Olympus Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 Lens

I bought one of these to have a fast 50mm lense for my E500. I also bought a box of them from a seller here on eBay. They all cleaned up very nicely and are now in the hands of happy DSLR users.

After seeing how well the less than perfect lenses performed I spent the extra money and acquired one in perfect condition with not one disappointment.

The lense has excellent imaging capabilities. I saw no typical flaring when the sun was behind my subjects or ghosts. Everything was crisp and sharp even with the extremes of lighting situations.

I give it very high marks when used with extension tubes or a bellows for close up images. Where I've seen other lenses start to fail this one seems to get better.

My suggestion is look for the ones with the black edges around the f/stop ring and filter thread (black nose version). The multicoatings on the lenses I've had resulted in noticeably better images compared to the silver nose version.

The lenses have a nice compactness to them which was always Olympus's specialty and strong point. It makes them easy to handle and carry around making it much more likely that you'll have your camera with you for that special picture.

They all have 49mm filter threads so their filters and hoods are not large either.

This makes an excellent portrait lense for all the new DSLRs that Olympus is selling. You can isolate the subject without having to be too close and blur the background with the wider fstops that you can't get with the zoom/kit lenses.

Some might say it's soft wide open and I would disagree. Even if it was soft wide open do you really want a lense to show every pore, nook and cranny on a person's face when you're taking their portrait? Such pictures end up being very unflattering. If the purpose of your portrait is to highlight the flaws then I suggest looking at the 50mm macro version. That will get you what you're going for.

For general photography with a mild telephoto perspective and fast speed on the Olympus DSLRs this is the affordable choice. You can even get adapters for your Canon EF mount cameras.

The review asks what do I dislike about this lens. I have to say I dislike the fact I didn't know about this high quality optic until this past year.

There's nothing to dislike.

I got this lens for fun, to experiment with a fully manual lens (no AF) on my E510 body. It's been great practicing my manual focusing skills, and also experimenting with the very shallow depth of field you can achieve with an f-number of 1.8.

For me, this is a great lens, as long as your subject is stationary, or moving slow enough where you have time to focus. Maybe others are better at it, but it takes me a good 3 seconds or so to focus using the focus ring, so capturing action with this lens isn't going to happen.

HOwever, if you keep this limitation in mind, and don't mind setting the aperture manually and focusing manually, this is a great (inexpensive) lens to add to your collection. It will never be the Zuiko Digital 50mm ED f/2.0, (which has autofocus, a shorter minimum focusing distance), but is a good alternative for those on a budget, or just wants to have fun with a great lens from "back in the day" For the price, you can't go wrong really.

A 1980s era Zuiko/Olympus OM lens.

My initial reaction to this lens is positive. It is a very bright single focal lens. Color is great. I also love the look of this lens on the Oly-500 body.

I chose a no-name Chinese 4/3rds adapter for $32.00 instead of the Olympus adapter that costs $200.00. -- Works fine.

There is no communication between the lens and the body so EXIF data does not include f-stop or focal. Focus and aperture setting is manual on the lens barrel.

All things considered, this is a *very* economical way to get a bright normal lens. I only paid $25.00 for the lens on eBAY.

Can't wait to see how this lens works for landscapes.

The lens is in great shape and was shipped to me fast after payment was sent..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

This Olympus Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 Lens is very easy lens and not expensive,It's very match for party and snap(street)photo. And the beginer who start to take portait(and find girlfriend....hahaha..^_^)
But it's must better with you get Olympus Zuiko 50mm/1.4,right?

Ps. I talk about some person who have Olympus OM(film camera)and Olympus EP-1(Digital camera),this lens you must have....(and i don't talk about Leica..)

This is a manual focus OM mount lens for use on compatible OM mount cameras or with adapter Olympus 4/3 system D-SLR cameras.

I really like this lens so far. the shallow dof creats great emphasis on your subject in practically any situation! GREAT for portraits. I ust it on my olympus evolt e-410 dslr with the "ebay" adapter ($17) and it works fantastically. The only problem (that isn't a problem for me at all) that some people mention is that you cannot use auto focus because the lens is not directly connected to the camera electronically, obvioulsy, as it is an slr lens. So, you can't use autofocus and a few other features, such as aperature. I use aperature mode on my dial (the big A) and select the aperature on the lens. It works great!