54 24 August 2019 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113
Testbench SECOND-HAND BARGAINS
WITH portraits it’s all about the optics, and
that’s where we’ve started here. The Olympus
M.Zuiko Digital 45mm f/1.8 is quite simply one
of our favourite budget short-telephoto portrait
lenses. It’s small, lightweight, sharp wide open
(but not too sharp), and gives attractive
background blur. Crucially it’s also very
affordable; used examples sell for as little as
£159 in excellent condition on mpb.com.
Let’s take a closer look at what makes this
lens such a fine option. First, it offers a focal
length equivalent to 90mm on full frame,
which enables a more flattering perspective
for head-and-shoulders portraits than the
inexpensive 50mm f/1.8 lenses that are
commonly used for this purpose on APS-C
DSLRs. The f/1.8 aperture allows you to shoot
indoors in relatively low levels of natural light
without having to raise the ISO too far, and
delivers a decent degree of background blur.
Because it’s being used on the smaller Micro
Four Thirds sensor, it’s not the same in this
respect as using an f/1.8 prime on full frame,
or even APS-C: instead this lens gives the
same pictorial effect in terms of background
blur as a 60mm f/2.2 on APS-C, or a 90mm
f/3.5 on full frame. But few lenses with this
kind of specification exist for these larger
format systems, and even those that do are
considerably more expensive.
Equally important for portrait shooting is the
fast, silent and consistently accurate autofocus.It’s easy to forget that Olympus cameras have
long featured face- and eye-detection AF that
work effectively in single AF mode with static
subjects, since well before Sony expanded and
popularised its own Eye AF function. So you
shouldn’t have too much difficulty getting your
subject’s eyes sharp. The minimum focus
distance of 0.5m allows for striking close-ups.
The 45mm f/1.8 is also tiny, measuring just
46mm long and tipping the scales at a
featherweight 116g. It’s truly a lens that you
can carry around all day as an accompaniment
to a kit zoom, and barely notice. It’s not
flawless, though, and flare can be a serious
problem when you’re shooting into the light,
destroying contrast. So it’s advisable to acquire
a lens hood, which fits onto a bayonet mount
that’s normally hidden by a cosmetic ring at the
front of the barrel.A retro classic
A lens is no good without a camera to use it
on, of course, and we’ve chosen the first
generation of Olympus’s lovely retro-styled
OM-D E-M10 line. This 2014 model brought
most of the best bits of the hugely popular
OM-D E-M5 into a more affordable body,
which lacked the weather-sealing of its sibling
but gained a built-in flash that’s handy for
providing a little fill-in for portraits. It costs as
little as £179 used, so all together, you can buy
a nice portrait kit for a mere £340. If you wanta better-designed body with mod cons such as
Wi-Fi, the E-M10 Mark II is about £75 more.
Olympus’s little retro-styled OM-D cameras
also bring their own charms. For portraits,
chances are your subjects will find them far
less intimidating than a big DSLR. You can use
the tilting rear screen as a low-level finder,
allowing you to engage with your subjects
without the camera getting in the way. If you
prefer, you can of course use the central
electronic viewfinder, and while the E-M10’s
1.44-million-dot EVF lacks resolution by
current standards, it’s still perfectly usable.
You also get the benefits of Olympus’s
attractive JPEG processing. The firm is known
for the warm and relatively punchy colour
rendition of its default Natural mode, while
switching to the Portrait profile will give a
slightly gentler look. Many users find the noise
filtering over-aggressive for most subjects, but
with portraits it does have the effect of
smoothing away unwanted skin detail.
Other attractions of the E-M10 include
relatively quiet operation, although it lacks the
super-soft shutter of later generations. Its
3-axis in-body image stabilisation also helps
you to get sharper images with any lens,
including unstabilised fast primes like the
45mm f/1.8. Just be aware that when
photographing people you’ll generally need to
select relatively fast shutter speeds anyway, to
counteract subject movement.Portraits
Olympus OM-D E-M10
with 45mm f/1.8 lens
ALL PRICES WERE TAKEN FROM W W W.MPB.COM AT THE TIME OF WRITING
£340
GREAT FOR