Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 60 mm F2.8 Lens, Standard Zoom, Suitable for All MFT Cameras (Olympus OM-D & PEN Models, Panasonic G-Series), Black

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As with most photographers, there is always some new lens I desire, whether telephoto, wide-angle, or something in between. However, I have always been satisfied with my Olympus M.Zuiko 60mm Macro. Even though there are some other macro lens options for Micro Four Thirds shooters, none of the others strikes me as a better choice. Even when shooting towards the light, this lens is resistant to flare and contrast remains high in all but the most challenging lighting conditions. The one place I feel the OM System 90mm f/3.5 Macro IS PRO loses out to the M.Zuiko 60mm f/2.8 macro is the autofocus speed. Although I give OM System kudos for making a 2:1 macro lens which autofocuses at all, it is still on the slow side. And not surprisingly, it gets worse at 1:1 macro and stronger. The lens is very well-designed to resist chromatic aberration, especially at the widest apertures. Stopping down will produce slightly more chromatic aberration, peaking at the ƒ/8 mark and smaller. It's visible as magenta-green fringing in areas of high contrast, confined mostly to the corners of the image.

In particular, here are what my autofocus speed tests showed. I tested the focusing speed of both lenses from 1x to 0.5x magnification. After 10 replications with each test, the OM System 90mm f/3.5 Macro IS PRO grabbed focus in 5.8 seconds on average, while the 60mm f/2.8 grabbed focus in 5.2 seconds on average. (I also wonder if a newer copy of the 60mm would be even faster, since as I’ve said, mine has seen some things.) Falloff of illumination towards the corners of the frame is well controlled for a lens of this type. At f/2.8 the corners of the frame are 1.02 stops darker than the image centre and illumination is visually uniform with the lens stopped down to f/4 or beyond. At the other end of the scale, closing the lens aperture can also be used to deliver an artistic effect where diffraction can turn bright point sources of light into spiked shapes known as starbursts. The number of spikes corresponds to double the aperture blades, so all three macro lenses will render 14 spikes. Here’s how the Lumix 30mm Macro’s ‘starburst’ rendering compares to the Lumix 42.5mm f1.7 (a non-macro lens).In some cases, the smaller MFD could actually be an advantage also. In certain positions like small insects on trees, I actually like to get a bit closer so I can brace the lens against the tree. In a few other awkward “bracing” situations, I find this smaller MFD to be useful also, which is why I think a larger MFD isn’t universally superior. The Olympus ED 60mm f/2.8 Macro delivers extremely good optical performance with compact and lightwieght build quality

I also find that the 50mm FOV on MFT is ideal for me for both portraits and landscapes, so it’s really a nice lens to have on my camera all the time. Finally, this new lens is more than twice as heavy as the Laowa. The Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 60mm f/2.8 Macro has a small 46mm filter thread, which does not rotate on focus. The maximum aperture is f/2.8 but once you enter the close-focus range, the “effective” f-number starts to drop gradually as the reproduction ratio increases, reaching f/5.6 at the close-focus point. This phenomenon is typical of macro lenses and your camera's built-in meter automatically takes this into account when calculating exposure. The macro specifications are easy enough: the lens will provide a full 1:1 reproduction at its closest focus point of 7.5 inches (19 cm). The lens features a scale showing the active size of reproduction: as the lens is focused closer to its close-focusing distance (7.5 inches), a red marker on the reproduction scale moves closer to 1:1. It's a vertical scale, unlike most depth-of-field scales which show a readout from left to right. We haven't yet tested this lens: it offers built-in optical image stabilization as well as full 1:1 reproduction. At Photokina 2016, nearly four years after the release of the 60mm, Olympus announced its second macro lens, the M.Zuiko 30mm f/3.5. Although both are specifically designed for macro work, they fulfil a different set of needs as we will discover in the following comparison. Let’s get started!In short, the high magnification and large working distance of the 90mm f/3.5 Macro are two of its biggest strengths. I was able to use these features to capture images that would have been impossible with almost anything else on the market. Handling and Build Usually, I don’t use the full power of the lens because 1:1 magnification is often overkill for my subjects. That’s why many of the sample photos in this articles are close-up photos rather than “true” macro photos with 1:1 magnification or greater. In any case, it’s a highly practical lens, and a great performer, as you’ll see in a moment. As you can see above, the Lumix 30mm f2.8 Macro delivers better-defined ‘starbursts’ than the Lumix G 42.5mm f1.7 when both are closed-down to small apertures. When wide-open, there’s the slightest hint of some fringing on the Olympus body I used for testing, but it’s not a serious issue at f2.8 or smaller. M.Zuiko 30mm f/3.5 E-M1, 1/40, f/8, ISO 200 – M.Zuiko 30mm E-M1, 1/80, f/5.6, ISO 640 – M.Zuiko 30mm E-M1, 1/320, f/3.5, ISO 400 – M.Zuiko 30mm E-M1, 1/60, f5.6, ISO 200 – M.Zuiko 30mm E-M1, 1/4, f/4, ISO 200 – M.Zuiko 30mm E-M1, 1/500, f/8, ISO 400 – M.Zuiko 30mm