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In case you didn’t know it the Olympus Body Cap Lens now will come in White, Silver and Red too (Source: Olympus Global). I see you jump off chair for joy 🙂
And if you are considering to buy it than read the two brand new reviews:
Dpreview (Click here) writes:
“It certainly won’t be for everyone, but photographers who are able to accept, and even exploit its limitations could find it a useful piece of kit. At the end of the day I’ve personally rather enjoyed shooting with it”
ePhotozine (Click here) writes:
“For quick results, and a relatively low price, the body cap lens delivers reasonable results, and with an Olympus camera, delivers bright saturated colours, which will look great when shared on the web.”
The body cap lens now sells for $39 at Amazon US (Click here).
49 Responses
smart move 🙂 fun lens when used with artfilters, live bulb or when you are in fun mode…
After you read that review on ePhotozine check out their review of the Sigma 60/2.8. Now that is a bargain lens.
thanks for mentioning the 60mm Sigma already being tested, i was looking for a low budget portrait lens and this one seems very interesting.
Like Lego…oh joy. 🙂
It is not cheap. At something like $15, I might even be tempted. But as it is, I’d rather spend the money on a nice meal in a restaurant…
And if I’d really need a small and light wide-angle prime lens, I’d go for a (possibly second-hand) Lumix 14/2.5 instead.
May I ask what lens performs better for the price? I’m just curious what you think is a good value.
Fujian 35/1.7.. About $20 with adapter, at least as much character but cheaper and brighter.. A bit bigger, longer and uncut of course, but size doesn’t always matter, some say..
I have that lens, and I think the body cap is a much much nicer lens on m43. The fujian is also heavy, 5X the size, requires an adaptor, and has far less contrast. It’s a better lens on NEX.
Lens cap is simply a toy-lens, and it’s a f8, so you need bright light to use it. 14mm f2.5 is a real lens, built like a lens. That’s it.
No, Marco, you don’t get it. I have both lenses and they each serve a purpose. The lens cap lens has great DOF. So, you don’t worry about focusing (and you can’t anyways). You just point the camera and shoot – a very quick process. Very good for street photography. And it has surprisingly decent IQ. I actually like the “look” of the photos. Maybe if you owned one (which you don’t) you would understand.
@ C.C. Yes, I know, but these are two different lenses. 14mm f2.5 allows you to “play” more with the DOF, and can be used in dimmer light, compared to the 15mm f8. I bought this last because it works in hyperfocal and all you have to do is aim and take the photo. I call it “toy” lens because it’s made of plastic and feels like a toy. I find it funny to take photos with it, even though I don’t like that focal lenght (15mm) for street shooting.
Yes, Marco, I know. Like I said, I have both lenses and know how to use each one. The point here is that the 15 mm lens cap lens is also a real lens. Maybe not the IQ of the 14mm (which I have used a lot), but surprisingly good IQ nonetheless. It is NOT a toy lens.
That’s not a real advantage, you can do that with any lens, set it to f/8, or stop it down even further, switch the camera to MF and you’re done. For setting the hyperfocal distance quick and precisely use the depth of field display plus the zoom-in feature. There is no reason to buy an overpriced piece of plastic. Except if you really need exactly that focal length and really can’t do with anything larger or heavier, if ever so slightly.
And you think thats worth 8 times the price?
Taran, honestly I can’t tell if 14mm f2.5 is worth its price for the simple reason that I haven’t tried it. It depends on your needs of course. I bought this “toy” lens because I find it funny. Personally I don’t like that much 14mm field of view: it’s too wide for street shooting and too narrow for landscapes (of course it can be used in both situations, but there are better primes, IMO) so I never took it into consideration.
A quick search on Flickr should help you!
I have both the 14mm f2.5 and the 15mm f/8 cookie, and they are both good in their niches. The cookie after all is a body cap, it’s a Point and shoot nearly fixed focus, old school, super simple lens. That doesn’t mean you can’t take good shots with it, it performs way above it’s stature. The Holga POS f/8 and the Pinhole body cap come nowhere near it. It’s a very useful body cap for the slimmest profile on your camera body, truly making mFT pocketable in any definition.
The Panasonic 14mm is very good lens and to compare one to the other is just a waste of time. All mFT lenses should be as compact and of such internal focus construction/design. It distorts a fair bit, when you shoot RAW & JPEG together, you can actually get animation jumping between the corrected & uncorrected thumbs … But it’s sharp and AF’s fast, utterly silent, you cannot however get a lot of DoF out this lens, even with it’s bright f/2.5 end.
Most people complain about the f/8 aperture on the cookie. f/8 is not that useless. What I found extremely rewarding is that the Cookie lens makes a very decent VIDEO lens. Certainly it dumbs down your options having no aperture or much focus options. There are times when that is a bonus and the need of an extra compact and or cellphone camera are eliminated with this cheap and cheery lens.
I’ve paid less than the lens cap’s SRP for a second hand FT Zuiko 14-42. And there are lots of decent manual focus legacy lenses for that price or less (although they’re usually not as wide as that, when adapted to (M)FT).
Nice meal for $15? Good luck!…
No problem in Italy 😉
It’s $39 in the article, that’s what I was referring to (and the recommended price is even higher, for that I’d get a nice meal for my company alongside mine ;-).
http://www.flickr.com/groups/bcl-1580/ Olympus body cap lens group on Flickr
Thanks! 🙂 Just add a photo! Btw, I lost mine, I think I’ll go for another one..
If you have any good examples, don’t forget to also post on the 4/3 Rumors group!
http://www.flickr.com/groups/43rumors/
$39 in US.. Way over $100 i Sweden.. Not so attractive then, I´d rather buy me a bunch of old russian lenses from the cold war for that money, much more fun per buck..
well 39 USD would be something like 30 EUR. For that price OK, but 70 EUR, no way.
That it comes in silver now – aren’t all Olympsu primes available in silver? I wondered in the beginning why exactly this lens was sold black only 😉
I’m from Spain and I bought the oly 45mm black edition for 199 euros and body cap cost about 60 euro. In usa oly cost $399 vs $39 for the body cap. Who can understand this price policyp of Olympus?
Andres do you have a link? 199 euros sounds very interesting.
http://www.fotovega.com/Todos-4/3/Olympus-45mm-f1-8-M-Zuiko-Negro?keyword=olympus+45mm
Wow… this is a great deal! I am really tempted. Its gonna look great on the black OMD. Thanks for that link Andres.
yes thank you Andres 🙂
It’s the ideal street lens. One thing I noticed though, relying on DOF at hyperfocal distance doesn’t deliver very sharp results. Setting the focusing lever to the approximate distance of the subject works much better with this “lens”.
It’s like the old 620 format viewfinder cameras from the 1960s (and earlier) where you did a lot of guessing about the distance and hoped that you got good shots.
I’m going to hold out for one in camo.
Stealth shooting 🙂
Lol! I’m so disappointed, I was waiting for a pink version…
Just run it through the wash on hot, and it’ll fade a bit
Hmmm… Wouldn’t the color show up with a wide-angle lens prone to flare?
They do look cute, tho’. I know many will disagree, but I think Olympus is doing a lot of right things as far as the “look” of their products is concerned, for what it’s worth.
Hm… What if one would combine the lens with a “speed booster”?!
I might have came up with few other creative ideas, but Oly didn’t see fit to give the lens a filter thread.
A ‘speed booster’ for the front element filter thread?
Standard filter threads by themselves will already add more than half the thickness of the lens.
That garbage cost $89 Australian in camera stores like Digital camera warehouse in Sydney! Anything but cheap in my opinion, I’ll gladly put that money towards my first m43 pancake and first panasonic lens the 20 f1.7 mk2 simply because that’s $89 toward a real lens that I’ll actually use.
I personally don’t leave my bodies without a lens on so I personally find the hole idea of a so called lens cap redundant but each to there own, whoever wants one go ahead and enjoy those ca and distortion filters permanently turned on…
I propose to Olympus Australia that they sell this thing they call a lens for $19 aud and it should be bundled for free as an actual cap with every body purchase to make up for making us purchase a bloody lens hood for every lens purchase……thanks in advance Olympus Australia.
since Oly don’t offer the E-PM2 or E-PL5 as body only (in the UK) … perhaps this is ready for an almost body only option. Those cameras with that body cap as a tiny kit lens??
kind of amusing that Oly now offers this lens-cap-lens as a freebie with the top of the range E-P5 … kind of pointless and not exactly gonna close a deal huh!
When are they going to release all the other lenses in Red and White? How am I supposed to coordinate the rest of my camera collection without matching lenses???
C’mon Olympus, where is my Red 45/1.8???
I think that’s awesome! And the reduced price is a cool bonus too. It’s the best $40 one can spend on M4/3 IMO. And people are cranking out awesome pics with the BCL: bodycap.tumblr.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/steenbeck_thierry/9252704729/in/pool-2063947@N24/lightbox/
to me it is worth to buy, but not more then 50,-€ like the prices in usa. the prices in germany are a reason to leave olympus, but i don’t know a similar good system and i will not leave.
Cheap Olympus and small cap, however, has the power. The following links night pictures taken with Olympus 15mm Body Lens Cap.
http://www.penowiecinspiracja.blogspot.com/2013/04/zdjecia-nocne-body-cap-lens-15mm8-part-2.html
http://www.penowiecinspiracja.blogspot.com/2013/03/body-cap-lens-w-dramatycznej-tonacji.html
http://www.penowiecinspiracja.blogspot.com/2013/03/zdjecia-nocne-body-cap-lens-15mm8.html
@C.C. We’re saying the same thing. The main difference between the lens-cap and another lens is that I don’t mind if it falls to the ground. As stated from a reader above, you can do hyperfocal focising with every lens, but I don’t see anything similar as real alternative. Of course you can use this 15mm as you would use the 14mm, but still they’re different things. For 20 Euros it would be a must buy, for 59 Euros (the common price I’ve seen around) not, at least to me.