JJC Hood for Olympus 45mm f1.8

Olympus 45mm f1.8 is an excellent lens but one of the complaints by user is the omission of lens hood when you buy this lens. Furthermore, the Olympus lens hood can easily cost more than SGD40. That is why there is a market for 3rd party lens hood and JJC is one the provider.

After survey the pricing from different online retailer and i finally decided to get it from ebay which is selling for around SGD14 with free shipping when i make the order. I placed the order on 23 May 2014 and received it on 5 June 2014. I consider this is fast delivery as i did encounter delivery time of more than 1 month when using free shipping.

The packaging is ok and this is very typical packaging when free shipping is used. 

The box of JJC Hood. A bit dented here and there but the lens hood is not damaged.

There is a genuine verification code on the top of the box which you can check whether this is genuine or not.

And the Lens hood itself

And the hood on the 45mm lens. 

The one good thing about this hood is it can be attached in reversible way.

I must say the hood feel a bit wobble when attached to it but it will not fell off from the lens. But with price i pay, i do expect this hood will not be as good as Olympus one but that is something i can live with. So, i do recommend this lens hood if you really need one.

Olympus 45mm f1.8 promotion - 125 cash rebate (April/May/June/Nov 2014)

3 May 2014: Promotion extended to May! :)

6 June 2014: further extended to June! This time it says "Extended for 1 last month", how true is this, we will see next month. :)

4 Nov 2014: I think this lens cash back promotion really helps to boost up Olympus sales and they do it again on November! Please click this link for details.

Is a fantastic deal and after instant rebate, i get the lens from SLR revolution (Funan IT Mall) for around SGD 286. As the price varies between shop to shop and also some shops might already run out of stock, it is advisable to call the shops before going down. For the list of shops to call, you can refer to this list.

on my E-PM2 now :)

Olympus E-PM2 for 498 in Singapore

Bought this from the COMEX show today. The price is SGD 498 (~USD 391) and come with one extra original battery, one 8GB SD card, case and one China made tablet. With just the price itself, i think is a bargain as US price is actually USD 449 and it is so rare to see that Singapore price is actually cheaper compare to US after conversion.

E-PM2 box content

Free gifts. Probably the most useful free gift is the extra original battery. The case is very big and seems like is for the E-PLx or E-Px type of camera. The card is only class 4. The tablet is china made tablet running on single core processor, 512MB RAM and 8GB space, not fantastic but still usable, just have to tolerate some lagging. (3 August 2014 update: Basically i never use the tablet now as it is really lag, my regret on getting this free gift, maybe should try fight for other free gift next time)

p.s. The price is still 498 at Courts online website with free 8GB SD card and case.

27 Oct 2013 update: The online deal is no longer available but i did see deal at Courts Tampines where it is advertised as SGD 438. If the deal is not a gimmick, it is indeed a very nice price. But looking at that price, i do feel that the price might get lower in the future.

Olympus products are covered under international warranty.