Last november I was very happy to touch and try for an hour a preproduction copy of the brand new Olympus 45mm f/1.2 PRO lens. The bad weather conditions and the short amount of time were a problem for some general conclusion, but I spent more time with the lens from the end of this January on.

It was my third year shooting “Surva” masquerade games and last year I used a pair of Olympus PRO zooms and the year before that it was a mix of my Olympus and Nikon gear.

For this year event I tried to use mostly prime lens including the new 25mm and 45mm f/1.2 lenses and to shoot portraits as main priority.

The location is in a city center and it’s full with street lights, trees, hanging flags and a lot of banners and I thought it’s the perfect scenario to test such lens with it’s feathered bokeh.

I’m not going to share technical details about the lens there is a lot of info over the internet I’ll share just some images and thoughts.

Boy with cristal clear blue eyes – Olympus M.ZUIKO 45mm f/1.2 PRO @ f/1.2, 1/5000 ISO 200.

Girl holding a mask over her head – Olympus M.ZUIKO 45mm f/1.2 PRO @ f/1.6, 1/4000 ISO 200.

Portrait of Karina – Olympus M.ZUIKO 45mm f/1.2 PRO @ f/1.2, 1/10000 ISO 200.

Kuker boy with a costume walking during the fest – Olympus M.ZUIKO 45mm f/1.2 PRO @ f/1.2, 1/6400 ISO 200.

Girl posing with her mask on the head – Olympus M.ZUIKO 45mm f/1.2 PRO @ f/1.8, 1/4000 ISO 200.

Kuker posing with his costume and belt with bells – Olympus M.ZUIKO 45mm f/1.2 PRO @ f/1.2, 1/5000 ISO 200.

Girl posing in a traditional dress – Olympus M.ZUIKO 45mm f/1.2 PRO @ f/1.2, 1/16000 ISO 200.

Kuker with his mask – Olympus M.ZUIKO 45mm f/1.2 PRO @ f/1.2, 1/12800 ISO 200.

Kuker boy dacing with rapid movements of the body and costume – Olympus M.ZUIKO 45mm f/1.2 PRO @ f/1.2, 1/12800 ISO 200.

Dancing girl in traditional dress – Olympus M.ZUIKO 45mm f/1.2 PRO @ f/1.2, 1/500 ISO 200.

After this event I had some more opportunities to test this lens and I can say that I’m very impressed with the overall performance. Even wide open the sharpness is very good and it’s mind blowing after 2.8, but I wanted to test the performance mostly wide open. The bokeh is something different and very subjective, but for my taste I can say that is very pleasing and transition from focus to defocus area is very pleasing.

The size is not very compact for a m4/3 lens, but the wide 1.2 aperture plus weather sealing is making it great choice for all the travel, documentary and wedding photographers.