Anyway, thanks for another great article, and I will make sure to continue reading your blog every now and then! Lateral chromatic aberrations, typically seen as blue or purple fringes along contrasty edges, are essentially a non-issue with this lens – the examples below show the worst-case scenario. Longitudinal chromatic aberration, also known as 'bokeh fringing' is a bit easier to spot, especially in photos taken at maximum aperture, but only if you are actively looking for it.

The blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges. Averaging them out gives the red weighted column. I happen to find myself right in the middle of many of these events. From young children in the recent past, to university graduations in the near future, and to a wedding nine months from now, my camera is sure to be exhausted by year end. With the lens wide open, you can see a minimal amount of light fall-off in the corners. Stopping down to just f/4 cures this problem almost entirely.My wife’s sister lives about eight hours away and we get to see her sister’s family three or four times a year. Ever since they had kids, those three or four times a year have become a valuable chance to catch up with and get to know our nieces and nephews. Time has inevitably set in however — their kids are growing faster than we could ever imagine. The Olympus 75mm 1.8 doesn’t exhibit any issues with lens flare. In fact I shot it straight into the sun through some leaves and it coped remarkably well. It retained plenty of contrast in the image. Move the sun just out of frame and you have no problems with flare at all. The Olympus 75mm f/1.8’s autofocus is top notch. It uses Olympus’ Movie-Still-Compatible (MSC) technology which allows the lens to focus lightning fast. Further, this technology keeps the autofocus system completely quiet — perfect for those moments when silence is necessary, like in videography. My first test with the M.Zuiko 75mm f1.8 was for a professional assignment in Ascona, Switzerland, in December 2019. American bass player, composer and singer Ben Williams’s band was scheduled at Teatro del Gatto. I was deeply confident in the potential of this “old” high performance and luminous lens from the first moment I put my hands on its 350-grams metal body. For a perfect balance of the combo, I relied on the HLD-6 power battery holder. Shot at f/1.8 Look at the difference in subject isolation between the previous shot and this one shot at f/4. Is the Olympus 75mm f/1.8 a perfect lens?

That said, in terms of sharpness wide open and bokeh rendering, the 75mm delivers great results. I’ve never found relevant traces of vignetting. There is some chromatic aberration in extremely contrasty areas (like the fourth picture below – look at the camera Heather is wearing). I’ve almost always found the sharpness at 1.8 sufficient. Of course the best sharpness will occur at f/2.8. To me the only rival when it comes to portraits is the Nocticron 42.5mm f/1.2 but it has a different aperture and focal length. But before the Nocticron, this lens was the best option for portraits and is still a relevant choice if you can cope with the longer focal length. E-M5 II, 1/15, f/1.8, ISO 800 E-M5 II, 1/25, f/1.8, ISO 800 GH4, 1/400, f/1.8, ISO 200 E-M5 II, 1/1250, f/2, ISO 200 As seen in the photo above, the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 75mm f/1.8 is a handful of a lens, at least when compared to many other Micro Four Thirds offerings, but it is actually quite compact for a fast telephoto lens. It's not exactly lightweight, though: weighing in at 305 grams, it feels dense with glass and metal. We tested this lens with the Olympus PEN E-PL5, and found that it balanced pretty well on that camera, even if the combination was a bit front heavy. Build quality is excellent, with an all-metal construction and a nice tactile feel. In terms of features, the lens doesn't offer much – beyond that ultra-fast aperture, of course. There is no distance scale – hence no depth-of-field marks either –, focus limiter or in-lens image stabilisation on board. In fact the wide, ribbed focus ring is the only control you can find on the lens barrel. As is usually the case with Micro Four Thirds lenses, this ring is not mechanically coupled to the moving lens elements, and offers no hard or soft stops at either end of the range. That being said, manual focusing still feels pretty natural and smooth for a lens that focuses “by wire.” So in saying that, and having used this lens reasonably extensively over the last few months, I would say the types of photography I personally have found it most interesting to use would be for landscapes (bear with me) and people pics, portraits and candids. Count me in Olympus’ camp — I couldn’t be happier with Olympus’ colour results right across the board. Colours are vibrant, but not overly vibrant and colour appears to be spread evenly across the spectrum without any specific tone standing out.Based on the results above, the biggest hurdle to overcome in attaining a sharp image is the 75mm’s large f/1.8 aperture. For a Micro 4/3 lens, depth of field is quite small at f/1.8 and pinpointing a focus point will determine whether your image is sharp enough to your liking. Being an all-metal lens, the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 75mm f/1.8 naturally features a metal bayonet mount that allows it to be mounted to any Micro Four Thirds camera (but no “regular” Four Thirds DSLR, of course). And, after using the 75mm for a solid four months, I can’t see myself skimping out on a lens again.