Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 45mm f/1.2 PRO Review

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 45mm f/1.2 Pro Performance

The standard of sharpness throughout is very, very high. The centre starts off well, with excellent sharpness wide open at f/1.2. This becomes outstanding from f/2 to f/4, excellent from f/5.6 to f/8 and remains very good at f/11 and f/16.

Edge sharpness is excellent from f/1.2 all the way through to f/8, thereafter being very good at f/11 and f/16. Basically, all apertures are fully usable and they rise to a very high level at quite wide settings.

CA (Chromatic Aberration) is virtually banished at the centre of the frame, returning very low figures. The edges are still held to well under one-pixel width, but some fringing can be seen on subjects such as branches against bright sky. If necessary, further correction can be applied in software.

Barrel distortion measures -0.01%, as near to zero as makes no difference. In other words, perfect drawing that would do credit to a macro lens, never mind a short telephoto of this speed. A very impressive result.

Flare is also virtually banished and the worst that can be induced is maybe a slight drop in overall contrast. This is despite making real efforts to upset the lens with very bright, low winter sun. There is no flare.

Bokeh is of especial interest, the quality and smoothness of the out of focus areas. This depends on many factors, such as lens design, the shape of the aperture blades and of course the subject itself. It all looks pretty good, and even when the background is quite “busy” there is no tendency towards a ragged effect. This is quite an achievement in a lens with such high resolution. The only real limitation is the small format itself.

Value For Money

The Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.2 PRO lens is priced at £1199. There are very few alternatives as bright as this, but the closest might be:

Samyang 50mm f/1.2 AS UMC CS, £341
Leica DG Nocticron 42.5mm f/1.2 ASPH, £1199
Voigtlander 42.5mm f/0.95 Nokton, £749

Considering the quality produced, this seems fair enough, although it may be a bit on the expensive side. For more options have a look at the Top 15 Best Olympus Micro Four Thirds or the Top 35 Best Micro Four Thirds Lenses.

Add your message