{"id":457,"date":"2012-02-24T18:06:52","date_gmt":"2012-02-24T23:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/?p=457"},"modified":"2024-09-05T22:05:13","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T03:05:13","slug":"olympus-m-zuiko-45mm-f1-8-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/olympus-m-zuiko-45mm-f1-8-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f\/1.8"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Introduction<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f\/1.8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In June of 2011, Olympus announced two new prime lenses for the Micro 4\/3 standard: the M.Zuiko 12mm f\/2 and the M.Zuiko 45mm f\/1.8.  Today I’m going to take a closer look at the 45mm f\/1.8, which I have had the pleasure of shooting with for the past few months.  It was quite refreshing to see Olympus start to release lenses for the Micro 4\/3 standard that appeal to enthusiasts and not just the casual photographer looking for a small step up from a point and shoot.  Olympus has many lenses for the Micro 4\/3 format, but few primes.  In fact, the tiny 17mm f\/2.8 pancake lens was the company’s only prime lens in the lineup until the announcement of these two new lenses.  Both these lenses addressed a need for the system, but none more than the 45mm f\/1.8.  The Micro 4\/3 standard had some excellent ultra-wide options, some quality normal focal length options and plenty of slow standard and telephoto zooms.  What was sorely lacking was a fast prime in the prototypical ‘portrait focal length’, which in 35mm film terms has been lenses between 85mm and 135mm.  With the 45mm f\/1.8, Olympus has given us a relatively fast lens that has the same field of view as a 90mm lens on 35mm film or full frame digital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As this is my first lens review, I’ll give you a small insight into how I will be evaluating lenses.  My reviews will take a practical approach.  I will not be shooting test charts and analyzing pixels of chromatic aberration or line pairs of resolution.  There are plenty of websites out there that do these sorts of tests.  While I use those sites as an excellent reference, it is ultimately a bunch of numbers, and while those numbers can give you an idea of how a lens performs, it doesn’t really tell you or show you how a lens acts in the real world.   My reviews will cover most of the main topics of lens quality, such as resolution, bokeh, chromatic aberration, autofocus speed, etc, but the means of discussion will be practical, and detail how they affect your final image and how the lens truly works in real world use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Build Quality and Ergonomics<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Olympus 45mm f\/1.8 and Leica 45mm f\/2.8 Macro-Elmarit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Olympus 45mm f\/1.8 is a small lens.  It’s made for a small system, so this is a great thing, but even though I knew the specifications of the lens before it arrived, it still shocked me as to how tiny it was for a lens of its focal length and aperture.  You can see in the picture at theright that the lens is significantly smaller than the Panasonic Leica 45mm f\/2.8 Macro, and indeed, the lens fits easily into the palm of your hand.  In reality, it’s not much larger than a 35mm film cannister…it’s shorter and a little fatter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lens has an attractive silver finish that is meant to work well with the Olympus Pen series, but also looks quite nice on the Panasonic bodies, either in black or the gunmetal silver of my GX1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The majority of the lens body is made of plastic, with a metal mount.  The front silver ring containing the signature blue “Zuiko Digital” stripe is also metal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Olympus 45mm f\/1.8, Front Element<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The focus ring is wide for the body of the lens and turns smoothly.  Like all Micro 4\/3 lenses, manual focus is done by wire, and so there are no hard stops on the focus ring.  While the ring turns smoothly, the construction of the ring feels a little cheap.  Given the $399 price tag for the lens, I wish they had at least used a heavier plastic for the focus ring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The silver ring at the end of the lens conceals a bayonet mount for attaching the optional round lens hood.  I also feel for the price of the lens, that the lens hood should be included in the box, but frankly that’s a minor nitpick.  Given the lens’ small size, I feel the large hood would somewhat defeat the purpose of having a tiny little lens like this to carry around.  Overall, build is solid and there is very little to complain about here.  The front of the lens is simple and clean, with 37mm filter threads.  Because the lens is internal focus with no rotating elements, use of a polarizer is easy, though finding a quality one with 37mm filter threads may be a challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue: Image Quality and Performance
<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Performance<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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So can this tiny little guy deliver the goods? With regards to autofocus, absolutely. Focus is very quick and sure. On a modern Micro 4\/3 body like the Panasonic GX1 or Olympus E-P3, it feels nearly instant. It also locks extremely accurately. The lens uses Olympus’ “Movie-Still-Capable” (MSC) motor, which is virtually silent, and can only be heard if your ear is pressed to the lens body. The 45mm f\/1.8 has a minimum focus distance of 0.5m, which isn’t exceptionally close for a 45mm lens, but is quite nice when compared to its full frame counterparts. Most 85mm lenses have a minimum focus distance of around 0.9m-1.0m. This allows for very tight headshots, even of children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lens in movie mode focuses well, with accurate and inaudible focusing. I prefer to use manual focus for filming, and the 45mm f\/1.8 works well here as well, though the small size of the lens makes this less desirable than on some larger lenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Image quality<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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A Girl and Her Dog – Panasonic GH2 with Olympus 45mm f\/1.8 @ f\/1.8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Olympus 45mm f\/1.8 is absolutely stunningly good optically. The lens is extremely sharp straight from f\/1.8. There is absolutely no loss of contrast wide open either, which means that the fast f\/1.8 aperture is completely usable, with no need to stop down to correct optical aberrations. It is always wonderful to have a lens where aperture selection becomes purely about depth of field, rather than trying to overcome a lens’ faults at wider apertures, and the Olympus 45mm f\/1.8 delivers in spades here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lens contrast is just right for a portrait lens. It provides great macro contrast and sharpness without being harsh. In fact, with skin tones, it maintains a beautiful even tone curve that is very flattering to your subject. The only downside for portrait use is that you may need to soften some details on models with less than perfect skin due to the extremely high resolution. Click on the image at the right for a larger view and see the crisp detail the lens can deliver at f\/1.8, while maintaining good skin tones and high global contrast. The contrast works very well for non-portrait subjects as well, delivering rich color and great texture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lens controls chromatic aberration quite well, with essentially zero lateral CA in field use, and well controlled (though occasionally visible) longitudinal chromatic aberration, which only shows up on very high contrast backgrounds and foregrounds in the specular highlights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wild Lights – Panasonic GH2 with Olympus 45mm f\/1.8 @ f\/1.8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Flare is extremely well controlled with this lens, so shooting with lights in the frame is no problem. There is very mild pincushion distortion, though you’d be hard pressed to ever see it in real world photos. In my opinion it is a complete non-issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the outstanding resolution, the lens manages to produce very pleasing bokeh as well. Specular highlights are generally round and evenly illuminated. There can occasionally be a very light bright ring around specular highlights, but even when it shows up, it is not objectionable. Non-specular out of focus areas are smooth and creamy. The combination of high resolution and smooth bokeh means that shooting with wide apertures yields quality imaging on a very high level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

So where does it fall down?  In truth, hardly anywhere.  The bokeh isn’t perfect<\/em>, but in my opinion, it’s very pleasing.  It’s not completely apochromatic, but I’ve yet to have a single shot ruined by CA.  About the only thing I could wish for is that Olympus had used the same beautiful metal finish as they did on the 12mm f\/2 for this lens.  When you handle both, the 45mm feels like a cheaper lens in comparison.  It would be nice if they had given it the exterior worthy of the outstanding optics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f\/1.8 is an absolutely stellar lens.  In fact, of all the lenses I’ve owned in the portrait range, including several top tier Canon L primes, this ranks right up near the top.  That may sound unbelievable, but it’s true.  Of course, those lenses on a full frame camera will enable you to take images with significantly shallower depth of field, but that’s a limitation of the system, and not a fault of this lens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is blisteringly sharp at all apertures, yet maintains a medium contrast curve and outstanding bokeh.  Autofocus is exceptionally fast and accurate and coupled with the small size makes this lens an absolute joy to use.  This lens is a must-have for anyone using the Micro 4\/3 system, and combined with any of the newer Micro 4\/3 bodies, makes a compact portrait package that can compete with most any camera system.  It is, in my opinion, the crown jewel of the Micro 4\/3 system and one of the best lenses I have ever had the pleasure to own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additional Sample Images<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Firestone Window – Panasonic GX1 with Olympus 45mm f\/1.8 @ f\/2.8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Snow White – Panasonic GH2 with Olympus 45mm f\/1.8 @ f\/1.8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Firestone Alley – Panasonic GX1 with Olympus 45mm f\/1.8 @ f\/3.5<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Myles – Panasonic GH2 with Olympus 45mm f\/1.8 @ f\/4.5<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction In June of 2011, Olympus announced two new prime lenses for the Micro 4\/3 standard: the M.Zuiko 12mm f\/2 and the M.Zuiko 45mm f\/1.8.  Today I’m going to take a closer look at the 45mm f\/1.8, which I have had the pleasure of shooting with for the past few months.  It was quite refreshing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[56,26,11,10,12,29,8,55],"class_list":["post-457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-45mm","tag-lens","tag-m43","tag-micro-43","tag-mu43","tag-olympus","tag-review","tag-zuiko"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p28RGq-7n","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12750,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457\/revisions\/12750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}