The positives:--This lens is light and compact.--It is sharp over a wide range of stops.--It is mostly very convenient to use.--It offers very high magnification (1.25X, with 1X being 17.3mm x 13mm in the area covered).--It was a great "bargain" (especially at its introductory low price).The negatives:--My sample had a slight softness (with a bit of visible CA) in the lower right corner when at its maximum aperture - but, given the price and its image-quality when stopped down a bit, it was not worth asking for a replacement sample (which could easily have been worse).--Near its minimum focus, a subject is very close to the front element.--With close-up shooting with this lens, if AF focus is missed, it will run through its entire (and ... MoreThe positives:--This lens is light and compact.--It is sharp over a wide range of stops.--It is mostly very convenient to use.--It offers very high magnification (1.25X, with 1X being 17.3mm x 13mm in the area covered).--It was a great "bargain" (especially at its introductory low price).The negatives:--My sample had a slight softness (with a bit of visible CA) in the lower right corner when at its maximum aperture - but, given the price and its image-quality when stopped down a bit, it was not worth asking for a replacement sample (which could easily have been worse).--Near its minimum focus, a subject is very close to the front element.--With close-up shooting with this lens, if AF focus is missed, it will run through its entire (and considerable) focus range to "try again", a minor irritation.In addition to its normally available high magnification, I find this lens quite usable with added digital magnification. While adding my usual front-mounting achromatic close-up lenses to this lens is functionally useless, there is another means I use for adding to lens image magnification. That is, the 1.4X, 2X, and 4X digital magnification that is available in Panasonic MFT camera bodies (and likely also in others). Dropping the ISO to 100-125, using the lens at f7.1-f10, and adding flash (and sometimes also combining the 1.4X and 2X functions), a range of very high magnifications can be achieved with this lens (although maximum image size for very good results may be reduced, and more work is required on the images to get the best possible results).Overall, I'm happy with this Olympus 30mm lens purchase. And, with it, when not shooting macro photos, I use a 46 to 37mm step-down ring, a 37mm UV filter, and a small 37mm lens shade - and I have had no notable flare and ghosting problems with this lens.[ More MFT lens reviews are here: http://www.david-ruether-photography.com/MFT-Lenses.htm ]--DR

This lens is easily one of the best for portraiture in any system—not just a good MFT portrait lens, it is a truly great portrait lens, period. It holds its own against the best lenses from Canon, Nikon, et al and in some ways, outshines some of them. It's certainly far smaller, lighter, and cheaper. It renders lovely colors and is extremely sharp and contrasty, and has an absolutely gorgeous blur in out-of-focus areas, both background and foreground. Additionally, the transition from the in-focus to out-of-focus areas is exceptionally smooth and attractive. The secret to how they achieve this is what they call feathered bokeh, meaning the bokeh balls aren't crisp-edged, but have a gradient from center to edge. As a result, out-of-focus areas just melt together into ... MoreThis lens is easily one of the best for portraiture in any system—not just a good MFT portrait lens, it is a truly great portrait lens, period. It holds its own against the best lenses from Canon, Nikon, et al and in some ways, outshines some of them. It's certainly far smaller, lighter, and cheaper. It renders lovely colors and is extremely sharp and contrasty, and has an absolutely gorgeous blur in out-of-focus areas, both background and foreground. Additionally, the transition from the in-focus to out-of-focus areas is exceptionally smooth and attractive. The secret to how they achieve this is what they call feathered bokeh, meaning the bokeh balls aren't crisp-edged, but have a gradient from center to edge. As a result, out-of-focus areas just melt together into a lovely cotton-candy delight. It is better at this than almost any lens in almost any system; the only thing that rivals it, in my opinion, is apodization lenses like Fuji's 56/1.2 APD, which achieves that effect at the cost of losing a lot of brightness. (Other lens makers have similar technology but call it different things. To be clear, I'm not saying this lens is the absolute best in the world, I'm just saying it's hard to find anything better.) Olympus's feathered bokeh is achieved by very strategic undercorrection of spherical aberration, and works brilliantly. It does not, however, come at the cost of lowered quality in other aspects, such as sharpness or contrast. And if there's any color fringing, distortion, coma, etc—I have yet to see it. For my purposes, this is basically a flawless lens. And did I mention that it's half the size, weight, and cost of top portrait lenses like 85mm f/1.4 or f/1.2 from Canon, Nikon, Sony, Zeiss, et al? Actually, compared to Zeiss, it's much less than half. I'm attaching some SOOC JPG bokeh-ball shots, both front- and back-focused (see if you can tell the difference! hard, isn't it?) and a quick snapshot of my dog who happened to be lying there—and the dog shot has sunlight striking the front of the lens nearly head-on, look how little flaring and contrast veiling there is. Truly remarkable. Also, I've used both, and it's FAR better than the 42.5mm Panasonic lens, if you're trying to choose between the two.

Absolutely the sharpest lens I have ever owned in 45 years, and in that time I have owned OLY 35, Mamiya 6X7, and Mamiya C330 6X6 TLR lenses. High micro-contrast. At F1.2 the center, edges and corners are equivalent to my Olympus PRO 12-40 at 17mm F2.8. By F2.0 center and edge exceed sharpness of my Oly 60mm F2.8 macro at F5.6, which had yielded my sharpest images. Despite having a moderate wide FOV, this lens at F1.2 shooting a full height person in landscape view produces noticeable separation between the subject and foreground and background. Bokeh is soft and luscious when objects are close, and DOF is more limited than you might expect for this 34mm full-frame equivalent. It balances well on my my EM-1, but I have tried it out on my EP-5 and don't feel the ... MoreAbsolutely the sharpest lens I have ever owned in 45 years, and in that time I have owned OLY 35, Mamiya 6X7, and Mamiya C330 6X6 TLR lenses. High micro-contrast. At F1.2 the center, edges and corners are equivalent to my Olympus PRO 12-40 at 17mm F2.8. By F2.0 center and edge exceed sharpness of my Oly 60mm F2.8 macro at F5.6, which had yielded my sharpest images. Despite having a moderate wide FOV, this lens at F1.2 shooting a full height person in landscape view produces noticeable separation between the subject and foreground and background. Bokeh is soft and luscious when objects are close, and DOF is more limited than you might expect for this 34mm full-frame equivalent. It balances well on my my EM-1, but I have tried it out on my EP-5 and don't feel the weight is too much. Keep in mind, In my 45 years in photography I always brace the lens in my left hand with the body in my right, and if the camera isn't in my hand with a wrist or finger strap then it's in my bag. Yes, it's expensive, but if you wan't the absolute best, a precision optic, the sharpest, most contrasty lens, this is it. Yes it's expensive, but it ain't Leica expensive, and I would bet it's sharper than ANY Leica lens. Warning . . . don't buy this lens if you wan't old school "buttery smooth" images or "Leica-like" character to go with your high end tube audio gear and $30K turntable.