Olympus 45mm vs Olympus 60mm macro for food photography

Uncle Frank wrote:

You don't need a macro lens for this kind of casual food photography, which is why I suggest you give it a try with your 17/1.8 before you buy another lens.

I definitely agree with that. But my point was that 45mm f/1.8 is a great lens but won't add much to your food photography arsenal because its close focusing abilities are pretty poor and in practice, doesn't magnify details any more than the 17mm f/1.8 does. The 17mm f/1.8 can pretty much do just about anything you need to do informally.

The reason why I suggest the 60mm f/2.8 is because it opens up a whole new world of macro photography where you can focus on individual sugar crystals on a pie, really zero in on top of a cherry on top of a sundae, things like that. And it also functions as a great all-around medium telephoto lens and everything that such a lens is good for (headshots, street photography when you want to be more discreet, or just when you need such a long lens, etc.).

There are so many things worth photographing that really needs a medium telephoto macro lens. For instance, one of my hobbies is guitar building. If I really want to zero in on a bridge or a knob, only my 60mm can get close enough to where I feel like it's properly showing the detail I want to photograph. When I'm shooting at a concert, and I want to get a sharp picture of a drummer, often 60mm can be perfect. If I want to zoom in on a single unusual guitar pedal, most other lenses won't quite cut it. Wedding photographers rely on macro lenses for taking pictures of the ring, or eyelashes as part of a makeup shoot or whatever.

Yes, the 45mm f/1.8 is a wonderful lens but I personally find the 60mm f/2.8 to be a more versatile lens. Yet I still carry around the 45mm f/1.8 a lot more because sometimes, being really great at a few things is better than being pretty good at a lot of things and so, versatility isn't always the most important part of a lens, but when you're starting out with your lens collection, I think versatility is important. That's why I love the 17mm f/1.8, for instance. It's actually probably my third favorite lens to shoot with (after 25mm f/1.4 and 45mm f/1.8) but if I can only use one lens for the next three months, I pick the 17mm f/1.8 because it strikes a great balance between versatility and specialization.