Falling in love with the Olympus 45mm F1.8 and MCON P02
The Olympus 45mm F1.8 captures the fine detail and vivid colours of this front garden in fall with its exquisite grasses and vibrant hydrangeas.
How to maximize the Olympus 45mm F1.8 for macro with the P02
Fall is the perfect time to get out your camera and lenses and fall in love all over again, especially when it comes to macro or closeup photography. Combine the Olympus 45mm F1.8 with the Olympus P02 and it’s a love affair made in heaven.
That love affair may have roots in the wonderful colours of autumn, but it can just as easily extend to some of your finest cameras and lenses. The Olympus 45mm F1.8 is one of those lenses you’ll fall in love with over and over again.
I recently picked up a mint copy of the 45mm silver version for a fraction of its regular price and teamed it up with the magnificent MCON P02 to give me the ultimate walk around lens with impressive close focus capabilities.
This compact Olympus lens – now under the name OEM Systems – was first introduced to micro 4/3rd users in 2011. At that time, it was the fastest prime available on the micro 4/3 system.
Today, it is still easy to carry around, offers some of the sweetest bokeh of any lens, is very sharp and has fine, vivid colours.
It might have earned its reputation as a superb portrait lens, but it more than holds its own as an all-purpose lens, whether you are in your favourite woodlands, on the street or on vacation.
The close up capabilities of the Olympus 45mm F1.8, when paired with the MCON P02 as seen here, is very impressive.
Slip the Olympus MCON P02 macro converter onto the front of the lens and you’ve got an impressive, fast, short telephoto and macro lens.
The Olympus MCON P02 closeup lens also works nicely with the Olympus 14-42 kit zoom lens that was used here to capture these orchids.
What better opportunity to run it through its paces than during the annual fall celebration of colour.
The Olympus 45mm F1.8 captures this lovely fall scene with its vivid colours.
There’s lots to like about the Olympus 45mm lens
Sure, it’s a fast lens that creates tack sharp images even in low-light situations, but that’s just the beginning of what makes the lens a must-have. Focus is both fast and very precise. Build quality is very good, and its 116 grams (0.26 lb) makes the lens easy to carry around at all times.
Video shooters will appreciate the near silent autofocus capabilities of the lens, which benefits from its MSC (Movie-Still-Compatible) technology.
Check out the Olympus official site for the best deals of the day.
What’s not to like?
If you want to get picky, there is the rather expensive lens hood sold as an accessory and the fact that the lens’s minimum focus distance stretches out to almost 20 inches (19.69 to be exact) or 0.50 m for those of us using metric. The result is a magnification factor of only 0.11.
There’s not much we can do about the cost of the lens hood except keep our eye open for a good used one.
The lens’s poor close-focusing capabilities is an easy fix. Add the MCON P02 converter to the front of the lens and the 45mm opens up a new world to users. But more on that a little later.
This fence line image was shot with the Olympus 45mm wide open at F1.8. Sharpness is excellent with a nice soft out-of-focus background.
Olympus 45mm F1.8 in the woodlands and in the fields
Lens specs have their place, but until we take the lens out into the field, it’s hard to really appreciate the quality and value of the lens.
So I took the lens out for a morning of early fall color on the roads around my home recently.
I have always prefered a short telephoto approach for most of my fall images. I find the telephoto helps to focus in on the intimate details rather than show the all encompassing view of a wide angle lens.
This early fall image of the open farm lands near our home was taken with the highly praised Olympus 45mm F1.8.
First impression of the Olympus 45mm
My first impressions of this lens were more than favourable.
Everything that has already been said about the lens proved true in the first few shots. Sharp even wide open, fast and effective focus, silent, great bokeh and lovely colour rendition.
And you don’t have to take my word for it.
Former Olympus ambassador and enthusiast Robin Wong states: “No matter what lenses I use on the street, I always fall back to this beautiful medium-telephoto focal length, and 45mm just fits my compositional vision almost perfectly.”
Fall in the woodland garden offers several opportunities to capture natural images like these Pagoda Dogwood berries waiting for the birds to finish them off. The medium telephoto lens helps capture the pleasing scene in a natural setting.
He goes on to say: “Being able to blur off the background is something I treasure, and the Olympus 45mm F1.8 does this very well, being a medium telephoto range as well as having a wide open aperture of F1.8. The rendering of the bokeh? Simply creamy and beautiful. Just what I needed to make some portrait shots “pop.”
Rob Trek, YouTuber and Olympus enthusiast, recommends photographers purchase the Olympus 45mm F1.8 as their first prime lens because it will give you “the best bang for the buck in terms of value…in terms of your creativity and your photography and the kinds of pictures you take.”
YouTuber Steven Heise says: “There are a lot of lenses that perform well, but then there are a small handful of lenses that come to the party ready to rock the house. This is one of those kinds of lenses.
“This is hands down one of the best budget portrait lenses you can buy for micro 4/3. When you take into consideration the image quality of this lens, the incredible sharpness, the color, the contrast and the quickness and accuracy of the autofocusing system, the answer just becomes abundantly clear.”
My sweet dog Holly taken with the Olympus 45mm F1.8 close to wide open.
Peter Forsgard, a former Olympus ambassador based in Finland, describes the lens as “One of the best quality money ratio you can get on any M Zuiko lens. I think the 45mm is the one. It’s not very expensive, but the image quality is stunning.”
He calls it the “perfect lens for environmental portraits.”
Steve Huff, another Olympus enthusiast, had high praise for the lens in his review shortly after getting the lens in October 2011. He compared the 45mm F1.8 with the Olympus 12mm F/2 after declaring the 12mm the best micro 4/3 lens ever made. “After using this 45 1.8 for a few days I can say that this lens is equally as delicious. Yes, I said delicious! The IQ from this lens on the E-P3 is nothing short of astounding for the micro 4/3 format. Some of the best quality I have seen from any M4/3 camera/lens combo.”
Here are a few impressions of the lens from Olympus users gathered from forums around the internet.
• “The images are tack sharp, the colours warm and flattering, the focus is both quiet and fast, and the “Bokeh” which all the Olympus haters go on about is feathery soft.”
• “Perfect for portraits, it’s also great for giving a different perspective on landscapes and cityscapes…. Sharpness is the outstanding feature of this lens though. You notice it from the first shot you take. It makes you feel like a pro. Contrast and colour are so good that you’ll barely need to adjust your photos in Photoshop or the like…. The bottom line is that this is a near perfect and therefore essential lens for a bargain price.”
Birch clump with Northern Sea Oats.
I think it’s fair to say that in all my research into the 45mm F1.8, I struggled to find anyone critical of the lens.
Of course there is a reason for all this praise, and it stems from the fact that the lens is among the best in its class.
The short telephoto is ideal for everyday garden and nature photography. It’s probably not long enough to capture most wildlife including birds, small mammals and insects, especially since its minimum focus distance leaves a little to be desired.
But that’s where the Olympus MCON P02 macro converter steps into action.
One weakness of the Olympus 45mm F1.8 lens is its close focus capabilities. Add the Olympus MCON P02 and that problem is easily solved making it the perfect walk around lens. Oh, and just take a look at that creamy bokeh.
Olympus camera equipped with the P02 macro filter.
Close-up photography with the 45mm F1.8
Very few of us really need true macro, meaning 1:1 magnification. What most of us focus on is better described as close-up photography, which is magnification less than 1:1 or lifesize.
The MCON P02 screws on to the front of your lens to reduce the minimum focus distance of the lens.
By adding the Olympus MCON P02 filter to the Olympus 45mm F1.8 you get an outstanding close-focus performer that benefits from having a lovely creamy background.
The high-quality filter that screws on to the front of the lens is constructed in 1 group with 2 elements and weighs a mere 52g. It comes with quality front and rear lens caps and a step-up ring.
Use it wide open to explore creative selective focus effects like the purple Beautyberries below.
Or, use the lens’s inherent sharpness to create exquisitely finely detailed images like the Northern Sea Oat grasses above.
For more on close-up photography check out my post here.
The lens offers endless opportunities to be creative, including the ability to shoot selective focus images using the macro converter with a large aperature of f1.8.
Why the MCON P02 close-focusing lens instead of a true macro lens?
There are many reasons to go with the P02 over a true macro lens. First, there is the cost savings. You should be able to pick up a P02 for less than $100 and considerably less than that if you are lucky enough to find one on the used market.
Olympus camera with 45mm F1.8 and P02 converter on front of lens.
In comparison, a true macro lens will set you back 5X the cost of the P02 and add another lens to your camera bag. There is something freeing about using a single sweet little lens that can double as an exquisite macro lens.
To screw the filter to the front of the lens, a ring first needs to be removed from the front of the lens.
When used with the 45mm F1.8, the lens’s closest focusing distance is almost cut in half to approximately 24cm. The image below from the Olympus website shows the difference between the close focus capabilities of the lens with and without the P02.
For more on the MCON P02, check out the official Olympus site.
This image from Olympus shows the close focus capabilities of the 45mm lens with the MCON P02.
MCON P02: A versatile addition in the palm of your hand
Don’t think for a minute that the P02 is made only for the 45mm. This little add-on filter is a versatile addition to your camera bag and fits nicely on the 14-42mm kit zoom as well as a number of other Olympus lenses. On the popular ED 14-42 F3.5-5.6 EZ the add-on lens turns the lens into a semi-macro lens with the shortest shooting distance of 18cm and the maximum image magnification of 0.38x (35mm equivalent: 0.76x). It comes with step-up rings to attach it to a 37mm filter diameter lens.
For a complete list, see chart below.
M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 EZ
M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42mm F3.5-5.6II
M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42mm F3.5-5.6IIR
M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm F1.8
Just add a step-up ring for use on the following lensesM.ZUIKO DIGITAL 25mm F1.8
M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 17mm F1.8
M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 12mm F2.0