After second session with Olympus 60mm Macro on GX7

Firstly, my credentials (or lack thereof). I’ve been a photography hobbyist since I was 15, when I bought my first “real” camera, a Yashica D twin lens reflex. While in my 30s and 40s, I did some occasional freelance commercial and wedding photography using Mamiya medium format equipment. I have been just a photography hobbyist for the last 20 years. When I sold all my Canon 20D kit 10 years ago, I switched to a Canon G7 & upgraded a couple of times to the G12. Since my discovery of micro 4/3rds, I have been binging on the internet, reading more info than my gray cells can remember.

A couple of months ago, I purchased a Panasonic GX7 with the 14-42 II kit lens. One of the most appealing features being the pivoting eye level viewfinder. I am quite pleased with the camera and was surprised at how good close-up images were. But … I wanted even more. We have a lot of ornamental plants in our home gardens and they just beg the attention of a macro lens.

I read many reviews and comments here on DPREVIEW. [Thanks to all who make this site such a great information resource.]

OK, here’s the meat of my rambling. I am fortunate to have a real camera shop nearby. They had both a used Panasonic 50mm and a display Olympus 60mm in the shop. They let me try them out on my GX7 and I processed the images at home after my visit.

I found that the Panny 50mm seemed a tad short and I had to be very close to a macro subject. The 50mm focusing seemed slow and sluggish to me and I just didn’t like it as much as the Oly 60mm. The first set of reviewed images were sort of inconclusive, since I was not using a tripod and had no real comparison system designed – I just installed the lenses and walked around and shot what was of interest. A couple of the Oly 60mm shots were very impressive and none of the 50mm images jumped out at me. Once again, these were all hand held shots by a MFT noob.

Here’s the conclusion: I like the Olympus 60mm macro lens very much. I discovered early on that I can’t shoot it wide open on flowers, the depth of focus is just too shallow. Put the camera in A(perture) mode, stop down a bit and raise the ISO and you’re good to go.

Here are some samples from my second outing around our gardens.

Best regards to the great group of photographers that hang out here.