OM System just discontinued my favorite lens šŸ˜¢

James Artaius
·3 min read
Sad smiley face with Olympus 9mm Fisheye Bodycap lenses for eyes.
Sad smiley face with Olympus 9mm Fisheye Bodycap lenses for eyes.

It's a sad day for me, and anyone who loves quirky Micro Four Thirds lenses that used to be calling card of the format: the Olympus Fisheye Body Cap 9mm f/8 Lens has been discontinued.

This little $89 hunk of plastic has been arguably my favorite lens from the moment I bought it. Cheap and cheerful? You betcha. Punches well above its weight? Damned straight it does.

At first glance, it's just a nasty little toy lens. Plastic element, fixed f/8 aperture, nothing more than the glorified body cap that its name suggests. But man, it is so much more. For starters, just look at how tiny this thing is, on an already tiny Olympus camera:

Olympus Fisheye Body Cap 9mm f/8 lens mounted to an Olympus camera, on a black surface against a grey background
Olympus Fisheye Body Cap 9mm f/8 lens mounted to an Olympus camera, on a black surface against a grey background

It weighs absolutely nothing and is so small that it can always come in my camera bag for when I want an ultra-wide perspective of something. And how often does that happen? Actually, a lot.

Lanscapes. Selfies. Group shots. Vlogging. Heck, the first time I travelled to India I ended up using this lens almost the entire time ā€“ including to photograph a magazine assignment.

I don't have any better quality versions to hand, but here are a handful of shots I've taken using the lens that I've grabbed straight from my Instagram (@jamesartaius if you want to check out some of my other stuff). Even in crunchy low res, hopefully these illustrate just how versatile the 9mm Fisheye Body Cap is:

Olympus 9mm body cap image of an Aston Martin Olympus race car, with driver in a wheelchair
Olympus 9mm body cap image of an Aston Martin Olympus race car, with driver in a wheelchair
Olympus 9mm body cap image of a woman performing a yoga pose on the beach at sunset
Olympus 9mm body cap image of a woman performing a yoga pose on the beach at sunset
Olympus 9mm body cap image of a car and a motorcycle riding around a wall of death
Olympus 9mm body cap image of a car and a motorcycle riding around a wall of death
Olympus 9mm body cap image of a cow on a beach, sheltering under a boat
Olympus 9mm body cap image of a cow on a beach, sheltering under a boat
Olympus 9mm body cap image of a night market in India
Olympus 9mm body cap image of a night market in India
Olympus 9mm body cap image of a skateboarder skating down a street at sunset
Olympus 9mm body cap image of a skateboarder skating down a street at sunset

So the news that it has been discontinued, reported by Asobinet in Japan, brings me great sadness. The sister 15mm body cap, which unlike the 9mm has truly terrible image quality, was also discontinued recently. It's possible that it will be produced in future, with the OM System branding, but I don't think it's exactly going to be a top priority for the manufacturer.

There is a "proper" Olympus fisheye, of course, the M.Zuiko 8mm f/1.8 Pro lens, but that comes in at a shade under a thousand bucks rather than a shade under a hundred. And it's also huge, so not exactly something I can slip in my lapel pocket like I can with the 9mm Body Cap.

Anyway, I'll be snapping up a spare copy as a backup (you can see how well used mine is!). And if you've made it this far, check out a video I shot with it at a funfair in Mapusa, India, of a car and a motorcycle driving around the wall of death:

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