When we asked to do the best that we can, we tend to instinctively go to certain thing, gear, resources, processes, that we know will allow that to happen. These are the things where the heart, head and gut all intersect.
A random snap taken while waiting for a job to become something.
For me, one of those things is the Olympus 75mm f1.8.
In a place lenses and cameras feel strained, the 75 empowers, acting as a full frame equivalent to a 150mm f1.8, with (2.8 depth of field), the perfect indoor sports lens.
It might be used on a G9 to allow it to be warm and generous, or an EM1x as my most powerful indoor sports lens, or any other Olympus as a natural, crisp and saturated, but what ever the camera, this lens produces over and over.
Through a sun flared window.
It probably gets my vote as “most likely to be replaced if lost”, “most commented on” (images not physical lens as it is quite ordinary in hand), and “most likely packed as a safety net bit of kit”.
Is it so unique that nothing else could do what it does?
I have other excellent prime and zoom lenses from Olympus, Pana/Leica and Sigma also (the 56 f1.4, I lens I do not own is meant to be sharper!), the Pana 85 f1.8 on my full frame impresses, but this lens is the full package being top tier quality, long and bright, while also being small and affordable.
I often categorise my lenses as hard (30 1.4) or smooth (300 f4) sharp, modern (15 f1.7) of old fashioned (17 1.8) Bokeh, warm or cool colour tone and high (40-150 f2.8) or low (40-150 kit) contrast, but this lens seems to defy those camps, managing to be all of them at once, a chameleon.
It is not perfect.
On cold days the freezing metal body can fog for ages on a hot camera body, so reliably in fact I always carry a plastic 45 as a backup.
It can have a “flattening” effect on subjects like a lot of longer lenses, which I guess is both good and bad.
It has the tiniest bit of chromatic abberration wide open in extreme circumstances, but it goes away easily.
This was the first shot I noticed it, a little fringing on the name tag.
Even with massive cropping potential and the best reach to speed ratio I have, I sometime swish it was a 100 f2, then I could leave my heavier zooms behind. This was the dream at the paper, to go all primes* with this as the longest, but a 100mm (200mm ff/e), would have been perfect.
So, how would I rank it in my kit of tricks?
At least as high as the 85mm S-prime on a full frame camera as my shallow depth, low light with reach, lens.
*9, 15, 25, 45, 100, covering 18-200 in full frame all f2 or faster.