Olympus M.Zuiko 75mm F1 8 Review | 54 Data compared

The ePHOTOzine review highlights the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 75mm f/1.8 lens as a premium, compact telephoto prime offering exceptional optical performance for Micro Four Thirds systems, featuring outstanding sharpness from f/1.8. The lens is noted for its high-quality metal build, quick, near-silent autofocus, and a 58mm non-rotating filter thread. While optically superb, the lens lacks weather sealing, and the lens hood is not included as standard. Furthermore, its 84cm minimum focus distance limits its use in macro applications. Despite these drawbacks, the review concludes it is a highly desirable, though expensive, lens for portrait and low-light photographers.

The Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 75mm F1.8 is an excellent prime telephoto lens designed for the Micro Four Thirds system, offering a 150mm equivalent focal length in 35mm photography. PCMag's review awards it a 4.0 "Excellent" rating, highlighting its outstanding performance in portrait and low-light photography. In terms of pros, the lens is exceptionally sharp, measuring 2,545 lines at f/1.8 and climbing to 2,683 lines at f/5.6, well above the 1,800 lines needed for a sharp photo. It features a premium metal lens barrel with a quiet manual focusing ring for video work, minimal pincushion distortion of 0.3 percent, and delivers a smooth, creamy bokeh that easily isolates subjects from distracting backdrops. On the downside, the lens is relatively large and heavy for its system, measuring 2.5 by 2.7 inches and weighing 10.8 ounces. This substantial footprint means it does not balance well on smaller Micro Four Thirds bodies like the Olympus PEN E-PM1 or Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1, making them front-heavy. Additional cons include its premium price tag (£669.99 / $899.99) and the fact that Olympus does not include the...

Review Overview The Olympus M.Zuiko 75mm f/1.8 ED is an exceptionally high-performing, moderately long telephoto prime lens designed for the Micro-Four-Thirds (MFT) system, providing a full-frame equivalent focal length of 150mm and an equivalent depth-of-field of f/3.6. Highly recommended by reviewers, it delivers pro-standard mechanics featuring a tightly assembled, all-metal body and a broad, smoothly operating "by-wire" focus ring. Its Movie and Stills Compatible (MSC) autofocus drive is impressively fast, highly accurate, and virtually silent. Optically, the lens achieved some of the highest marks tested for the platform, offering outstanding, diffraction-limited resolution and sharpness straight from its maximum f/1.8 aperture across the entire image frame. Pros and Cons Pros: Outstanding sharpness across the frame right from f/1.8. Buttery smooth bokeh transitions with circular highlights. Marginal distortions (~0.44% pincushion in RAW) and minimal lateral chromatic aberrations. Premium all-metal build quality with a highly precise focus ring. Fast, silent MSC autofocus system. Cons: No weather sealing to protect against moisture or dust. High price tag makes it far from a budget item. No included lens hood, forcing users to buy a pricey...

The Olympus 75mm f/1.8 is an exceptionally well-built, compact prime lens for Micro Four Thirds systems that delivers professional-grade, pin-sharp images right from its maximum wide-open aperture. Reviewer David Fleet highlights its robust metal barrel, smooth focus ring, and fast autofocus performance as major strengths. Optically, the lens excels at subject isolation, rendering creamy, smooth bokeh without any distracting nervousness, making it an outstanding portrait tool capable of resolving fine details like eyelashes. It also handles lens flare remarkably well and shows no noticeable levels of distortion. Despite its stellar optical performance, the lens has a few notable drawbacks, including a total lack of weather sealing and a tendency to produce purple fringing in very high-contrast, backlit scenes. Additionally, autofocussing can hunt slightly in low light when paired with contrast-detect AF cameras like the E-M5 II, and Olympus's omission of an included lens hood remains a minor annoyance for a premium product. Ultimately, while the 75mm f/1.8 is an incredible specialist prime, the reviewer notes that its focal length is somewhat niche, prompting him to recommend the cheaper, lighter, and...

📸 The Olympus M.Zuiko 75mm f/1.8 Overview The Olympus M.Zuiko 75mm f/1.8 is a highly capable premium prime lens designed for Micro Four Thirds cameras, offering a 150mm full-frame equivalent focal length that makes it an excellent option for tight head-and-shoulders portrait photography. Weighing only 305g, this remarkably compact and lightweight lens boasts a robust build with 10 elements in 9 groups—including three Extra-low Dispersion (ED) glass elements—and a 9-blade diaphragm that creates a beautifully rounded aperture. Performance-wise, it delivers outstanding, razor-sharp image quality consistently across the entire frame, right out to the extreme edges. Furthermore, its autofocus system operates rapidly, accurately, and almost completely silently, while the lens produces minimal vignetting and negligible color fringing. The lens features distinct advantages and drawbacks depending on your shooting requirements. On the positive side, its major pros include its superb edge-to-edge sharpness, deliciously soft background bokeh despite a modest f/1.8 rating, and a highly portable, travel-friendly design. Conversely, its main cons are the total omission of optical image stabilization, the lack of a physical AF-on/hold button on the barrel, and a slight...

The Les Deux Pieds Dehors review rates the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 75mm f/1.8 as a premier Micro Four Thirds lens, praising its sensational image quality, with peak sharpness between f/2.8 and f/5.6. It features a robust metal build, rapid autofocus, and produces excellent subject separation, making it ideal for portraits and stage photography. Les However, the lens lacks weather sealing and features no physical switches or a focus clutch. Additionally, the review notes diffraction issues at smaller apertures (f/8 and beyond), a premium price that excludes the lens hood, and a highly specialized focal length, while indicating it is beginning to show its age on higher-resolution 20MP sensors.

The Olympus 75mm f/1.8 is a premium Micro 4/3 telephoto prime lens designed primarily for intimate portraiture, offering a 150mm full-frame equivalent field of view that allows photographers to capture subjects naturally from a distance. The reviewer heavily praises its exceptionally sharp optical performance even when shot wide open at f/1.8, alongside vibrant, even color rendering and beautiful bokeh produced by its nine-circle aperture blades. Additionally, the lens features a durable, all-metal housing and a lightning-fast, completely silent autofocus system utilizing Movie-Still-Compatible (MSC) technology, which proved highly reliable during low-light indoor shooting and family events. However, the lens has several distinct drawbacks, most notably its sub-par manual focus ring, which feels plasticky, lacks a physical distance scale, spins endlessly, and lacks the smooth friction found on Olympus's higher-end Pro-line lenses. It also omits the popular manual focus clutch mechanism and completely lacks weather sealing, which the reviewer notes is a significant omission for a lens in its $900 price range. Furthermore, the 0.84-meter minimum focus distance renders it useless for macro work, the included lens cap is frustratingly difficult to...

The Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 75mm f/1.8 is a high-end telephoto prime lens designed for the Micro Four Thirds system, offering a 150mm equivalent focal length that excels in portrait, studio, and sports photography. Tested on a 16-megapixel Panasonic GH2, it achieved an Overall DxOMark Score of 23, making it the highest-scoring and sharpest Micro Four Thirds lens on the database at the time of review with an 11P-Mpix sharpness score. Optically, the lens delivers outstanding performance with center sharpness starting right at f/1.8, becoming perfectly homogeneous across the frame by f/2.8, and peaking at f/5.6. It exhibits zero noticeable distortion and no issues with chromatic aberration, easily outperforming the cheaper Olympus 45mm f/1.8 lens in edge-to-edge sharpness consistency. However, the lens comes with notable downsides, primarily its steep price of $899, which excludes a lens hood that costs an additional $75. Its long 150mm equivalent focal length can also limit usability in tight indoor studios or restricted environments where you cannot easily step back. Minor vignetting with a corner shading of 0.7EV is visible at the maximum f/1.8 aperture,...

The Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 75mm f/1.8 is reviewed by Robin Schimko as a premium, high-grade telephoto prime lens built out of a sturdy combination of metal and glass. It provides exceptionally sharp, edge-to-edge optical performance even when shot wide open at its maximum f/1.8 aperture, allowing portrait and wedding photographers to capture a creamy bokeh and heavily compressed scenery. The lens is remarkably compact and lightweight for its long reach, housing a fast and silent autofocus system that is ideal for stealthy shooting or low-light wedding work. Despite its outstanding image quality, the lens suffers from notable usability limitations and sparse packaging. The specific 75mm focal length (equivalent to 150mm on full frame) can make it difficult to find daily use, making it less versatile than standard portrait options like the Panasonic Leica Nocticron 42.5mm f/1.2. On the build and design side, the lens lacks weather-sealed construction, a focus clutch mechanism, or an AF/MF physical toggle switch on the barrel. Furthermore, for an expensive premium lens, it ships with an incredibly cheap lens cap and completely lacks an included...

The Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 75mm F1.8 lens boasts a premium all-metal construction with a solid, high-quality build reminiscent of the 12mm F2 prime, featuring a fast and quiet MSC autofocus system. However, it utilizes a conventional speed-sensitive, focus-by-wire system instead of a linear manual focus clutch, which limits manual precision, and it lacks a physical distance scale. Additional design considerations mentioned in the review include the benefit of a non-rotating 58mm filter thread and a premium build, while the exclusion of a bayonet-mount lens hood in favor of an expensive, screw-on accessory is criticized as difficult to justify at this price point. The lens is lauded for its overall robust, "Made in Japan" engineering despite these usability drawbacks.

Steve Huff’s quick review highlights the Olympus 75mm f/1.8 as a professional-grade masterpiece that elevates the Micro Four Thirds system when paired with the OM-D E-M5 camera. As a 150mm full-frame equivalent focal length, this fast telephoto prime lens is highly praised for delivering "magical" image quality characterized by stellar contrast, vibrant out-of-camera colors, and exceptional sharpness even when shot wide open at f/1.8. It is structurally robust, featuring dense glass elements packed into a gorgeously crafted, premium metallic housing. Functionally, the lens boasts an autofocus system that operates quickly and silently, making it highly optimized for video recording. The reviewer finds that its wide aperture successfully compensates for the smaller sensor size, creating a pleasing, shallow depth of field and beautiful bokeh that stands toe-to-toe with legendary portrait lenses. Despite the overwhelming praise, the review explicitly outlines a few notable drawbacks. The $899 retail price tag is considered quite steep for a Micro Four Thirds prime lens, though the reviewer notes the high optical quality ultimately justifies the cost. Physically, it is relatively large for a compact system lens,...

The Olympus 75mm f/1.8 (M43) is an exceptionally high-performing, fast, short telephoto lens offering a 150mm full-frame equivalent field of view, making it ideal for portraiture and low-light street photography. It delivers phenomenal, absolute top-class resolution, achieving uniform sharpness from corner to corner even when shooting wide open at f/1.8. Mechanically, the lens boasts a premium, compact, and lightweight metal finish weighing 300 grams with a small 58mm filter size. Autofocus is fast and nearly silent due to its MSC (Movie-Still-Compatible) technology, while distortion and vignetting are virtually nonexistent. Its standout features include a beautiful, round background blur (bokeh) and highly effective optical performance that minimizes lateral chromatic aberration. Despite its stellar performance, the lens does come with notable drawbacks, primarily its high price point and the fact that a metal lens hood (LH-61F) is not included in the box. Additionally, it lacks built-in optical image stabilization—though this is mitigated when paired with stabilized Olympus bodies—and it is not weather-sealed against dust or splash water. While lateral chromatic aberration is totally absent, users may still encounter minor longitudinal chromatic aberration...

The Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 75 mm f/1.8 ED is highly praised in the LensTip review as a beautiful, classically-designed, and incredibly solid instrument that brings pure pleasure to use. Optically, the lens delivers sensational image quality at the center of the frame and maintains very good quality all the way to the edges. It boasts brilliantly corrected chromatic aberration, low spherical aberration, slight distortion, well-corrected coma, and moderate vignetting. Mechanically, it features a fast, accurate autofocus system and a compact, high-quality metal casing. Despite its near-flawless performance, the review highlights two main drawbacks for this Micro 4/3 lens. First, the performance against bright light could have been better, meaning it is prone to some ghosting or flares under harsh conditions. Second, the lens comes with a very modest standard accessory kit, lacking essential items like a lens hood which must be purchased separately. Overall, however, LensTip considers it a highly successful, premium fixed-focus lens for the system.