Olympus F2.0 Macro Lens
I recently purchased the 50mm F2.0 Olympus Macro Lens for my E510 and have been putting it through its paces over the past couple of weeks. It has proven to be a very versatile lens and works extremely well when combined with the in-built Image Stabilisation of the E510.
Being a fixed focal length lens the manual zoom (feet) does take a little bit of getting used to.
Some will argue that it is not a true macro with only a 1:2 magnification. But, I'm not going to get into that debate here.
Although it is marketed as a macro lens there are three key areas where I feel it performs exceptionally well.
- Macro Photography
- Low Light Photography (without tripod)
- Portraits
Rather than give you a heap of scientific data from test and measurements take a look at the below sample images to give you an indication of what I am talking about. I have tried to give a range of different samples based on the above photography types.
Macro Sample
This image of a honey bee with only a slight curves correction in Adobe Lightroom.
The larger image below is a 100% crop without any sharpening applied.
F4.0
ISO 100
1/1000 Sec
View larger version of the image in our Stock Image Gallery.
Low Light Sample
This image of a fountain was taken hand-held with image stabilisation set to IS1.
The larger image below is a 100% crop without any sharpening applied.
F2.0
ISO 200
1/10 Sec
View larger version of the image in our Stock Image Gallery.
Portrait Sample
This is an example of a portrait. It has been processed in Lightroom and the Creative - Aged Photo preset applied, then some additional minor adjustments.
This image was taken using the FL36 flash using a home made bounce card to direct some soft light forward as well as bouncing light off the ceiling.
The larger image below is a 100% crop of the left eye.
F2.0
ISO 100
1/100 Sec
