4K Video Field Test : Legacy Lens | Olympus 50mm f/1.8 Zuiko Auto-S

Olympus’s classic OM-mount Zuiko lenses hold a special place near and dear to the hearts of many photographers. The combination of excellent build quality, compact size and sharp, clear optics make a powerful piece of equipment. It should come as no surprise, then, that these Olympus primes also find their way onto the cameras of modern-day videographers and filmmakers.

Toward the beginning of this half-review, half-tech-demo series, I took a quick look at the Olympus 35mm f/2 and found it to be a stellar walkaround lens. Their version of a nifty fifty from the same era of lenses is, unsurprisingly, also a fantastic addition to any creator’s kit.

The Olympus 50mm f/1.8 Zuiko Auto-S was actually often bundled as a kit lens with their OM-mount SLR film cameras. Produced for thirty years with minimal design changes from 1972-2002, this lens features 6 glass elements in 5 groupings in early samples, dropping to 4 groupings in later configurations. Six aperture blades whip open to f/1.8 and stop down to f/16 when needed. All of these details are held together in a body that’s only 32mm long, weighing 165 grams.

Truthfully, I’m not sure there’s a lot I have to say about this lens, simply because there’s nothing out-of-place or bizarre about it. It’s wonderfully designed, with a sturdy and intuitive build that works exactly as intended when it comes to manual focus and aperture adjustment.

Perhaps that’s why it’s so popular among budding videographers who want to add some legacy glass to their kit. It looks good. It works well. It’s smooth, strong, sharp, compact and lightweight.

I can’t think of anything more you might want in a manual-operation lens. Check it out on video below.

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