Good review. I hope you gave your model a special snack after the hard work she did!

Thanks for the review Rob, I was considering buying this Yongnuo lens but your video review has prevented me from being disappointed.

Great review, as always! Thank you for such an unbiased and objective testing which unfortunately many KZfaqrs simply ignore because they got a freebie from the manufacturers to plug their products. As regards the lens, why would I want to buy a $95 paperweight?

It would have been a huge shock to me if Yongnuo lens was better than the Olympus 45mm f/1.8, which is a crazy sharp lens and I love it. You are absolutely right. One must always do a comparison. I always tell the Mrs that she is my favourite wife and she always gives the same smirk. Thank you very much for your time and effort.

I was looking for some cheap lenses and found a 2nd hand 45mm f1.8 zuiko for $120+ well.. I'm not regretting that I bought. its a great lens for me.

Nice comparison Rob! Thanks for confirming my thoughts on this lens. On a side note I picked up the Olympus 14-150 new for $400 and it came with a Em5m2 for free. Now I have two Em5m2 haha.

I got this lens, came with Y1M1 camera body. Lens works great.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Yongnuo performs better on a Panasonic camera - going for 42.5 mm points in this direction (Edit: oh, I see, you tested it, it doesn't). I had this phenomenon with a Panasonic lens on my Olympus Pen F (bad autofocus, noisy operation) and went nearly fully Olympus afterwards. It seems to be no general problem, as I have an old Panasonic kit zoom that works perfectly fine on the Pen F. But what this test shows to me: This old and cheap Olympus 45mm F1.8 is astonishingly good for its price point, and Olympus did a really good job back then. I like it, and I use it quite often. Still waiting for a weather sealed version … ;-)

Hey Rob - Take a look at the Yi 42.5 1.8.. I got it on sale, brand new for $35... It's SURPRISINGLY good compared to the Oly 45 1.8.. There's no manual focus on it but it does have a great macro option.

The Oly 45mm is a very popular lens, therefore there's also a lot of them on sale used. It's a great lens and the price used is extreme good value.

Wow, never even knew that Yongnuo sold a native m43 lens! I have an canon to m43 adapter to make use of my old Canon 50mm f1.8 but also found the auto focus hit rate to be less than great. I recently picked up a m.Zuiko 45 f1.8, the competitive performance is streets ahead, and smaller and lighter as a package too. Great to have cheap options all the same. That is the beauty of m43... lots of options.

Thanks for taking the time and effort to make this video Rob. I can’t see many people buying this lens. Better to spend a bit more and get a used Oly 45mm. Have a fab Christmas 🎄🍾🥂🎂

Ty Rob for the review! Pretty obvious where Yongnuo saved the money here. They would've been better off releasing a manual focus lens xD

I don't have an Olympus camera, but I do have 3 Yongnuo lenses for my Sony A7ii. The lenses are for Canon EOS, but I'm using an adapter on the A7ii. I like the 100mm f/2 and the 35mm f/2 full-frame. The 50mm f/1.8 is okay. I only use them for photos.

Glass makes the difference, you get what you pay for. And yes you have to compare similar lenses.The Olympus has very good glass and fine focus motors for accuracy. It is an older lens and the fine motors means it moves more slowly but as the focussing is done in the camera, it should not be satisfied until the lens is in focus. You should not get forward or back focussing when the focussing is done on the sensor. It is only with roof focus sensors where that might occur (mirrors). An ad hoc comparison I recently did on E-M5ii with the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 vs adapted (all manual) Chinon 50mm f/1.9 and Chinon 50mm f/1.4 found the two slower lenses to be very similar but the faster Chinon 50mm f/1.4, which was ever a high-end lens, to be significantly sharper and clearer. True it has to be focussed manually but the focus peaking makes this easy. With a very shallow DoF wide open the focus does have to be spot-on.

Awesomely thorough review!

I have very old Lumix G5. This lens is very sharp for portraits even at f/1.7

Recently, Yongnuo launched the Mark ii version of this lens. I just wonder if the one tested is the Mark ii version.

Merry Christmas Rob 🎄

The zuiko 45mm is still my most used lens since the day I got it. I got a 7 Artisans 35mm f1.2 and although the bokeh is really nice the manual focus is really a pain to use. As you demonstrated the Yongnuo lens is ok in manual focus mode, I would get the 7 Artisans with f1.2. I should send some picture for editing next time.

Indoor portrait shot, I disagree at 2.8, I think the Olympus is much nicer, for more reason than color. Thanks for the great video. What a piece of junk lens, at least they gave it a go!

Very helpful Rob thanks

Nice jacket Rob !!!

Bottom line: you get what you pay for. Both lenses work pretty well, but the more expensive one works better.

If the Oly 45 f1.8 could talk he'd say "it's good to be the King" 😉

Did ya say omd em1 Mkii has only contrast detect not hybrid? I thought all the ems had hybrid? Superb video as always friend! 👍👍👍👍

I think there might be a version 2 lens coming out. Thought I read that someplace.

the olympus is still sharper. You get what you pay for Yongnou. If you're really on a budget and you'll just use it for social media post, yongnou is good enough.

It reminds me of the Xiaomi micro four thirds lens

THANKS -----------------------------------very helpful .......Hey hope your well ........I bought a 45mm olympus 1.7 and am very happy with a used one ........got it for a great deal .........just a little double of the yongnuo at 90 bucks ...so will be loving this awesome Portrait lens but I would have considered the YONGNUO

Hello, i think I saw your fingerprint on the lens

Can it work on a rebel t6 camera

OK, good to know that there's such an affordable manual lens for µ 4/3 ;-)

Thank you very much, I will stay away from that lens.

Your review is unfair. The Yongnuo is less than half the price of the Olympus lens. That can be a deciding factor for many people. The Yongnuo is really worth the price.

Good to be armed with data before opening the wallet....

Rob, part of the problmem is thst you're measuring chalk with cheese. To be honesr, Rob, you are not best qualifued to do these tests. Rob Trek, you are respected fir your teaxhing skills. This is not worthy of you. Rick