops, hard or soft, at either end of the focus range, making it difficult to judge whether you've reached the close-focus point or the infinity setting. Otherwise it feels like a "proper" focus ring, with smooth action and no perceptible delays. If budget isn’t an issue, there are many valid reasons to choose the new M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.2 PRO over the 45mm f/1.8. None (some may consider build slightly plasticy, but then if it would be metal they would complain its heavy; so at this price point, go away, NONE) Distortion is also minimized in this lens, showing just -0.1% pincushion distortion in the corners; this really isn't a lot to write home about.Corner shading (vignetting) is minimal at the fastest apertures, and distortion is very well-controlled thanks to the auto-correction performed on the RAW files by Micro Four Thirds cameras. Colours

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 45mm F1.8 Overview: Digital Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 45mm F1.8 Overview: Digital

MPB puts photo and video kit into more hands, more sustainably. Every month, visual storytellers sell more than 20,000 cameras and lenses to MPB. Choose used and get affordable access to kit that doesn’t cost the earth. For video I noticed a decrease in speed with the G7 when set to continuous autofocus. After the first attempts I found it easier to switch to manual focus and use the excellent peaking of the camera. This lens opens up to 1.8 allowing you to not only get great low light shots but also get shallow depth of field and up until this lens, it was tough to get this look with Micro 4/3. Opening up to 1.8 and shooting this focal length will give you super shallow DOF. This is a BIG DEAL of us who shoot with these cameras. How sharp is it? The following photo was shot wide open at f/1.8 and is the full size out of camera file:

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Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III + Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.8 (1/200 sec, f/1.8, ISO200) (Image credit: James Artaius) The EM1 was set to its base sensitivity of 200 ISO and the lens focused on the center of the composition using magnified Live View assistance. The corner and center crops shown below were taken from the areas marked with the red squares, right, and presented at 100%.

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

The lens has only one control on it, the manual focus ring. The ring is plastic with thin ribs, about 5/8'' wide. The focus ring sits in the center of the lens and is very smooth to turn, yet stiff enough that it will stay where it is set. With its fly-by-wire focusing design, the lens does not have any stops on it to let the user know it has reached either its close-focusing distance or infinity distance. Steve, thanks for the writeup. I just got my 45/1.8 yesterday and agree with you 100% — this lens is a sign that Micro Four Thirds has matured as a serious photography system. I’ve used this lens for nature images as well. I love the rendering as I already stated… but here is the big catch for this lens. The closest focusing distance is around 19″. The 25mm lens can focus down to 9.5″, the 12-40 goes down to 7.87″, and the 60m Macro gets to 1:1 at 7.4″. At 19″ your close focusing ability is not nearly as close as what we have gotten used to with other Olympus lenses. The panasonic 42.5 F/1.7 can focus to about 14″ which is a nice difference for a very similar lens. This might be appealing if you need the close focus. The close focus distance on this lens is usually the factor that keeps it on the shelf in favor of the 12-40 or 60mm Macro for me. I find I grab this lens more when I want the size advantage or am specifically doing portraits that need that extra special shallow depth of field. For general nature, the lens works great. It was never designed to be a macro lens and if you chose subjects that don’t need that you will love this lens outdoors. The beautiful rendering really helps bring out your subjects. Dinosaur in the grass

One of the seldom-discussed benefits of this particular lens for portraits is how it does NOT intimidate your subject. Flare is rarely an issue with this lens, except in exceptional circumstances. Shooting directly into bright sources of light will result in a loss of contrast, but no more so than similar lenses. An optional lens hood can be acquired and although this optic isn't overly prone to flare, it would've been nice for the hood to come included. Focusing isn't simply fast - it's almost silent, too, courtesy of the Movie & Stills Compatible (MSC) technology employed. This is good news for videographers and anyone who's into unobtrusive and discreet photography. The M.Zuiko Digital 45mm f/1,8 may have a lot of plastic parts but the lens mount is, thankfully, made of metal. Olympus does not claim any sort of weather resistance for this lens, and indeed you cannot see a rubber seal around the mount (note that no current Micro Four Thirds camera is weather sealed anyway)