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

Product Information

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) Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.8: Key features The Olympus 45mm f/1.8 is a member of the brand’s Premium line, as opposed to their Pro line, meaning it isn’t weather-sealed and comes without a lens hood. Not very often I come accross a lens that's that good and that I have little or nothing to complain about. The optional lens hood I did not buy. Instead I bought a more affordable Chinese JCC copy. Apart from a tiny bit of a loose fit, it's just fine. Again, if this focal length is what you are looking for, I don't think that you'll be disappointed. It’s also worth noting that the performance of the two lenses can decrease on Lumix cameras because Panasonic’s DFD AF technology is not compatible with Olympus lenses.

Olympus 45mm f/1.8 Zuiko Digital Micro Four Thirds Lens

This lens mounted combined with the in-body image stabilization in the all of the Olympus and some of the Panasonic camera bodies can make for easy one-handed photography if needed. 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). 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: if you've got even the slightest doubts, forget it, this is the best M4/3 lens out there. the price is just silly for the optical quality. The minimum focus distance of the two lenses is identical (50cm) while the maximum magnification is just a little higher on the 1.8 lens (0.1x vs. 0.11x).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. In use the 45mm is an absolute pleasure. Its autofocus is extremely swift - at least as fast as any DSLR/50mm combination I can think of. Critical focus fine-tuning isn't quite as immediate as using an optical viewfinder and a lens with manual focus override, but the PEN Mini is intelligent enough to magnify the selected focus point if you turn focus ring. This 10x magnified view gives better precision than an APS-C viewfinder affords. And, of course, the Mini's choice of 35 AF points and Face Detection gives more control over AF positioning than most DSLRs allow. But what about the pictures?

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 | MPB Used Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 | MPB

Both lenses are vulnerable to flare and ghosting even though they feature a lens coating (Z Coating on the PRO lens and ZERO on the 45mm 1.8). It usually takes the form of a series of polygonal shapes or veiling flare, and occurs if you shoot directly into the sun. Flare with the M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.2 PRO (shot at f/2.8) Flare with the M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.8 (shot at f/5.6) Chromatic Aberration, Vignetting and Distortion We haven't yet tested this lens, but it will work with the PEN without an adapter, and will provide you with the same effective focal length, if not the fast aperture.

I got this over the Christmas holiday on my way to CA. Was able to see it and hold it at a real camera store (Shutterbug in Portland, OR). Fell in love with it right away. What can you say: Sharp, Small, Light, Fast and Excellent. Very pleasing out of focus. Quiet for video. Great lens. Compares very well with my Nocton 40mm f1.4 M lens. Small but mighty” is a phrase you’ve probably heard before, and it’s very much applicable to the Olympus 45mm f/1.8. There's a lot of plastic in it, but I don't find that problematic. Time will tell if it's build to last. The lens is very light and small, and to me that is one of the things I like so much about micro 4/3. With the MMF-2 adapter, one could mount this standard Olympus four-thirds lens onto a PEN camera. It's not really the same class of lens - the 50mm is a macro lens - so you're going to get much different performance, but a similar style of image. The 50mm tested very well, with excellent results for sharpness, CA, distortion and corner shading. The autofocus is really fast with this lens at short and long distances. On Panasonic bodies like the new G7, I didn’t come across any flaws in either AF-S or AF-C. I briefly tested it on the Olympus OM-D E-M1 as well and I didn’t notice a decrease in performance. The AF motor is silent as well.