Olympus M.Zuiko 60mm f/2.8 Macro

When I started fiddling around with mirrorless camears and micro 4/3 a little under 5 years ago I planned not to buy any new lenses, just use the kit 14-42mm, until I decided to take the plunge and commit to the system.

Actually, in August of that year I bought the 45-150mm zoom which is, remarkably for a lens that offers the equivalent of 300mm full frame, just as small as its counterpart kit lens. I can stick it in a pocket of my anorak. It’s often been useful.

But since then I’ve not bought any more glass. Until now. That’s more intertia than because of a lack of commitment to m43; I’ve only gone back to the old Nikon for one job.

So I’ve just bought my first prime lens, with the aim of having something more suitable to shoot model railways.

It’s a macro lens, which I hope to have some fun with (I know little about macro photography). It’s also, at the equivalent of 120mm, considered to be a good lens for portraiture.

It’s an Olympus lens, which means that although it will fit on my Panasonic GF3 body, it has no image stabilisation (all Olympus cameras have image stablisation in the body, whereas the GF3 relies on image stablisation in the lens) so I may need a monopod for model railway exhibitions.

[pe2-image src=”https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-8X43dUC3V4k/WpwIzxmbbuI/AAAAAAAE7xI/sn6RXYH3BssURK4uoLw5zCZBbp117VawQCCoYBhgL/s144-c-o/IMG_0162.jpg” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/105041492449804846682/PhotosForBlogPosts#6529103245361245922″ caption=”” type=”image” alt=”IMG_0162.jpg” pe2_img_align=”left” ]

The first thing that surprised me is that here’s another lens that is just the same length as the 14-42mm. It’s narrower, so I assumed it was much longer. It’s barely any longer at all.

It weighs very little more – just 7g over the 180g of the kit lens on my scales.

To explore the macro function I dug out an old battered 00 gauge Lima 08 shunter:

[pe2-image src=”https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-mA1fwLm_aUI/WpwIz8eTfvI/AAAAAAAE7xI/9ZMLg6nRR-AgvJ–_emYG-aGP1ieGgDfACCoYBhgL/s144-c-o/P1240381.jpg” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/105041492449804846682/PhotosForBlogPosts#6529103248279961330″ caption=”” type=”image” alt=”P1240381.jpg” pe2_img_align=”left” ]

[pe2-image src=”https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-spybIkO2oPE/WpwIzxbbtuI/AAAAAAAE7xI/5lW–4nUNS0Agqts0Sn3YlmOYCx9ktf8wCCoYBhgL/s144-c-o/P1240376.jpg” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/105041492449804846682/PhotosForBlogPosts#6529103245315127010″ caption=”” type=”image” alt=”P1240376.jpg” pe2_img_align=”left” ]

Yes, it’s accumulated a little dust…

I’ve also taken it out and about – once again, the winning feature of m43 proving to be the portability of its tiny lenses…

Robin

Moss

Sun through the trees

About Simon Wood

Lecturer in medical education, lapsed mathematician, Doctor Who fan and garden railway builder. See simonwood.info for more...

Leave a Reply