As you may have noticed if you’ve looked at the EXIF data in some of my images, I bought some new goodies for the E-510 to play with: the Olympus 50mm f/2.0 Macro lens, and extension tube. This is a powerful combo for macro photography, but it reminds me from time to time just how much my style needs to change in order to accommodate their design.
For starters, the lens is really fast — but if you use the speed (f/2.0) for close-in macro work, the depth of field pretty much disappears. Being so “bright,” the lens is fantastic for indoor / available light photography. But when you use it for macro photography, you almost always have to close it down to f/11 or tighter — and this is even more important if the extension tube is in use.
I have, though, found one good use for the lens’ essentially zero depth of field when it’s used “wide open.” It makes great abstract macro photos — here’s one I recently took of part of a bunch of flowers I bought for my wife for Mother’s Day:
This image is also on Flickr, as well as in the gallery (should you like it enough that you’d like a print of it).
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