Review - Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 75mm f1.8 ED MSC - Portrait Application


Agetan

Senior Member
Dec 31, 2004
4,655
16
38
www.tomato.sg
Hello all,

Eddie approach me to see if I am interested to do a review on this particular lens from Olympus together with the OM-D (E-M5) camera.

For this purpose of this review, I will concentrate on reviewing the lens on my application as portrait photographer using both natural light and studio flash and see how this lens works.

I won't go into detail in terms of the detail technicality of the lens, the MTF chart, or the 100% crop for sharpness.

What I am interested to find out is the useability of the lens as far as children portraiture goes....

Anyway, as the name goes, it is a 75mm f1.8 lens but with the 2x multiplier, it is practically a 150mm f1.8 lens. In practice, if it compare to the 150mm on FF, this lens has a characteristic of 150mm f4 type of lens as far as the depth of field goes. So at f1.8, you won't find razor thin depth of field. So it is quite easy to get the correct focusing.

It uses 58mm filter...

Here is some comparison shot with similar "focal length" with different manufacturer...

Oly 75mm f1.8 (58mm), Minolta Rokkor MD 85mm f1.7(55mm), Leica 90 f2 Summicron (55mm)
143927246.jpg


More physical size
143927247.jpg


Here is when it is mounted on body.
143927249.jpg



I will come back with more photos taken using this lens....

So Stay tune...



Regards,

Hart
 

Here are a few in my studio/outside my studio with natural light... some with my boys and the other with my client's daughter who come for the shoot this morning.

My son on his toy
143927250.jpg


My son with window lighting behind him... (some magenta cast on the hair area).
143927251.jpg


A quick test @ f2.2 behind my studio with a client's daughter
143928862.jpg


Another one behind the studio @ f1.8
143928864.jpg


Which is Which?? One is with Full Frame DSLR with 2.8 lenses @4.5 and One is 75mm f1.8 @ 1.8 in the studio with natural light.
143928865.jpg


So far, Day 1 conclusion is that, the combination of OM-D + 75mm f1.8 has passed my expectation as a portrait photographer using natural light only.

I love the weight and the focussing is amazingly fast and it is probably similar or faster than my old A-900+70-200 f2.8 ssm lens combination.

The usual issue with smaller sensor is really the files are a lot flatter than the full frame DSLR. It is not unique to Olympus, but it is the same across smaller sensor category.... But this is just my observation.
 

Last edited:
Here are some images taken today.

Trying out how the focusing accuracy for the lens/camera combo. To my surprise, the high speed burst create more blur images than sharp.

To be honest, camera this genre has come a long way and to a point it is very much close to the DSLR counterpart... soon may even exceed DSLR in terms of accuracy.

The bokeh is very nice.

143991325.jpg

143991326.jpg

143991327.jpg


Those are pretty much grab shots while I was at my kid's school this morning.

I am happy with its performance but the lens is a little bit "too long" (150mm after crop) for my liking.

Regards,

Hart
 

Thank you so much for doing this review Hart !

And its such a beautiful house/studio you have .... just totally fell in love with your place when I was there :heart::heart::heart:
 

Thank you so much for doing this review Hart !

And its such a beautiful house/studio you have .... just totally fell in love with your place when I was there :heart::heart::heart:

Hi Eddie,

No issue at all. It is an interesting piece of equipment which I gladly spend time doing the review.

Thanks for your compliment. Its my home anyway, so it is ok to splurge to make it nice... hahaha... I did bare minimum too by the way.

Hart
 

Thanks for the review.

Now, I am poisoned :p
 

Now have to chose between 75 and 45mm.. What's the damage fOr this 75mm?
 

Now have to chose between 75 and 45mm.. What's the damage fOr this 75mm?

I am not very sure how much it is actually. Depending your usage, 45mm should be a nice focal length for portrait but 75mm has the reach if you need it.

This is a loan unit for my testing.

Regards,

Hart
 

I understand from Olympus that the ACTUAL PRODUCTION units will have even faster AF than the one I had passed to Agetan
 

I understand from Olympus that the ACTUAL PRODUCTION units will have even faster AF than the one I had passed to Agetan

Wow... I thought this is fast enough... of course accuracy is important too.

Hart
 

A set is loaned to me, and I like to contribute the review here. Following Agetan style of this thread, I will not do into any technical detail. Will solely concentrate on the actual shooting experience, and touch briefly on 100% crop sharpness.


The following series pic are shot with Panasonic G3, convert from RAW to jpeg, resize. No other adjustment or sharpening is applied.



f2.2

7460887976_fe4ea35790_c.jpg




100% cropped

7460881430_96809ec360_c.jpg









f2.8

7460881946_d0ca7df528_c.jpg





cropped

7460881142_9ce9512e46_c.jpg
 

Last edited:
f3.5

7460887634_bd71420ec2_c.jpg





cropped

7460880954_9ffa897c01_c.jpg








f2


7460880586_55d92e4ce5_c.jpg







>100% cropped

7460882448_36e5e1869a_c.jpg
 

f2.8

7461044732_4083b4146c_c.jpg







cropped

7461045062_eb875124e0_c.jpg











Sharp ? Yes, super convinced.
 

Last edited:
f1.8 Performance @ Indoor


7460897160_f8c07b57da_z.jpg









f1.8 Performance @ Night Outdoor


7476903824_779dd40688_z.jpg










f1.8 Performance @ Day Outdoor * this pic really poison. the bokeh, the sharpness, the pop out effect etc.


7460881644_24206e4593_z.jpg
 

Bloody hell, this lens is sharp indeed. Tempting!
 

Hi, I'm new here.. very tempted to get this lens, especially I'm totally new to photography. Any idea when will stocks be available locally? Any recommended stores which offers installments?
 

Any idea when will stocks be available locally? Any recommended stores which offers installments?

Weldcome to CS and world of photography. Please keep this thread only related to the review of lens/spec.
You may post your questions (how much, when available, which store offer best price) at 4/3, m4/3 discussion
 

wong_se said:
Weldcome to CS and world of photography. Please keep this thread only related to the review of lens/spec.
You may post your questions (how much, when available, which store offer best price) at 4/3, m4/3 discussion

Thank you for the advice, Wong. Shall divert my queries to the correct section.