Olympus M.Zuiko 30mm F3.5 Macro Lens Review

Important Notes:
1. I am an Olympus Malaysia employee.
2. This is a user experience based review, based on my personal opinion which can be subjective.
3. All images were shot in RAW and converted directly to JPEG (High Quality) via Olympus Viewer 3.
4. General camera settings, Noise Filter = OFF, Contrast/Saturation/sharpness = 0, White Balance = Auto (with an option maintain warm color = OFF), Gradation = Normal
5. Minimal post-processing applied to the images, with slight brightness/contrast balance tweak. All images were almost as good as straight out of camera, with minimal cropping for better presentation.

I am well aware that the hottest items that everyone wants to know about would be the newly announced in development Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II, as well as the M.Zuiko 12-100mm F4 IS PRO lens. However, the E-M1 Mark II is still under development, and it will be quite a while before it is ready to be launched. I do have a very early pre-production sample of the 12-100mm F4 PRO lens, which is not fit for review purpose, The actual review-ready sample will be arriving soon, and trust me I will jump right into reviewing it when it is here, you know I will!

Now this leads me to another item which was also announced alongside the E-M1 Mark II, 25mm F1.2 PRO and 12-100mm F4 PRO, the strangely under-mentioned M.Zuiko 30mm F3.5 Macro lens. It is not difficult to understand how this new 30mm macro lens has become overshadowed by the OM-D new flagship and two PRO lenses! Nonetheless, Olympus should be acknowledged as an expert and industry leader in lens making technology and manufacturing expertise, hence like all other Olympus M.Zuiko lenses that 30mm F3.5 Macro lens should not be underestimated.

I have spent a total of two days (not successively), one day shooting the 30mm F3.5 Macro lens on my own OM-D E-M10 Mark II and another day on the OM-D E-M1 (original 2013 version) to gather sufficient photographs to compose this blog entry.

The Olympus M.Zuiko 30mm F3.5 Macro lens is compact and light. 

Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm F1.2 PRO Lens Review

Important Notes:
1. I am an Olympus Malaysia employee. 
2. This is a user experience based review, based on my personal opinion which can be subjective.
3. All images were shot in RAW and converted directly to JPEG (High Quality) via Olympus Viewer 3. 
4. General camera settings, Noise Filter = OFF, Contrast/Saturation/sharpness = 0, White Balance = Auto (with an option maintain warm color = OFF), Gradation = Normal
5. Minimal post-processing applied to the images, with slight brightness/contrast balance tweak. All images were almost as good as straight out of camera, with minimal cropping for better presentation.

Today Olympus has announced quite a number of new products in Photokina, one which excited me the most was the Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm F1.2 PRO lens, which is the first ever F1.2 digital lens from Olympus! Panasonic was the first to introduce an F1.2 lens, the 42.5mm F1.2 Nocticron about 2 years ago, and now we have another F1.2 lens option for the Micro Four Thirds standard with the new 25mm F1.2 Olympus addition.

Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm F1.2 PRO on PEN-F

Much Needed Shutter Therapy

Last one week has been a crazy working week for me, with back to back business meetings, training sessions and I just wished the weekend had come sooner. I had only one goal in mind, to walk on the streets and just have my shutter therapy, ending the session with nice, expensive cup of coffee.

I did just that, and boy was I refreshed! I brought along the Olympus PEN E-P5 and 17mm F2.8 pancake lens, and just shot anything that I thought was interesting. No specific agenda or objectives to fulfil, just me and the camera against the streets. Sometimes I do wish life is just as simple as that, without all the complications and dramas, which honestly did not add much value at all to how we live our lives.

Crates of eggs

A Little Bit Of Everything

The past two weeks have been crazy for me, travelling to different cities for work. That means, I had very little time to shoot for myself. Nonetheless, I did bring along a camera with me, and stole whatever small opportunities I could find to fire the shutter button away. This compilation of photographs is not done in a cohesive manner, and created out of total randomness.

I think I should do more selfie so more people will be able to recognise me.