Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens

Comments about Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens:

Superb pics, great construction, smooth focus ring with perfect resistance. Used in conjunction with my Panny GH2 for video, it's lightness and fastness means I can shoot handheld more often. Cant wait to get the 12mm F2.

Comments about Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens:

Very nice lens to get a shallow depth of field with nice looking bokeh. Quite compact, works nicely with my Panasonic GX1.

It does require a little more force than normal for attaching to the GX1.

Comments about Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens:

Light weight, which is good for me. Use it on an E-P2. RAW file colors and contrast are very good; as good or better than my APS-C SLR, although less DR. My favrite m4/3 lens.

Comments about Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens:

I love this lens. I use it on my Oly PEN E-P3. It is an ideal portrait lens though I don't shoot portraits except of my cat. I find it very useful for landscapes (getting over the road or parking lot) and many low light situations, and where shallow DOF is desired. I have used it for food photography with great results. It is not a problem, but I find this lens goes on with a bit of resistance. No complaints, this is a wonderful product.

Comments about Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens:

I use this lens on my Panasonic GH2. It focuses quickly, is sharp, and is small and light.

The one negative aspect I can think of is that when mounting it to my GH2, it does not mount as smoothly as my Panasonic lenses.

It takes more force to rotate the lens into the locked position and this feels a little too stiff.

Other than that, it's a great lens.

Comments about Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens:

Fast, high quality lens with great depth of field, good light and excellent speed.

Comments about Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens:

This lens has many virtues: fast, excellent image quality, small and light. It is also not tremendously expensive. Highly recommended.

Comments about Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens:

Ultra light weight plastic lens, but it works okay.

Comments about Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens:

For anyone who enjoys an 85 or 90mm prime on a full frame camera, this lens does a great job on m4/3rds cameras. I use it the GF1, GH2 and E-PL3 with very good results. In a different class from the Pany and Oly kit lenses, and faster focusing than the Pany 20mm. Overall, this is best m4/3rds lens I have, and the best buy when compared to the others. I use it mostly for portrait shots and have really enjoyed it.

Comments about Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens:

I'd been anticipating this lens for some time, and when the shipping notice made its way to my e-mail I was plain giddy. Lucky me, with B&H and UPS both being awesome with shipping from East Coast to East Coast, I got it next day, too!

Back in my SLR days I had a thing for the look and feel of the "Nifty 50". Though my old 20mm f/1.7 was close, it was too wide - it dawned on me that I was looking for a longer focal length prime, something to crop in on a face or some minute detail, let the DOF be sliced nice and thin and the background consist of nothing but creamy bokeh. Oly's 45mm f/1.8 was an unexpected godsend.

Center sharpness wide open is fantastic, with ever so subtle vignetting and the smooth, delicious, melty bokeh I'd expect from such a piece. Headshots taken in a square format are everything I'd hoped and more. Stop it down and the bokeh naturally hardens up a little, but it still manages to refrain from being distracting like the stopped down bokeh with a zoom. Optically, the lens is what you'd expect from a prime (and that is a VERY good thing).

I hear a lot of complaints about the construction of the lens being plastic and not metal, and I don't entirely understand the hang-up with metal construction. Metal is heavy, dents and chinks in hideous ways... sure, I can understand a manual lens being built of metal as the experience of it is intended to be tactile, but this 45mm is an autofocus lens, not really something needing to be fiddled with. And on the topic of autofocus, it locks on with the kind of speed that didn't seem realistic for contrast detect systems in the past. On my E-P3 it locks on far faster than my old DSLR ever did (granted, it was an amateur body and lens, but they cost the same too). Focus is typically spot on unless I'm shooting for something obscure, in which case the smooth action of the focus ring on the barrel is a pleasure to turn with the touch of a single finger. I worried about its size being an issue in that I might accidentally knock it off focus mid shot but found instead it was a beneficial element of the lens' construction.

The mount is solid (if not a little sticky the first I stuck it on the E-P3), the construction is stellar for this price bracket, and the optics are nigh perfect. If I had any complaint, it would probably be that the lens hood is an accessory needing purchase, but at the same time I've had no issues with flare so the hood doesn't even seem necessary.

If you're humoring any doubts, stop it. There are none to be had. This lens will not disappoint.

Comments about Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens:

The lens is a solid addition to the Olympus micro four thirds collection. The focus is quick, though a bit noisy, and aesthetically it looks fantastic on the E-P2 body. Extremely happy with the lens, though it reaffirms the fact that Olympus is able to develop solid fixed focal length lenses, but still cannot achieve quality results in the zoom lens category.

Comments about Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens:

Very fast autofocus on the E-P3, even faster than the 20mm lumix pancake lens (which I love). It's very well made and reasonable for its price. Highly recommended, you won't regret buying it.

Comments about Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens:

The best Olympus prime lens so far for u4/3 camera body. Very sharp in both center and edge of frame from f1.8 to f11, very good contrast and nice bokeh. Fast, almost noiseless, accurate focusing in low light even with the older E-PL1 body. Manual focusing is also smooth. Plastic component made this lens light and affordable but still feel precise in performance. This complements the very good Lumix Panasonic 20mm f1.7 I bought last year. Expect this lens to be a bestseller given it's excellent optical quality and reasonable pricing.

Comments about Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens:

I use this lens for portraits and certain types of architectural photography. What makes the lens unique is its focal length and the fact that it is f/1.8. As a result, I have tended so far to use it wide open. It fills an important niche in the focal range for m4/3 and it is worth owning for that reason alone. Quality wise, it is nearly as good as the Panasonic 20/1.7 pancake lens. I have not used it enough to have a list of negatives, but lens flare can be an issue and I also don't know how it is going to hold up over time with heavy use. Autofocus is amazingly fast and the motor is silent. The lens is good value for the money at its current price.

Comments about Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens:

I was on the fence about getting this lens since I had the OM-50 (it's cheaper) and it is a specific focal point rather than an all purpose or walk around. I am glad I purchased it. It does stay on my EP3 most of the time, I hate to take it off. It's a comfortable focal length that allows me to get most of the photos I need before having to change the lens. It's fast and despite it being plastic as some have reported, it is NOT cheap plastic. It is very light, but it does not feel cheap. The optics is very good, it's sharp and I wouldn't expect it to be heavy. It's extremely portable, I have stored mine in a sweat shirt pocket with no problems. For an Oly lens and for what we are getting in terms of quality, it is very cheap. Oly lenses are on the expensive side, but this is well worth the money. It's a beautiful, fast, light weight and affordable lens. If you own a micro four thirds camera, you can't go wrong with this one.

Comments about Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens:

Simply an essential lens for Micro Four Thirds.

Comments about Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens:

With this lens, the 12mm f/2.0, and the upcoming 25 f/1.4 from Panasonic, just give me a pro body and I'll be ready to dump my heavy full size equipment. This lens is sharp, focus is fast, and the build quality is incredible!!!

Comments about Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens:

It's an awesome prime. I would end it with that but it wouldn't be a good review now would it. :)

I pre-ordered this lens on the day it was available for preorder here at BH. I use it pretty much on anything and everything. I hardly take it off the body ever since I received it from BH. So it can be of general use...just not Macro.

Pros:
So first of, if you own a micro four-thirds body, you need to own this lens. It is sharp on all it's aperture range. The bokeh is silky smooth. It's a beauty when attached to a Pen body (E-P1 here). Despite the mostly plastic build, it is very sturdy and nicely built. At f1.8 I no longer need a flash during indoor events and settings.

Cons:
It's not a macro lens, so the focusing distance it rather far for it to make a complete focus. The lens is too good for my camera now. Honestly it brings out the flaw of my aging E-P1, for example though it focuses faster than my kit lens, it was surely built for the faster E-P3, E-PL3 and E-PM1. Another flaw it brings out from my Camera is that this Prime seems to be made with the narrower focus area of the newer cameras, as they produce a more sharper image from AF, rather than going to Manual focus with my P1 just to match the newer camera's sharpness.

In conclusion...This Prime is awesome, Buy it here if BH has it in stock, pre-order it if it's not.

Comments about Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens:

On first unpacking this lens I was impressed with the build quality, having had my expectations lowered by some initial reviews and complaints about it having a cheaper plastic construction. True, there is a lot of plastic, but it hardly feels cheap to me. Not nearly as cheap as the MZ 14-42 ii R kit lens that comes with the EP3. Frankly, if I'd never heard a complaint about build quality I wouldn't have thought of it on my own. To me the lens has a solid weight and feel, while remaining small and light. Perfect for m43 (which I got into because of the small size).

Regarding performance, the first thing I noticed was BLAZING fast autofocus on my EP3, indoors in dim light (need ISO 1600 1/40 @ f1.8 for average shot). It's almost scary how fast this lens will focus. I am completely sold on the MSC lenses Olympus is putting out and their FAST autofocus system. I have a Panasonic 20mm 1.7, and after having this lens for an afternoon I swear I will sell that 20mm 1.7 if olympus ever comes out with a fast, normal MSC lens in the 35-50mm range. The Panasonic feels like a dog.

Optical quality is incredible so far. I was on the fence with m43 until I saw what this lens would produce from the EP3. As always, photos are a product of skill, then glass, then camera. This lens has beautiful out of focus rendering, a very tight depth of field at wide apertures, and impressive sharpness. I want to quit my job and just go out shooting with this lens. I'm not sure when I'll put the 20mm 1.7 back on (and I thought that was a pretty nice lens, depending on the conditions).

It is a bit pricey, but for my money, it can't be beat for a short tele on m43. The autofocus speed and ergonomics, in addition to the excellent image quality, make it a must have if you like to do portraits or have some separation from your subject. I don't have a single regret buying it. In fact, it makes me want the 12mm f2 even more now.

Comments about Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens:

This is a great, great lens. Super lightweight, super fast focusing, great OOF blur, natural color and the sharpest micro four-thirds lens I have, out of six. Good price too. Fit and finish nice, not like the 12mm, but still stylish. These two lenses from Oly are a great fit with the 20 from Panasonic.