Steve, thanks for the writeup. I just got my 45/1.8 yesterday and agree with you 100% — this lens is a sign that Micro Four Thirds has matured as a serious photography system. Corner shading isn't really a factor for this lens - the only point it is even noteworthy is when the lens is used wide open at ƒ/1.8, where we note extreme corners that are a third of a stop darker than the center. In any other setting, corner shading is negligible. Also cool, is that on the PEN’s, you can have no only face detection AF, but eye detection, with the choice of which eye even. That makes me remember the review I wrote for the Panasonic 20 1.7 a while ago where I put it up against the big monster Nikon D3s. The E-P2 and 20mm won that shootout but that was because I was shooting the D3s with the el-cheapo Nikon 50 1.8. Add that lens to a full frame camera like the D3s and you will get soft images and softer corners. These little cameras like the E-P3 and even the new TINY Panasonic GF3 will always give you pretty sharp corners and there are some fantastic strengths in this smaller sensor with that being one of them. The other strength and the most important one..is SIZE. I see it MORE AND MORE these days…people are dumping their DSLR’s for small cameras like the NEX system, or Micro 4/3 cameras. One reason why Nikon and Canon sales are DOWN this year and I predicted this over the last two years.

Olympus 45mm F1.8 first impressions - Digital Photography Review

There's a pleasing manual focus ring that's the perfect width and has just the right amount of knurling, though this employs a focus-by-wire system that old school purists who prefer mechanical focusing may not be a fan of. I found some traces of chromatic aberration at the fastest apertures in images with strong contrast like the picture below. It is present in both the JPG and Raw versions. However it is easily removable in Lightroom. DMC-G7, 1/4000, f/ 1.7, ISO 200 Putting aside its fast maximum aperture of f/1.8, the lens offers very little in the way of features. There is no distance scale, DoF marks, focus limiter or optical image stabiliser on board. The latter won't really be a problem for users of Olympus' own digital PEN cameras, all of which boast a sensor-shift anti-shake mechanism, but Panasonic owners should be aware that this is a non-stabilised lens. The only control on the lens barrel is the focus ring, which isn't mechanically coupled to the moving lens elements but still feels very nice and natural in use. As the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 lens has an internal focusing mechanism, the length of the lens barrel does not change and the filter thread does not rotate on focus. Using the spot meter of the E-P3 I metered off of the leaves where the sun was hitting. This will give you the best exposure for a scene like this. f/1.8 don’t shoot portraits on a regular basis but want something better than the kit lens that comes with your cameraSo we were understandably delighted when Olympus announced a lens that fitted this definition almost perfectly. And still more encouraged when we discovered they were asking a fairly sensible amount of money for it. It doesn't have the 12mm F2's beautiful all-metal build and clever manual focus engineering but we'd much prefer a price tag that will see it end up in more people's kit bags. What about the faithful 50s? The manual focusing ring turns smoothly and is a step-up from the manual focusing rings on the kit lenses, but it’s not quite in the same league as the silky smooth manual focusing rings of the Panasonic Leica models including the 45mm f2.8 macro. Speaking of which it’s worth talking about the Panasonic 45mm f2.8 in more detail as it’s a model many will compare to the Olympus 45mm f1.8. Both share the same mount and focal length, so the main differences in optical specifications concern their aperture, closest focusing distances and stabilization. Again, it is a fantastic lens, but if you enjoy landscapes and night shots, there are other choices that would probably suit you better. Not enough lenses. That’s where the NEX 7 falls short. Not to mention, the lenses just feel ridiculous on those cameras….

Olympus 45 1.8 Micro 4/3 Lens Review by Steve Huff The Olympus 45 1.8 Micro 4/3 Lens Review by Steve Huff

With the lens wide open, you can see some light fall-off in the corners, but it is not very severe, and goes away almost completely upon stopping down to f/2.8. Falloff of illumination towards the corners is very well controlled, especially so for a fast aperture lens. At f/1.8 the corners are only 0.76 stops darker than the image centre and visually uniform illumination is achieved at f/2.8.As a dedicated macro lens – indeed the first macro lens for Micro Four Thirds – the Panasonic Leica 45mm f2.8 boasts a closest focusing distance of 15cm allowing 1:1 reproduction. In contrast the Olympus 45mm f1.8’s closest focusing distance is a modest 0.5m, allowing just 0.11x magnification, or a reproduction that’s almost ten times smaller. You can see the difference in practice in my Olympus 45mm f1.8 macro results.

f/1.7 vs. Olympus 45mm f/1.8 - MirrorLessons Panasonic 42.5mm f/1.7 vs. Olympus 45mm f/1.8 - MirrorLessons

There is a light amount of chromatic aberration present in images shot at wide apertures - it's noticeable at ƒ/4 and below, mostly in the corners and only in areas of high contrast. The effect is magenta-blue fringing, and it's probably only visible by viewing 100% crops. By ƒ/5.6, the effect is almost negligible. Imaged were soft, especially wide open and the focus speed was good (like with nearly all µFT lenses), but it was not outstanding. Not sure this lens could be any faster focusing. It nailed these birds every time I pulled the trigger.

Buy. Sell. Trade. Create.

Given the newer nature of the micro four-thirds system, there aren't yet (at the time of writing) a lot of alternatives to choose from. Tipping the scales at just over 115 grams and measuring only 46x56mm, the M.Zuiko Digital 45mm f/1.8 is a truly small and lightweight lens that fits easily in the palm of your hand.