45mm F1.8 Olympus topic

stoney

Unless you do pull-focus, you could use MF on m43 lenses with fly-by-wire. Use a thick rubber around it and use FF gear. It wouldn't be as nice as a mechanical focus ring, but it's not a showstopper for how I wanna use the 45.8 lens.

I would wanna use a mechanical focus ring at 25mm.

sohus

My problem is that when you focus, put the camera off, and on again, you need to re-focus again. Manual lenses hold their position.

stoney

Good point. That might be a showstopper for some people.

It would be nice if Oly and Panny releases m43 lenses
with a mechanical focus ring and in-camera distortion correction
without AF motor and in-camera sharpening.

Vitaliy_Kiselev

@stonebat

All that they really need is to make option for position dependent focusing mode.
And store current focus point.
As for sharening, it is very difficult question, as you can percieve as sharpening many other things, not only sharpening itself :-)

John_Farragut

I now have 20mm and 14mm Panasonic lenses. I'm happy with both and want to complete my set with a third lens. You guys reckon it is good choice to buy 45mm Olympus over a manual focus lens with adapter? I know manual focus offers me creativity, but I'm clueless which 50mm manual focus lens + adapter to buy at this price point. I might as well go Olympus and go small and stealth.

Vitaliy_Kiselev

Yep, I suggest 45mm. It is much better than old 50mm glass.
Focus fast and silently.

John_Farragut

@Vitaliy_Kiselev I thought about low end Nikon lenses, but they looked bad compared to Olympus 45mm. The only lenses that got to me were old Minolta MD. Those look pretty good. But I don't like to have a big stash of old lenses to experiment with. I might as well go all in on small, light MFT lenses. That's what attracted me to the system in the first place. Only lens I would like after the Olympus then would be Voigtlander Nokton. Yes, big and heavy, but I like what I see in character of this lens. The more I think of it, the more I want to go with Olympus 45mm. Cheap, great, small, but more importantly doesn't cost me any time searching or experimenting. I know what it will get me. Same for the Nokton.

stoney

@John_Farragut

Using vintage 50mm lens on m43 is quite challenging. We usually set shutter speed at 1/50 or 1/60 for 24p. That's kinda slow for 50mm lens on m43, and it definitely needs more stabilization support. Even with a shoulder rig, shallow DOF and hazy look of vintage lenses make it hard to focus accurately on a moving target.

I would prefer 25mm instead. But I can't use 25mm on a close-up face shot due to the lens distortion. Just use 45.8 and focus fast. Usually close-up face shots don't need to last long. i.e. follow-focus isn't necessary. See the guy's close-up frame capture above. This 45mm can replace 50/85/100mm vintage lenses for close up framing because it has very low distortion.

Of course Leica 45mm 2.8 would be better, but it's twice more expensive. 35-100X would be great, but it will be a lot more expensive. For now, Olympus 45mm 1.8 is not a bad bet at all. I hope it goes below $300 soon.

DrDave

The lens that looked closest--and I tried about a dozen--to the Olly 45 was the Vivitar 55, in color, contrast and sharpness. Obviously the Leica and a few others are going to be right up there. But I'll be keeping the Olly for now.

John_Farragut

I had a Contax Zeiss Planar 50mm F1.4 for a short time. I thought that lens was quite good. All metal. Focus to 45 cm. Smooth focus. Very smooth bokeh. Not too sharp at F1.4. But nice images. It had character. Too bad aperture clicked to F2.0 directly after F1.4. Also heavy. Unfortunately had to return it due to problems. I think the Oly will do fine, but manual focus on the Contax Zeiss was quite nice.

DrDave

Nothing to fault in the Olly. Zero. Unless you want the edges soft, that's "unavailable."

otcx

I just get my Olympus 45mm F/1.8. It is just awesome. Must go to take some videos right away.

stoney

This lens has neither ED nor aspherical element while taming CA and SA. Cool.

Vitaliy_Kiselev

9 Elements in 8 Groups 2 E-HR lenses

So "has neither ED nor aspherical " is not correct.

stoney

Is it?

ED = extra-low dispersion

EDA = extra-low dispersion aspherical

DSA = double-sided aspherical

HR = high refractive index

E-HR = extra-high refractive index

http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/18268/olympus-lens-elements/

Vitaliy_Kiselev

@stonebat

Do not be silly :-)

Your post had been about how it consist from usual lenses only.

But it is not so :-)

EOSHD

I now have this lens, it is so light compared to old legacy manual focus glass and extremely small. Very very sharp and flare is under control. The AF is about as good as it gets, really quick and silent, all internal. Olympus are coming up with some really cool stuff at the moment, 12mm, 45mm and next a higher end OM-D body. Will be interesting to see what the video is like on that.

stoney

@Vitaliy I meant this lens seems quite different from other m43 lenses that usually contain aspherical and/or ED elements. Maybe Olympus found a magic formula for new m43 lens design. Very happy with the lens.

DrDave

Sharp & colorful lens!

ctbehrens

How does this lens compare tot he Contax planar T 45/2 in terms of sharpness?

Thinking of selling mine so that I can match lens qualities with an Oly 12/2.

stoney

Highly recommend getting this lens before the price going up this spring.

Ralph_B

@stonebat Where did you find the price is going up?

stoney

Spring has sprung. It's time for outdoor portraits.

My ebay seller of the lens raised the price from $329 to $385.

There is another seller selling it at $338. Get it before they raise the price.

DrDave

I'm not saying the price will go up, but I would gladly pay $600 for that lens if that was the only option.

Vitaliy_Kiselev

One of newer reviews of this must have lens.

http://blog.mingthein.com/2012/05/17/lens-review-the-olympus-zd-451-8/

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