M. Zuiko Digital ED 30mm F3.5 Macro Lens, Suitable for All MFT Cameras ( OM-D & PEN models, Panasonic G-series), black

I've been shooting Micro Four Thirds for just over five years and in that time I've acquired more than my fair share of affordable lenses - native, legacy, autofocus, manual, cheap, cheerful... But I've never found anything quite as impressive as this Olympus f3.5 30mm Macro. I use a Panasonic GX9 and it's a perfect match: it's small and light and it feels like a natural extension to the camera. The two images were both shot hand-held, and are incredibly crisp and clear - even the specks of dust on the Lego figure's red helmet show up. With a tripod, focus stacking works brilliantly too (using Affinity Photo to merge the manually-focused images). You have to be a bit careful with light levels - flaring can be an issue, but for macro I reckon you're ok as long as your subject is evenly lit. And as with most M43 autofocus lenses, there's no aperture ring, or depth of field scale, just a smooth, pleasantly weighted focusing ring. If you want to use a hood you'll have to buy a 46mm screw-fit: there's no bayonet fitting as there is with the f1.8 45mm. I haven't really tried it as a general walkabout lens: I didn't buy it for that, and I'll probably stick to standard primes or zooms for street/portrait/landscape photos. I did have a quick debate with myself about going for the Panasonic equivalent. The Olympus' slightly greater magnification (x1.25 as opposed to x1) was one factor in its favour, as was the price. I was lucky enough to hit a special offer on the Olympus (£50 off) and that was enough to convince me. If you're in the market for a budget but top quality macro lens for Micro Four Thirds then this, I reckon, is the one you want to get.

Great lens

pros: very lightweight and small sharp being a shorter focal length, and being m43, you get a generous depth of field even at f5.6. none of my attached images are focus stacked and all under f8 auto focus is snappy and quick lovely looking bokeh cons: bit plastic, but if it wasn't it would be heavier short focus distance - you really have to be an inch or two away. however, consider this no early 2000s sigma, the auto focus is quiet so you can get away with it fairly easy with bugs if your sneaky could be f2.8 or faster, then it would make a viable portrait lens. However, I'll stick with faster lenses - bokeh is nice but you really need to work for it. in short, this lens is a solid 9/10. 45mm may be easier to work with but personally, i prefer this too my 7artisans 60 macro. the auto focus is actually useful especially if you handhold a video light like in these shots, and you can use a faster aperture and are less weighed down. I hope this lasts a long time because I absolutely love it, id say worth up to £200

I bought this early summer to start taking macro photos of flowers in my garden, with my Pen-F. I very much like this little lens; it's sharp enough and has excellent magnification, but it's a bit slow at f 3.5. The other alternatives are the more expensive 60mm macro lens, but with a cash back offer from Olympus, this was really a good deal. You can use it as a standard 30mm (60mm eq) lens, but I already have a 45mm so I don't; I only use it for macro shots. It's light and sharp, and that's good enough.

Widely reviewed as a good value for money macro lens which performs well across its entire range. It deserves the good reviews and remains OMD’s cheapest macro lens by a long way. This makes it their best value for money macro lens by far.

This little lens is fantastic, and has blown my expectations out of the water! I am new to macro photography but this lens has made the learning process extremely easy! For the price compared to other brands this is incredible value for money, images are extremely crisp and sharp and the auto focus is extremely quick. The minimum focus distance is impressive and the detail it picks up is stunning! This lens does an okay job at further away subjects, but as soon as you get in close it really comes into ots own! Excellent purchase, I would highly recommend for anyone who is interested in macro photography

There are so many videos by YouTube photographers recommending this lens, and once you have used one you get to see why. The shots you will be able to get are amazing, 2x magnification and ultra sharp picture quality makes our images really Wow! Its such a fun lens to use to reveal the tiny worlds of everyday objects, plants, bugs and more. But where this lens really releases it value is just being a super sharp prime lens for everyday photography and portraits. Portraits are just fantastic with this lens, being the right focal length and super sharp. Couldn't recommend enough.

This lens is nice and compact. It gives good sharp images. It sometimes "hunts " a little while focusing, but not too bad. When I first received the lens, I thought it might have been a returned item, as the box was not sealed. However it was in an Olympus box with all the paper work.