Olympus 50mm f/1.8 OM Zuiko

The Olympus 50mm ƒ/1.8 manual focus lens is no longer in production, but was the standard lens of the Olympus OM camera series, employing a design using six elements in four groups.

In moving to digital, Olympus has abandoned the original OM mount, adopting instead the four thirds standard (and micro four thirds standard) for its digital camera bodies. However, Olympus has made available the MF-2 lens adapter, which allows OM lenses to be fitted to a micro four thirds digital camera. With this system in place, we have tested this vintage lens on the Olympus EP-1.

As a micro four thirds camera, the EP-1 produces a 2x ”crop factor,” meaning lenses used with it provide an effective field of view that is double their listed focal length. So in this case, the 50mm ƒ/1.8 operates effectively as a 100mm ƒ/1.8 lens.