My latest review, the Olympus E-3 digital SLR, is online over at Photographyreview.com. One thing that didn’t really get into the context of the review is how great the new Olympus Zuiko 12-60mm lens is for bokeh, or background blur. Of course, this is subjective in the extreme! For small sensor DSLRs, I think Olympus and Pentax have the best lenses for that out of focus background blur effect, also known as selective focus (although the emphasis there is on the subject, not background). I haven’t found my Canon gear to produce such nice blurred backgrounds, which is one reason I bought Pentax gear. (I should note here too that Pentax pancake lenses have remarkably shallow depth of field–f/5.6 with a Pentax pancake is like f/2.8 with other brands. Kinda cool, actually and one of the reasons “why” to use other brands of camera gear.)
Anyway, the new Olympus Zuiko 12-60mm zoom produces some very pleasing selective focus effects. And both the Olympus E-510 and E-3 mated with the Olympus telephoto zooms produce out-of-focus backgrounds that look a little like impressionistic paintings. (See the butterfly photos in my E-510 review.)
