Olympus M.Zuiko 75mm f1.8 lens photo samples

This telephoto Micro Four Thirds lens delivers sharp, distortion-free photos.

Lori Grunin

Aug. 2, 2012 1:21 p.m. PT

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Bokeh

The lens' nine-blade iris delivers lovely, round out-of-focus highlights.

(Olympus E-P3, 1/30 sec, f1.8, ISO 200, spot metering, AWB)

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Center sharpness

Overall, the lens renders excellent center sharpness from f2.8 to f8 and reasonably good sharpness at f1.8, f2, and f11. It noticeably falls off at f16 and is rather disappointing at f22. Note that the camera's maximum shutter speed at f1.8 wasn't technically high enough for a definitive result.

(Tested with Olympus OM-D E-M5)

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Edge sharpness and distortion

Overall, while there's similar softness at the corners as in the center, there isn't a substantial amount of distortion, except at f1.8. However, note that the camera's maximum shutter speed at f1.8 wasn't technically high enough for a definitive result.

(Tested with Olympus OM-D E-M5; cropped from upper-left corner)

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F1.8

The depth of field at f1.8 isn't as shallow on a Micro Four Thirds camera as I'd like, but it's shallow enough for reasonably defocused backgrounds.

(Olympus OM-D E-M5, 1/2000 sec, f1.8, ISO 200, ESP metering, AWB, processed raw in ACR with sharpening set to 10)

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F2

You can see how nicely resolved the images are with the lens.

(Olympus OM-D E-M5, 1/500 sec, f2, ISO 200, ESP metering, AWB, processed raw in ACR with sharpening set to 10)

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F4.5

Even city-dirty detergent foam looks nice with this lens.

(Olympus OM-D E-M5, 1/160 sec, f4.5, ISO 400, ESP metering, AWB, processed raw in ACR with sharpening set to 10 and exposure bumped +1.3EV)