40-150mm Plastic Fantastic: Can a $100 Lens Actually Deliver?

Sharpness is one of photography's most debated specs, and it's also one of the most overrated. The Olympus 40-150mm f/4-5.6 R is widely considered one of the least sharp lenses in the Micro Four Thirds lineup, and Chris Baitson decided to take it out for a full shooting session anyway.

Coming to you from Chris Baitson, this refreshingly pragmatic video follows Baitson as he shoots long exposures and handheld frames with a lens he picked up used for under £100. He attaches a 10-stop ND filter and a polarizer using step-up rings, then shoots a 60-second exposure of a small green navigation buoy bobbing in the water. The buoy isn't going to be sharp after a minute of motion, so Baitson shoots a second frame at 1/1,000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 with all the filters removed, then composites the two in Lightroom and Photoshop to get silky water and a sharp subject in a single final image. It's a smart workflow, and it sidesteps the sharpness question entirely by making the technique do the work.

Beyond the long exposure work, he spends time shooting handheld from a single spot in a grassy area, putting the lens through a more casual test. The results, at least to Baitson's eye, are sharp enough. His benchmark is "acceptably sharp," and he's pretty clear that for most real shooting situations, that's the only standard worth applying.

Baitson makes a point that's easy to dismiss until you actually think about it: some of his favorite lenses ever are among the softest, including the Helios 44, which he describes with characteristic bluntness. The 40-150mm isn't in the same league as its bigger sibling, the M.Zuiko 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO, but it costs a fraction of the price and gives you reach, autofocus, and results you can actually use. For anyone shooting Micro Four Thirds on a budget, that tradeoff is worth taking seriously. The autofocus reliability mattered more to Baitson than raw optical performance, which is a reasonable priority when you're shooting subjects that move.

Check out the video above for the full rundown, including the final composite image and Baitson's take on whether the lens held up when he pixel-peeped the results.