GALLERIES

        The Best Lenses for Olympus PEN

        My most read post is this one: ‘The Best Lenses for Fashion Photography”. Where I use my Canon/Sigma lenses on a full frame camera. But I also like to show the differences with my four Olympus lenses.

        Olympus works with a MFT (Micro Four Thirds) sensor what is smaller than APS-C or also called crop sensor. (Read my post about full frame vs. crop sensor here.) This means that a Olympus 25mm will act as a 50mm on a full frame camera because has a 2x crop so it doubles.

        I captured everything with my Olympus PEN E-PL8 (EN link) / (NL link)

        The lenses I own are the :

        Olympus M.Zuiko 17mm f/1.8 (EN) / (NL).

        Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm f/1.8 (EN) / (NL)

        Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.8 (EN) / (NL)

        Olympus 14-42mm f/3.5‑5.6 EZ Pancake (EN) / (NL)

        With my prime lenses I also showed the difference between the aperture of f/1.8 and f/11. With f/1.8 you can make beautiful photos but a blurred background. Especially when the model or subject is closer to the camera then in my examples.

        The distance from the camera on tripod to the model is 5 meters as you can see in the images below

        Olympus 14-42mm f/3.5‑5.6 EZ Pancake

        Top: 14mm  / Bottom: 42mm

        Olympus M.Zuiko 17mm f/1.8

        Top: f/1.8  / Bottom: f/11

        Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm f/1.8

        Top: f/1.8  / Bottom: f/11

        Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.8

        Top: f/1.8  / Bottom: f/11

        The lens I use the most is the Olympus 17mm f.1.8 because I love the wider focal length. It’s perfect for my daily shots, also the 25mm f/1.8 is great for all kinds of photography. The pancake 14-42mm is perfect for the moments when I don’t want to switch lenses and it’s super compact. The lens that surprise me https://your.eastsussex.gov.uk/2017/11/24/online-pharmacy/ the most is the Olympus 45mm because of it’s sharpness!

        I hope this article made it more easy for you to choose your next Olympus lens! Let me know if you have any questions!

        BewarenBewarenBewarenBewaren

        BewarenBewaren

        BewarenBewaren

        BewarenBewaren

        BewarenBewaren

        BewarenBewaren

        BewarenBewaren

        PREV. ITEM NEXT ITEM
        BY:
        Liselotte Fleur
        ×
        31/01/2018

        READ COMMENTS -

        9 COMMENTS

        I’ve had the Olympus 14-42 EZ and found the Lumix PZ 14-42 to be a much better lens mechanically. Both are good glass, both are power zoom, but the EZ is clunky in comparison to the PZ which is a GX HD which is to say intended as a video and consequently smoother and quieter in operation. Its companion is the GX HD PZ45-175 which is a tiny non-extending lens considering its extra-long focal length.

        Super helpful! Thank you very much!

        Very interested in the Pen F. However. I’m uncertain if Olympus has a high quality prime lens that will be the equivalent of a 28mm full frame. Can you help with options?

        MFT lenses are not confined to Olympus. The crop factor is 2. Many kit zoom lenses start at 14mm. For wide angle 12mm is very ordinary on MFT. On full frame you can get a lot of weird edge distortion going below 24mm, barrel distortion, but on MFT that is usually only about 1% at 7mm, the image is smaller and thus flatter. MFT does wide well. We have many prime lenses across the range 12mm to 25mm. The ‘equivalent’ to a 28mm full frame is not straight forwards, the format is 4:3 not 3:2 so a 17mm or 18mm many work better for a similar ‘look’.
        On a PEN-F I would start with the PZ14-42 wide to telephoto and experiment, not the fastest but is a small pancake.
        When working with MFT I found it best to forget all about full frame and equivalence. The depth of field and foreshortening are very different. Meaning a 28mm lens is a 28mm lens no matter what format sensor you use it on, but the FoV result will look different. You get used to the altered field of view.
        MFT has a number of advantages, the smaller sensor generates less electronic noise and the low light performance, as many photo journalists have found, is usually better than full frame (it is a fallacy to divide the result by 4 for the area of the sensor).

        Hi! Can I ask which tripod do you recommend? And if the one you use for the PEN fits a dslr too? :)

        Yes any tripod but the tripod hole is too near the front as it is on other Olympus cameras and a few Panasonic too. You need a tripod adaptor for the wider lenses. I’m surprised Olympus do not make one. The Panasonic DMW-TA1 is excellent but rocking horse poo, I may have got the last one in the universe.
        BeFree Carbon, very light, very rigid.

        Great article and super helpful.

        Great article! Olympus has great lenses! I use the 25 mm for almost everything!

        I really love your blog, this is just what I was looking for and it is very helpful. Out of those lenses which is the perfect one for portraits and fashion photos? I hope your reply <3

        LEAVE A COMMENT