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Olympus Lens Cap 15mm f/8 - Review / Cap Test |
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Lens Reviews -
(Micro-)Four-Thirds
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Page 1 of 3
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published June 2013
Introduction
Looking at the name of the thing, it may be debatable whether you've just started reading a review of a lens ... or a lens cap. However, since the Olympus Lens Cap 15mm f/8 has some glass (probably rather plastic) elements let's vote for the first option for now. A better name may be 'toy lens' (similar to some Pentax Q lenses). It order to distinguish the Lens Cap from the conventional lineup, Olympus also omitted the usual "M.Zuiko" from the name. While it is manufactured by Olympus and obviously mountable to micro-four-thirds cameras, it has neither any electronics - thus it doesn't produce EXIF data - nor an aperture mechanism in the conventional sense - it has a fixed aperture of f/8. The Lens Cap does not feature an AF motor either. However, it is possible to focus manually via a tiny lever. Price-wise it is more in cap land although this varies massively depending on your location - we bought one in the US for 49$ whereas here in Australia it costs a rather whopping 99$ (which is insulting really).
The Lens Cap is a dwarfish being and weights next to nothing really (22g). Its build quality is Okay - there is nothing wrong with the all-plastic body but the focus lever feels somewhat fragile. In 'transport mode' the lens cap has a ... well ... lens cap/cover similar to ones found in digicams. The 'built-in' lens gets exposed by turning the focus lever into working mode. The first 'click' is the infinity setting. From here on you can focus down to 0.30m. The lens has a focus extension system so it moves a tiny bit when turning the lever. Given the microscopic lens it is hardly surprising that it doesn't take any filters.
As mentioned you have to use manual focusing. You may argue that regarding the slow max. aperture you will rarely need to touch it anyway except for closeups. Technically this is true but the 'infinity' position of the lever is a little fuzzy so we had a few outliers during our field trip.
| Specifications |
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| Equiv. focal length | 30 mm (full format equivalent) |
| Equiv. aperture | f/16 (full format equivalent, in terms of depth-of-field) |
| Optical construction | 3 elements / 3 groups |
| Number of aperture blades | fix |
| min. focus distance | 0.30 m (max. magnification 1:?) |
| Dimensions (L x W) | 9 x 56 mm |
| Weight | 22 g |
| Filter size | - |
| Hood | No |
| Other features | - |
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