[wuzet]

[Sinister]

[Cynog Ap Brychan]

I'm a newcomer to micro four-thirds, having recently acquired a Panasonic GX7 with the Summilux 15mm f1.8 and 25mm, along with an Olympus 45mm f1.8. I also acquired the Olympus 12-40 mm f2.8, but although it's excellent, it rather defeats my objective of travelling light because it is quite large and hefty. With all the experience that members of this forum have, can anyone recommend any MFT zooms covering wide to normal, and telephoto (two lenses, not a superzoom) that are small and light, but really good optically? The maximum aperture doesn't matter that much. Any advice will be gratefully received.

[eddie1960]

E-P5 with Olympus 45mm.



With adapted Vivitar Series 1 105mm.

Hey Robin
Long Time (I've been off here for almost 2 years) I just picked up the EM5 with the 45 1.8 thanks to your Flickr. When the rest of my break in settlement comes I'll expand the kit to cover a number of other lenses (12/17/25/60/75) I'm really impressed with it so far. need to grab an adapter for my Pentax Lenses that weren't stolen. I'll keep My k7 and a film body to shoot native but that will be rare if the OMD is as good as it seems after a weekend

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Last edited by eddie1960; 10-20-2014 at 08:34 AM. Reason: post not right

[Aegon]

With all the experience that members of this forum have, can anyone recommend any MFT zooms covering wide to normal, and telephoto (two lenses, not a superzoom) that are small and light, but really good optically? The maximum aperture doesn't matter that much.

The Panasonic 14-45mm is well regarded and pretty small, though it is no longer available new. You should be able to find a nice one for about $175 or less, used.

I really like the Panasonic 45-150mm zoom for longer stuff. It is small and actually renders pretty well, for what it is.

[Sinister]

Though I have just limited experience so far, I am quite happy with the 12-50mm for its many purposes (macro) and the simple but great Olympus 40-150mm.

With the Olympus 45mm

[eddie1960]

Afeter a few days the 12-50 is actually not the most impressive (though it's macro is pretty good. I have a Fuji X-E1 coming as an alternate to try before i make the system commtiment. AFAIK the Fuji kit lens is probably the best kit lens anywhere, but to be realistic for me it doesn't matter, mthe kit lens is for my wiofe to use the camera, I will be almost exclusively primes. I tried the 75 1.8 in the shop yesterday. it's very sharp and has nice bokeh, the one thing I think I miss on the m 4/3 so far is the ability to get either razor thing dof (I use a 50 1.4 and an 85 f2.0 for that on the Pentax - and i cannot get that limited dof with the OMD so far (there is always the voigtlander i guess) or if I stop down to a m 4/3 equivalent (say 2.8 vs the 1.8) razor sharp edge to edge with still good bokeh
The Fuji may be my solution for both size and creative we'll see (there are a ton of things I like about the Oly though - If I stick with the system though I think it will be with theOMD E10 vs the 5 I'm trying as it comes with the better of the 2 kit lenses and costs less (and if I need to shoot in the pouring rain I still have my K7 with the WR kit)

[northcoastgreg]

With all the experience that members of this forum have, can anyone recommend any MFT zooms covering wide to normal, and telephoto (two lenses, not a superzoom) that are small and light, but really good optically?

Basically, the philosophy of both Olympus and Panasonic seem to be that high end zooms require fast apertures, and therefore must be (relatively) large and heavy, and that slow aperture zooms are essentially budget lenses, and therefore must be, optically, consumer-grade. So, for the most part, compact m43 lenses are consumer grade in quality. The high end zooms are bigger, heavier, and not so compact. The one exception is the Olympu 9-18, which, while it isn't quite as sharp as a pro-level zoom (particularly toward the edges and corners) nonetheless has the contrast and color rendition of high-end glass, and is capable of producing images that look as good as what you can get from the 12-40 or the primes. With the exception of the pancake zooms, I've shot with most of the m43 compact standard zooms, and I don't think any of them are significantly better than the others. They're very good for consumer grade glass (better, IMO, than the DA 18-55); but they are not in the same league as the m43 primes, the Oly 9-18, or the pro zooms. The Panasonic 14-45 often is regarded as the best of the lot, because of it's consistency across the zoom range (it's decently sharp edge to edge throughout the zoom range), and because it's performed fairly well on numerical tests. But I preferred what I saw coming out of the Oly 12-50. I never could completely reconcile myself to the color rendition of that 14-45, and I also found it prone to veiling flare. These are all consumer grade zooms, and as such, regardless of how sharp they may be, they're not going to produce images that have the richness and "pop" you get from top-tier glass.

I've only shot with two of the compact telephoto zooms: the Oly 40-150 and the Panny 45-150. Both are very good for consumer grade lenses. The Oly is fairly sharp from 40 to 80mm, and retains decent resolution all the way to 120mm. I'm less familiar with the Panny lens, but it seems to have the same sharpness as the Oly, but slightly better contrast.

[Sinister]

With the Fuji WL-FXE01

[Sinister]

[kenyee]

Olympus 12-40 mm f2.8, but although it's excellent, it rather defeats my objective of travelling light because it is quite large and hefty

You might want to look at the Panny 12-35/2.8. It's probably about 1/2lb lighter but is more plasticky than the 12-40. The 12-40 works well w/ my GH4 but is way to front heavy w/ a GX1 which is slightly lighter than your GX7.

The Oly 12-40 has a nice metal build quality that you don't see much nowadays...reminds me of Ltds...

[ivoire]

[IMG][/IMG]

[Sinister]

[Sinister]

Palace Rheinsberg, Brandenburg, Germany

[Pablom]

Excellent stuff here from everyone!
I just got my m4/3 kit which consists of E-PL2 with 14-42II which I took for a recent trip and a brand new Lumix 20mmII which is really beautiful but I still have to test it thoroughly.
I hope this becomes my everyday equivalent to the FA43 on film (which I am very pleased with).
I had a stint with a GF2 but most certainly did NOT like it.

E-PL2 + Lumix 20mm II

Mount of Olives by Pablo Margulies, on Flickr