Last Updated on 05/06/2019 by Mark Beckenbach
These portrait lenses from Olympus and Panasonic will really make your portraits sing.
There are some truly great lenses available for many different genres on the Micro Four Thirds platform, and the lenses that have been designed specifically for portrait photographers are some of the best. If you shoot with a Micro Four Thirds camera and have been wondering what lenses to consider for portrait photography, you’ll enjoy this round up. Here we will take a look at six of the best portrait lenses for the Micro Four Thirds system. The great thing is, if you don’t want to spend large sums of cash on portrait lenses you don’t have to. We have picked out six portrait lenses that range in cost from very affordable to a little more pricey, but don’t think for a second that the cheaper lenses will leave you wanting more. All of these lenses are ridiculously sharp, focus quickly, and produce colors that will leave you speechless. Let’s jump right in and take a look at six of our favorite portrait lenses for Micro Four Thirds cameras.
Olympus 25mm F1.8
Here are the pros and cons from our full review:
Pros
- Super sharp wide open and stopped down a tad
- Small and light
- Fast focusing performance in various lighting situations
- Smooth bokeh
Cons
- We wish it were a tad faster than f1.4
Buy now ($349): Amazon
Olympus 25mm F1.2 PRO
Here are the pros and cons from our full review:
Pros
- Beautiful bokeh
- Almost never need to stop the lens down
- Incredibly fast focusing abilities
- Weather sealing
- Manual focus operation is very smooth
- Pretty compact, though something a tad smaller would be nice
Cons
- Kind of pricey, but we understand why
Buy now ($1,099): Amazon
Pro Tip: One of the best ways to really create some dynamic portraits is to add in some artificial light from speedlites, but you’ll need to be able to control that light as well. Fortunately, there are some fantastic products on the market to help get the light exactly where you want it. The Rogue Flashbender 2 attaches to your speedlite via velcro and can be bent and positioned exactly how you need it to get the lighting effects desired. The best part is that it is incredibly affordable.
Panasonic 42.5mm F1.2
Here are the pros and cons from our full review:
Pros
- Super sharp wide open. In fact, it’s the sharpest we’ve ever tested for the system
- Beautiful build quality
- Nice aperture ring
- Fast to focus
Cons
- Aperture ring control only works with Panasonic cameras
- Expensive
- Not the smartest focusing with Olympus cameras unless a point is chosen beforehand
Buy now ($1,076.29): Amazon
Olympus 45mm F1.8 MSC
Here are the pros and cons from our full review:
Pros
- Excellent image quality and sharpness when wide open providing your objective isn’t to sit there all day and night shooting charts but to instead photograph people and things
- Image quality is good enough that I’d even say that it can be used for professional purposes and applications
- True to life color rendering
- Little to no color fringing when shooting wide open
- Small size
- Gorgeous bokeh
Cons
- Don’t expect to get that super extreme shallow depth of field where only the eyes are in focus. You’ll need much faster glass than this to do that
- Semi-flimsy build quality. We really wish it were built better and had the full metal build of the 12mm f2. I’d surely pay the premium for it
Buy now ($399): Amazon
Pro Tip: Whether you’re new to portrait photography, or you’ve been in the game for a while, learning new tips and tricks of the trade is always a good thing. It’s easy to become stale when it comes to posing your subjects, so being able to have a resource that can help you change things up is a godsend. This posing guide from Lindsay Adler will help you pose your subjects perfectly. Learn how to make all men, women, and children of all body sizes and types look their absolute best. It will be one of the most handy guides you’ll ever own.
Olympus 45mm F1.2 PRO
Here are the pros and cons from our full review:
Pros
- Fast f1.2 aperture
- Excellent manual focus control
- Quick and accurate AF
- Weather resistance
- Excellent build quality
Cons
- Price. You can get a lot more lens for the same money (or less) in other systems
- Weight. The lens is a substantial chunk of glass on most Micro Four Thirds cameras
Buy now ($1,099): Amazon
Olympus 40-150mm F2.8 PRO
Here are the pros and cons from our full review:
Pros
- Excellent build quality
- You get an 80-300mm f2.8 lens in the size of a standard 24-70mm f2.8 from other manufacturers
- Very sharp wide open
- Retractable lens hood is very convenient, but if you want to use the lens without the hood you essentially need to remove it
Cons
- Focusing ring can be accidentally switched to manual focusing
Buy now ($1,399): Amazon