Jungle Island; a taste of Olympus' MZD 17mm f/1.8

17mm

Earlier this week my partner and I visited a small zoo in the heart of Miami named Jungle Island. We both love wildlife and our day-date also presented the opportunity to test out my newly acquired Olympus MZD 17mm f/1.8. I also took the MZD 45mm f/1.8, MZD 40-150mm zoom and Samyang's 7.5mm fisheye lens. I ended up not using the fisheye, but all this and a few accessories easily fit into the small messenger bag I brought with me. The photos below are labeled according to the lens I used for comparison and some of my favorite came from the 17mm.

17mm

This lens provides the relatively wide field of view that I enjoy when using the 15mm body cap lens. However, it is razor sharp even when shot wide open and produces some beautiful bokeh. It is also small, auto-focus is blazing fast when coupled to the EM5, and the cherry on top is being able to easily switch to manual mode using the lens itself. Manual focus became important when photographing birds through their cages as the lens usually auto-focused on the enclosure. After auto-focusing I would enter magnification mode on the EM5 and manually focus on what I wanted to... usually the birds' eye =)  

17mm

When there was no cage to obstruct the subject, I was surprised at the EM5 and 17mm's ability to lock focus on my subject's eyes, even when it was moving. The 17mm has been around for a while and there are plenty of articles out there detailing its pros and cons (see here, here, here, and here). I think the 17mm, 45mm and zoom were a perfect trio for the zoo and I highly recommend Olympus' fast wide angle prime! With that, I will leave you with some of the images from Jungle Island =)

Sam D. 

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45mm

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45mm

45mm

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17mm

45mm

45mm

40-150mm

17mm

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17mm

45mm

45mm

45mm

45mm

40-150 mm

45mm

17mm

40-150mm

45mm

40-150mm

17mm

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17mm