OM SYSTEM OLYMPUS M.Zuiko Digital 45mm F1.8 Silver For Micro Four Thirds System Camera, Compact Design Beautiful, Bokeh Bright

There are a number of good reviews for this lens already which cover most of what needs to be said, so I'll just add a quick summary and hit a few specific points.The lens is extremely sharp and performs wonderfully wide open. The bokeh is excellent and creamy smooth. It renders out of focus specular highlights gracefully, no bright rings. AF is extremely fast and micro-four-thirds being a CDAF system it always focuses accurately (in my experience the Canon wide aperture primes often suffer from the PDAF inaccuracy of many Canon bodies). In high contrast edges slightly out of focus wide open there is limited longitudinal CA appearing - very typical of wide aperture lenses and actually very well controlled in this lens.Construction is excellent, though it mounts a bit tight on a one of my bodies. I'll be a little harsh here, but if you are looking for a heavy metal lens I suggest you time travel back a few decades to when high quality plastics didn't exist and manufacturers had no choice but to use heavier metals. I'd also suggest you sell your micro-four-thirds system and buy something heavier if you honestly think metal and weight means quality. The beauty of this lens is that it is very light and small - metal for the sake of metal would be an atrocious design flaw that would serve only to coddle retro-types who think inferior materials with nostalgic value to them equate to quality. This lens is metal where it needs to be and high-impact plastic where it should be. It is designed and engineered for maximum durability at a minimum of weight, not too match someone's horn-rimmed glasses.Comparisons to the EF 50/1.4 are bound to be made. The 50/1.4 is a unspectacular lens of about the same price as the 45/1.8 (though the 50/1.4 was in fact significantly more expensive at its introduction). The 50/1.4 bokeh and rendering is not as nice as the 45/1.8 nor is it as sharp at equivalent apertures. As far as the 50/1.4 having 8 aperture blades to the 45/1.8's 7 blades the 45/1.8 is actually superior as it uses curved blades and the 50/1.4 uses straight blades. Side by side tests at stopped down apertures show the clear advantage to the 45/1.8 with nice circular out of focus highlights while the 50/1.4 is showing octagons. Anyone who as actually used both lenses is likely to be favorably impressed with the 45/1.8. For the slightly higher price the 45/1.8 is definitely the superior lens, though perhaps not by a wide margin.In fact, for the price the 45/1.8 is simply a stunning optic and through many users' experience is comparing well with anything in its price class not to mention many more expensive lenses.As a side note, limited testing with an IR converted body shows this lens works well for IR. It has good transmittance at IR wavelengths and I have not seen any "hot-spot" problems to far. I've tested with both 720nm and 830nm cut-off filters.

I'm using this lens with a Panasonic GF1. Even after having my micro 4/3 for 2 years, I continue to be impressed at how small these lenses are, especially when compared with the huge NEX system lenses from Sony. The Olympus 45mm 1.8 continues that trend with a diminutive size and weight. The plastic body certainly helps with bring the weight down, in contrast to the 12mm all-metal wide-angle also from Olympus. When I set the camera down, the lens doesn't tip the camera over which helps for setting it on a table for time-release shots.There are sample videos on the internet showing the focus speed on cameras like the GF3 and E-P3. My GF1 seemed to focus a bit slower with this 45mm lens than those cameras, but it was still spot on and almost silent. It was certainly faster and quieter than the 20mm pancake. The minimal focus distance says 0.5m. For practical purposes that means that you can't focus down on someone sitting right next to you but you can if they are one seat over.Now, you may already have one of the 14-45mm kit lenses and ask yourself 'why do I need this 45mm lens if I've already got that focal length covered?' A few reasons: (1) speed. The maximum aperture of the kit zooms at 45mm is 5.6 which is over 3 f-stops more than the 1.8. That means you get a 1/100 shutter speed as opposed to the about 1/10 shutter speed of the kit zoom. (2) bokeh. The 45mm produces that great blurry quality in the background while keeping your subject sharp. Kit zoom lenses almost never produce those great images. (3) weight. Except for the new pancake 14-45mm zoom that panasonic recently came out with, this lens is smaller and lighter than the other kit zooms out there.The other lens in the micro 4/3 system at this focal length is the Leica-branded 45mm macro lens (f2.8). Despite the same focal lengths, the lenses couldn't be more dissimilar. The Leica is about $300 more, produces great macro shots, is over 1 stop slower, and it focuses slower. The Olympus is positioned more accurately as a fast portrait lens.The images are sharp without distortion or any visible artifacts. But, for a more scientific look at sharpness and chromatic aberration, etc, check out dpreview or lenstip.com. Finally, aesthetically, this is a great looking lens. If you are planning on getting a filter for it, the diameter is 37mm. It does not come with a lens hood. I personally like the silver color which looks cool on my black GF1. Even though it is plastic, it feels like a pretty solidly constructed lens.I preordered in September and it came in 1 month later. There are some excellent sample images on flickr if you still need convincing. I would highly recommend this lens if you are planning on being invested in the micro 4/3 system.