The other day I visited a local pub to see my brother-in-law sing and play guitar with the house band at a jam night and I thought it would be a good opportunity to try out my new Olympus 45mm f1.8 lens in the low light conditions.  With subjects that move, having image stabilisation doesn't help much because it doesn't stabilise people.  The only solution then is to use a fast lens (wide aperture) and high ISO speed.  The problem then is depth of field and image noise.

I know that the lens has been highly acclaimed by reviewers but I wanted to see how it would perform under real conditions.  You can see from the images below that even at 1/125s, f2.0 ISO 3200.  The image is solid enough to read the name 'Sennheiser' on the side of the microphone!  I decided to use the B&W art filter in my OMD-EM10 to give the pictures a gritty, NME feel but as you can see from the crop of the microphone, it wasn't actually necessary.

The other nice thing about this lens is that it is a modest telephoto.  This makes it ideal for portraits and for getting in a bit closer to the action, such as at a jam night like this.  It is designed for 'micro four thirds' sensor cameras which means that it is the equivalent of a 90mm lens on a 35mm SLR.  Given that it is one of the cheapest lenses I own, I too am impressed with its performance.

Links, venue: https://www.facebook.com/MiddlesexJam,  other shots: www.woodhall.photography/middxarms

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