Olympus 12-40 f2.8 or Olympus 75 f1.8

Hello everybody!

First of all sorry for my english.

Ive bought OM-D EM10 II. My daughter will go to photografy cources. She wants to make photos for her friends, for parties and so on.

I have kit lense 14-42, 25mm 1.8, will buy 45mm 1.8.

If she will make photos as a job what lens do you recomed to buy else (only 1) - 12-40mm f2.8 or 75mm f1.8 - they cost aprox the same price.

Thank you!

Muralex wrote:

Hello everybody!

First of all sorry for my english.

Ive bought OM-D EM10 II. My daughter will go to photografy cources. She wants to make photos for her friends, for parties and so on.

I have kit lense 14-42, 25mm 1.8, will buy 45mm 1.8.

If she will make photos as a job what lens do you recomed to buy else (only 1) - 12-40mm f2.8 or 75mm f1.8 - they cost aprox the same price.

Thank you!

Impossible to say for sure without knowing what she will photograph but the 12-40 is much more versatile and covers a range that has long been considered and essential pro lens. IMO, the 75mm is much more special purpose. Before you buy the 75mm, you should know exactly why you need it.

Cost the same doesn't mean anything, other than how much you need to spend to get a new lens. if she will take images for a job, or career, then what type of images will she be required to take? Food photography? Sports? Journalistic?

That matters. For now, there is a "kit" lens there, so getting the 12-40 f/2.8 just means you are getting an optically better kit, with wider aperture, which can help in lower light, and it is weather sealed. All good, but if you don't need that yet, don't get it.

The 75mm is a prime, wide aperture one, and a very nice lens. However, it is a special lens of sorts, like a mini-sports lens, or a get farther away Portrait lens (45-ish might be better for portraits, but some love the 75mm for them). But the 75mm adds to what you mentioned was there, which can be good.

I have the 12-40 as well as the 40-150 pro lenses and they're excellent zooms complementing each other.

A while ago a decided I wanted to buy the so much praised 75/1.8. And I did.

It is a wonderful piece of glass but quite unique in its FL on the m43 form factor, IMHO.

It's tack sharp and while it opens wide at F/1.8 thus giving you more to work with I decided to return it and use my 'lesser' 75-300 ii zoom which is extremely sharp at that FL (provided you're not shooting light critical sessions like indoor, at night or when extremely fast shutter speeds are required). That simply because I do not feel comfortable using such a 'long' FL for portraiture.

I find the 45/1.8 more usable for my taste or sometimes a fast adapted manual focus nifty-fifty (Canon FD 50/1.4 SSC or the likes...)

I own both. Ditch the kit lens and get the 12-40. It will be used 85% of time when shooting. The 75 is good but it's a specialty lens.

Muralex wrote:

Hello everybody!

First of all sorry for my english.

Ive bought OM-D EM10 II. My daughter will go to photografy cources. She wants to make photos for her friends, for parties and so on.

I have kit lense 14-42, 25mm 1.8, will buy 45mm 1.8.

If she will make photos as a job what lens do you recomed to buy else (only 1) - 12-40mm f2.8 or 75mm f1.8 - they cost aprox the same price.

Thank you!

You have already listed two fast prime lenses. You need a "wide-normal" to complete your "holy trinity" of lenses.

I would suggest either the Panasonic 15mm f1.7 (the same lens is also available rebranded under the DJI name for less money http://m.ebay.com/itm/DJI-15mm-F1-7-Lens-For-Micro-Four-Thirds-Includes-Balancing-Ring-Hood-Caps-/112503052768?hash=item1a31b459e0%3Ag%3A0zkAAOSwX61ZKhbr&_trkparms=pageci%253A504a1d84-7923-11e7-8f7e-74dbd1802748%257Cparentrq%253Aadb3bb4515d0aca4ad97580effffe7be%257Ciid%253A1) or an Olympus 12mm f2.0 or the Olympus 17mm f1.8. Any one of those three lenses would be well suited for photographing indoor parties.

The idea behind the trinity of lenses is that they cover nearly every photographic need.  I have the Olympus 75mm lens and it's truly fantastic.  As a portrait lens it's amazing but it's not that much better than the 45mm.  I use mine for shooting the far end of the court in my daughter's basketball games and at the zoo.  My DJI 15mm gets much more use as general purpose lens for anything indoors (including food) and landscape photography.

jsaras wrote:

Muralex wrote:

Hello everybody!

First of all sorry for my english.

Ive bought OM-D EM10 II. My daughter will go to photografy cources. She wants to make photos for her friends, for parties and so on.

I have kit lense 14-42, 25mm 1.8, will buy 45mm 1.8.

If she will make photos as a job what lens do you recomed to buy else (only 1) - 12-40mm f2.8 or 75mm f1.8 - they cost aprox the same price.

Thank you!

You have already listed two fast prime lenses. You need a "wide-normal" to complete your "holy trinity" of lenses.

I would suggest either the Panasonic 15mm f1.7 (the same lens is also available rebranded under the DJI name for less money http://m.ebay.com/itm/DJI-15mm-F1-7-Lens-For-Micro-Four-Thirds-Includes-Balancing-Ring-Hood-Caps-/112503052768?hash=item1a31b459e0%3Ag%3A0zkAAOSwX61ZKhbr&_trkparms=pageci%253A504a1d84-7923-11e7-8f7e-74dbd1802748%257Cparentrq%253Aadb3bb4515d0aca4ad97580effffe7be%257Ciid%253A1) or an Olympus 12mm f2.0 or the Olympus 17mm f1.8. Any one of those three lenses would be well suited for photographing indoor parties.

I also have 17/1.8 glued on PEN-F. while not a whopping lens it does very decently.

The idea behind the trinity of lenses is that they cover nearly every photographic need. I have the Olympus 75mm lens and it's truly fantastic. As a portrait lens it's amazing but it's not that much better than the 45mm.

That is what I noticed too. And 45 has amore mind setting  FOV for me...

I use mine for shooting the far end of the court in my daughter's basketball games and at the zoo. My DJI 15mm gets much more use as general purpose lens for anything indoors (including food) and landscape photography.

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The Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 makes the most sense for professional use. It is sharp at all focal lengths. I shoot professionally and the 12-40mm is my 'workhorse' lens, and most of the pro photographers I know tend to shoot with good quality zooms these days.

As others have mentioned, the 45mm f/1.8 is an extremely sharp lens and a more usable focal length, so getting the 75mm doesn't gain your daughter all that much, other than some added focal length.

Both are excellent lenses, just make sure you buy the one she has a need for. Given that she already cover the 12-40 range with both a kit lens and a prime I could see the 75 adding more value. That said the 75 is a much more niched focal length.

To me the 75 stands out, possibly the best MFT lens. I returned mine only after realizing I could not justify owning a prime at that focal length and invested in the 40-150 f2.8 pro instead.

If she has any interest in doing portrait photography then the 75mm 1.8 is spectacular. The 12-40mm is more versatile however.