Fave new lens - Olympus 30mm F3.5 Macro

ZombieCake

Well-known member
Hi, today's fave new lens is the Olympus 30mm f3.5 Macro.  You can pick it up for c. ?250 which is quite nice compared to the cost of some other lenses.  It's the equivalent of 60mm focal length in good old 35mm film or full frame terms.  On a tripod with manual focus and focus peaking set on an OM-D EM-1 use the D-pad to set the focus point and use focus magnification in combination with the peaking to get some nice shots. (Switch off stabilisation though).
Hand held with image stabilisation back on and f8.0 and 1/20 sec produced sharp close up shots, with pleasing depth of field at a distance of around 6" or 18cm give or take a few inches.  Autofocus was dead quick. The light weight makes it fast to use as well.  Works well with the Olympus MAL-1 macro LED lights  https://www.olympus.co.uk/site/en/c/cameras_accessories/pen_om_d_cameras_accessories/pen_om_d_accessory_port/mal_1_macro_arm_light/index.html as the lens is short enough physically to position the lights. Although you'd have to crank up the ISO etc. to use these as a primary light they are good for a bit of fill in.
It is actually a very nice lens to use and complemented the 17mm f1.8 I also used very well, and is more capable than just a macro lens.  If you need a faster lens of similar focal length the Olympus 45mm f1.8 and Sigma 30mm f2.8 are very good, but you won't get the macro facility.
Unfortunately I can't post today's piccies as they are for someone else and the cave pics taken a little while ago using this are forming part of a detailed report to the cave owners, so you'll have to wait a bit.  So it is a little strange posting a lens review without pics, but could probably flog that in a gallery as conceptual art somewhere....  Suffice to say I'm enthused enough to scribble this shooting from the hip!
I can, however, refer to a slightly pretentious YouTube review by someone else which sums it up well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKDFHfCCs84&t=110s
 
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