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45mm F1.8 Olympus topic
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  • Ralph_BRalph_B

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

  • stoneystoney

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

  • ctbehrensctbehrens

    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.

  • DrDaveDrDave

    Sharp & colorful lens!

  • stoneystoney

    @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.

  • EOSHDEOSHD

    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.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @stonebat

    Do not be silly :-)

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

    But it is not so :-)

  • stoneystoney

    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_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    9 Elements in 8 Groups 2 E-HR lenses

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

  • stoneystoney

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

  • otcxotcx

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

  • DrDaveDrDave
    Nothing to fault in the Olly. Zero. Unless you want the edges soft, that's "unavailable."
  • John_FarragutJohn_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.
  • DrDaveDrDave
    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.
  • stoneystoney
    @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.
  • John_FarragutJohn_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.
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    Yep, I suggest 45mm. It is much better than old 50mm glass.
    Focus fast and silently.
  • John_FarragutJohn_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_KiselevVitaliy_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 :-)
  • stoneystoney
    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.
  • sohussohus
    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.
  • stoneystoney
    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.
  • sohussohus
    It can be found for 259 EURO in The Netherlands. I don't think the price will drop, this lens is too cheap already. Could easily be $100 extra. There is only one thing that bothers me: fly-by-wire. I just hate it. Imagine how great the m43 system would be if all the lenses had proper focus rings. I think that is the niche for companies like Voigtlaender, Schneider Kreuznach, PL, Zeiss, Sigma, Tamron to jump in. They are slow to realize that.
  • stoneystoney
    I've been searching for short tele lenses. Olympus 45mm 1.8 is looking fine fine fine.

    Many fast nifty-fifty and short tele primes are soft at max aperture. Some give busy bokeh which seems quite distracting. Non-electronic-m43 lenses get no distortion correction, and non-m43 lenses have longer minimum focus distance.

    The 45mm 1.8 is sharp at 1.8 and gives good bokeh. Also it has very low distortion which is the most important thing to me at this focal length. The low distortion will help me get close-up face shot without any noticeable distortion. The lens's minimum focus distance is 50cm which is a lot shorter than non m43 short tele lenses.

    Fast AF sounds nice, but I don't think this lens supports AFC well. The fly-by-wire focus ring... doesn't seem like a showstopper at this focal length. Even with a shoulder rig, I wouldn't wanna leave both hands from the handles to reduce the shake. Leica 45mm 2.8 is the fastest m43 lens with OIS, but it's "only" 2.8 about twice more expensive. Compared to Leica 45mm 2.8, the upcoming 35-100X lens "might" have constant 2.8 aperture and Power OIS and supports AFC. But the X zoom is... again only 2.8 and a lot more expensive than this Oly lens.

    Really hope the price goes below $300....
  • RamboRambo
    And it has more contrast/less flare in outdoor conditions than FD's, i like that and probably the reason i will buy it.
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