M.Zuiko (OM) 20mm/f1.4 — First Impressions

After not buying any photo gear (kind of) for a year, I succumbed to GAS again (gear acquisition syndrome) when I found a great deal on a pre-owned M.Zuiko 20mm/f1.4 lens. This lens was not on my radar (nothing was on my radar), but, while curating MFT images for a Flickr group I administer, I came across a few wonderful images that were taken with this lens. Aside from seeing images online, I did zero research into this lens. Was that a big mistake? The jury is still out.

I’ve taken this lens out, with my EM1.ii on three occasions, each one a challenging situation due to either low light, or moving subjects. So the first thing I noticed — this lens hunts for focus in low light. All. The. Time. I think this is the worst ~~M.Zuiko~~ — sorry, OM — lens I own in this regard. Perhaps it’s not fair to take a lens out the first few times and subject it to such challenging situations without getting to know each other first, but that’s how and what I shoot. I was excited for an extra stop of light, then disappointed at it’s lethargic low-light focus.

I’m attempting to work through this, and I need to take this lens out for some ‘normal’ shooting. Until then, hare are some images from our first three outings