Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.8 Mini Review

 

My iPad is back, hurrah, now I can use the brilliant Blogsy app and post more frequently. It's a silver iPad Air with the handsome looking iOS 7 (although some apps still look old fashioned, and uses the old keyboard, hmm, like Blogsy for example).

 

Today I will show you a few of my favorite pictures taken with the Olympus 45 1.8, one of the best lenses you could ever get for your MFT camera. Hit the jump for the full post.

David & Goliath

 

When I first bought into the MFT system, I bought two primes, the Panaleica 25 1.4 as my all-round 50mm equivalent lens, and the Olympus 45 1.8 as my portrait lens, and to have some background blur when needed. I love longer lenses because of the compression they do, add a fast aperture for some background blur and you get some nice portraits. The lens cost me $399 new, while the famous 75 1.8 cost $900. I decided to get the cheaper one.

 

From left: 12-50, 40-150, 25 1.4, 45 1.8

 

P.S. Excuse the mediocre quality of the product shots, I took them a very long time ago and I am too lazy to go take better ones. Here's one last product picture.

Compared to the RX100

 

As you can see, the lens is extremely tiny, one of the many reasons I like it. It has a 37mm filter thread, that's the same size as a large coin. It is made of high quality plastic, and has a metal mount, it feels solid enough. The focusing of this lens is blistering quick, it never hesitates or hunts, ever.

 

Now let us talk about images, the lens is very sharp wide open with almost no chromatic aberrations except in the most extreme situations. It doesn't ship with a lens hood, and it can lose some contrast when shooting directly into the sun, but what lens doesn't. The most impressive factor about this lens is it's background rendition, it has some of the nicest background blurs I've ever seen, in any situation. It reminds me of my Canon 100L f/2.8 Macro, just smooth pleasing backgrounds.

 

Wide open, background was less than one meter behind the subject

 

I don't know what to say else about the lens other than that it is an exceptional lens, sold for an exceptional price, and it is a must for any MFT user shooting such a focal length.

 

Now I will leave you with some images, I apologize for the lack of different subjects, but 80% of the images shot with this lens are of my family, and most of them are personal and can't be posted here. I hope these will do.

 

Street portrait, f1.8, 1/15 sec, ISO 5000, hand held

 

Drinking juice, wide open

 

Cold, wide open

 

Party, wide open, bounce flash

 

Polish plant, wide open

 

Cinematic, wide open

 

Swing, wide open

 

Wondering look

 

Nail polish

 

Fountain portrait

 

Trip computer

 

I hope you enjoyed the images, and I hope I will be posting more, now that I have an iPad once more.

 

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