Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Zuiko 90mm f/2 Macro

Olympus · Olympus OM · 1986

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: Olympus OM Zuiko 90mm f/2 Macro · Zuiko Auto-Macro 90mm f/2 · Zuiko Auto-Macro 90mm 1:2 · Zuiko MC Macro 90mm f/2 · OM-System Zuiko Auto-Macro 1:2 f=90mm · ズイコー マクロ 90mm F2 · OM ZUIKO AUTO-MACRO 90mm F2

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Zuiko Auto-Macro 90mm f/2 Olympus OM 1986–2003 101xxx to 113xxx, engraved ZUIKO AUTO-MACRO 90mm 1:2 (Alan Wood)
110xxx, engraved ZUIKO AUTO-MACRO f=90mm 1:2.0 (Alan Wood) 		—
  1. The launch year is the least settled fact about this lens. Alan Wood: introduced 1986; om-mania: first appears in the 1986 catalogue; mir.com.my: 1989; oldlens.jp: 1984. The Olympus Lens Handbook of October 1985 lists it, which rules out 1989 and makes 1984 or 1985 possible; the page carries 1986 as the year the two most careful sources give. The 2003 discontinuation is Alan Wood's alone.
  2. Price. Alan Wood gives a 1988 US price of $730, which is the figure in the price fields. om-mania and oldlens.jp both give a list price of ¥118,000, undated; a Camera no Naniwa staff post recalls a suggested price of ¥80,000 when the author bought his about 1987, "raised afterwards", and a purchase price of ¥55,000. The ¥80,000 is one person's memory and the single-source badge applies to it.
  3. The serial blocks rest on Alan Wood's tabulation alone. The nine-blade count is his and oldlens.jp's.
  4. Olympus's own claims: "with an F2 aperture the brightest lens in its class", and a floating mechanism described as the exclusive Olympus focus aberration correction. mir.com.my adds nothing on glass types; Camera no Naniwa's post credits it with ED and anomalous dispersion glass, which is the wording Olympus used for the 100mm f/2 and is not repeated for the 90 by any other source, so it is not carried here.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Engraved OLYMPUS OM-SYSTEM ZUIKO AUTO-MACRO 90mm 1:2 (later f=90mm 1:2.0); no MC on the ring, though every source lists it as multicoated
  • Auto Extension Tube 65-116 takes it to 1.72x; with the Auto Bellows it reaches 1:1 (mir.com.my)

Zuiko Auto-Macro 90mm f/2:

  • 550g, 71mm long, 72mm across, 55mm filter; the biggest of the OM macro lenses with its own helicoid
  • Focuses to 0.4m for 1:2 with 0.24m of working distance; nine aperture blades; f/2 to f/22
  • Takes a 57mm slip-on hood; Alan Wood also records a clamp-on rubber hood

Serial-range notes

101xxx to 113xxx
Engraved ZUIKO AUTO-MACRO 90mm 1:2, in feet-scale and metre-scale versions (Alan Wood).
110xxx
The f=90mm 1:2.0 engraving, on Alan Wood's tabulation, falls inside the block of the other engraving rather than after it; the two ran side by side for a time, or the numbers were not issued in strict order.

Specifications

Formula
9 elements in 9 groups, multicoated, with a floating group for close-range correction; half life size unaided
Construction
9 elements / 9 groups
Aperture range
f/2–f/22
Diaphragm blades
9
Min. focus
0.4 m
Dimensions
72 × 71 mm
Weight
550 g
Filter
55 mm
Years manufactured
1986–2003
Country
Japan
Coating
Multicoated throughout; one version only
Original price
US$730 (1988 US list, per Alan Wood) (today $1,940)

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

Aggregated from the reviews above — follow the links for the full picture.

Chromatic aberration
little purple fringing
Flare & ghosting
well controlled
Optical formula — 9 elements in 9 groups, multicoated, with a floating group for close-range correction; half life size unaided

History

Olympus built the most complete close-up system of any 35mm SLR maker, but for most of the OM years its macro lenses were either short and slow or bellows-only: the 50mm f/3.5, the 80mm f/4 for the Auto Bellows, the 135mm f/4.5 for the 65-116 tube. The 90mm f/2 Macro was the answer to the complaint that the system had no fast tele-macro with its own helicoid. Nine elements in nine groups, every one air-spaced, a floating group for close-range correction, f/2 where every rival stopped at f/2.8, and a focusing range from infinity to half life size at 0.4m with 0.24m of working distance in front of the glass. It weighs 550g, takes a 55mm filter and a 57mm slip-on hood, and is, in Olympus’s own words, the brightest lens in its class.

When it arrived is the least settled thing about it. Alan Wood says 1986 and om-mania finds it first in the 1986 catalogue; mir.com.my says 1989; oldlens.jp says 1984. The Olympus Lens Handbook of October 1985, from which the eSIF data comes, already lists it, so 1989 is out, and this page carries 1986 as the year the two most careful sources give. It stayed in the catalogue until 2003 on Alan Wood’s dating, outliving the OM-4Ti. Takayama Jin, an optical designer, reads patent JP S62-18513 as the design’s likely origin. Alan Wood’s 1988 US price is $730; two Japanese sources give ¥118,000 undated, and a Camera no Naniwa staff member recalls ¥80,000 when he bought his new about 1987, later raised.

There is one optical version and two engravings, 90mm 1:2 and f=90mm 1:2.0, each with a feet-scale and a metre-scale variant; Alan Wood’s f=90mm block at 110xxx sits inside the 101xxx to 113xxx span of the other, so the engraving change was not a clean break. Nothing else changed.

The reviewers converge harder on this lens than on almost any other Zuiko. Braddon-Mitchell: extremely sharp and contrasty, excellent at all distances, a legend. om-mania gives it a full six stars for rendering to infinity, sharp from full aperture, with no visible flare or halation even with a strong light in the frame. Fujishiro on oldlens.jp finds crisp sharpness on the plane of focus and a soft, dreamlike out-of-focus rendering with subdued colour, and quotes Akagi Koichi that the lens is not merely bright but the best in its class. The adapted-lens crowd on mu-43 call it the bokeh master of Olympus lenses. The recorded reservations are small: Braddon-Mitchell finds the bokeh at longer distances a little busier than the 100mm f/2’s; the Camera no Naniwa post notes that it reaches only 1:2 where rivals reach 1:1, that the aperture ring crowds the OM shutter collar, and that highlights bloom a little on digital bodies. Fujishiro adds that some examples carry internal haze.

That haze is the thing to check. Nine air-spaced groups mean eighteen surfaces for it to settle on, so look through the lens against a torch from both ends, not just the front. Run the focus from infinity to 0.4m and back for the floating group’s second cam, work the nine blades at every stop for oil, and try the lens on a body to see whether the aperture ring clears the shutter speed collar on that particular OM. Then look at the price, because camera-wiki lists it as uncommon and every thread read here says good copies are dear.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo taken with the Zuiko 90mm f/2 Macro
Statues at Bom Jesus, Braga; Zuiko Macro 90mm f/2 on a Fujifilm X-Pro2 (Fio Condutor) — Fio Condutor (bafdias), via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Sample photo taken with the Zuiko 90mm f/2 Macro
Simple flower; Zuiko Macro 90mm f/2 on a Fujifilm X-Pro2 (Fio Condutor) — Fio Condutor (bafdias), via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Sample photo taken with the Zuiko 90mm f/2 Macro
The painting (44), monochrome; Zuiko Macro 90mm f/2 on a Fujifilm X-Pro2 (Fio Condutor) — Fio Condutor (bafdias), via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Zuiko 90mm f/2 Macro? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $710 across 33 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-18 (middle half $570–$860). First day tracked.

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Show 63 more listings

Buying from Yahoo! Auctions outside Japan. It is a domestic marketplace: sellers ship within Japan, and most will not register an overseas buyer. A proxy service bids on your behalf, receives the item and forwards it, for a fee and a wait. Buyee, Jauce and ZenMarket each accept a Yahoo auction number directly. Listed alphabetically for information — none is recommended over another, and none of these is an affiliate link.

Listings updated 2026-09-18. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Zuiko 100mm f/2 · Zuiko 50mm f/2 Macro · Zuiko 85mm f/2

Sources (12)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this lens, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.