Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-150 mm F4-5.6 II Lens, Universal Zoom, Suitable for All MFT Cameras (Olympus OM-D & PEN Models, Panasonic G-Series), Black

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When Olympus first showed us their 14-150mm f4-5.6 II, we weren’t incredibly impressed. Wide zoom range, weather sealing, minimal change of an aperture: okay, it’s got a lot going for it. But we’re always skeptical until we get the unit in our hands. PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. At 25mm the maximum aperture drops to f/4.7. The lens manages 1,902 lines on the center-weighted test, with edges that are a bit soft at 1,371 lines. At f/5.6 it's a better performer; 2,171 lines across the frame with edges that show 1,799 lines. The best performance is achieved at f/8 (2,409 lines average, 2,201 lines at the edges). Unfortunately, we found color fringing in our tests with this lens. Still though, there is no reason for you to cry about it, just incorporate another step. But for a lens at this price and offering so much, you have to expect it. The 14-150mm employs an internal focus system that is designed for fast, silent autofocus, and is optimised for video use. In practice it delivers well on this promise; focus is impressively fast, quiet and accurate (certainly good enough for most purposes other than all-out sports or action work). In this respect it's a massive improvement over Olympus's 14-42mm kit lens. Change in angle of view on focusing ('focus breathing')

With the zoom set to 45mm, sharpness levels are still outstanding in the centre of the frame at maximum aperture and the lens performs excellently towards the edges of the frame. Peak sharpness across the frame is achieved at f/8 for this focal length and sharpness is outstanding from edge to edge. The scale on the left side is an indication of actual image resolution. The taller the column, the better the lens performance. Simple. There's some corner shading when using the Olympus 14-150mm ƒ/4-5.6 M.Zuiko, but it's not excessive; mostly when using the lens at ƒ/8 or below. There isn't any shading to be found between 25 and 45mm, otherwise the most you'll see is a case where the corners are two-thirds of a stop darker than the center, at 14mm and ƒ/4. I think the general consensus is that the Olympus is slightly better, but both are quite good. If you have the Panasonic then just enjoy it and be happy.I've read people write generally that the pros of the Panasonic include: better overall image quality; closer minimum focus distance; faster on the wide end; in-lens stabilization (which doesn't matter for my current camera, but could matter if I got a Panasonic down the road) It is very small and light compared to any similar zooms, it is even smaller than some APS-C 18-55 kit lenses (maybe some of the latest Tamron and Sigma super-zoom APS-C lenses are somewhat comparable in size) Now, if you want great IQ and state of the art stabilization, then just go straight for the Oly 12-100 Pro and all you GAS will fade away. All the hype is real and it took me two years to realize it. Ideal for a larger body like a EM1 or EM1x. The 12-100 and PL 8-18 is my two lens do everything I want set. (I also own both the Oly 40-150, Pro and slow, zooms) I went hiking and camping all last week and that was all I used, four of the nights it got down to freezing or below, plus rainy conditions, no worries with these pro lens. Yes, they are a bit on the big and heavy side. However, there is no compromise with IQ 😃 Olympus OMD EM1: The company’s flagship camera should really be paired with glass from the higher spectrum, but if you want an all purpose lens, then this one is a great option. Optics are good - the first half year, with a bit to much CA. With weekly practice it's getting worse.

Here’s an example of bokeh that is possible with an f0.95 aperture lens and Four Thirds sensors. This bokeh is nicer than Olympus’s, though not by much. Sharpness small and handy but I am not used to the extreme cheap-construction Level without lens hood and every few month I got dust between the lenses TheOlympus M.Zuiko Digital 14-150mm f/4-5.6 lens is a compact, lightweight lens with excellent sharpness in the centre. Shot wide open at wide angle (ƒ/4 at 14mm), the lens shows good results for sharpness, with a good sweet spot in the middle of the frame (~1.5 blur units) falling off to slight corner softness (~2 blur units). Stopping down provides only a marginal gain in sharpness at this focal length at ƒ/5.6, and by ƒ/8 diffraction limiting sets in. By ƒ/11 the corners are creeping up to 3 blur units and the central sweet spot of sharpness is only a small point; by ƒ/16, sharpness is average (~2 blur units in the center, 4 in the corners), and by ƒ/22 the corners are reaching 6 blur units.

Indeed, the lens continued to work with no issues. We left it to air dry in the warmth of my apartment after the shoot and it only needed a bit of a wipedown afterward. So while the New York City subway system may fail you, the Olympus M.Zuiko ED 14-150mm f/4-5.6 II Lens surely won’t. Autofocus I did not observe any chromatic aberration with this lens, even in shots featuring tree branches taken straight into the sun. Example of a photo taken into the sun – E-M1, 1/500, f/ 8, ISO 200 Please complete the form below for a quote - Please be as accurate as possible to help us give an accurate quote. From Olympus lens literature) Olympus continues to grow its interchangeable-lens lineup with the M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 14-150mm f/4.0-5.6 II (28-300mm, 35mm equivalent) lens. With a 10.7x zoom ratio, this versatile Micro Four Thirds lens features incredible zoom capabilities in a compact, lightweight body. A dustproof, splashproof construction makes this lens durable enough to withstand the toughest shooting conditions when paired with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 or OM-D E-M5 Mark II. With the M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 14-150mm f/4.0-5.6 II included, the M.ZUIKO DIGITAL dustproof, splashproof lens lineup now offers five exceptional lenses for all of your professional shooting needs. One feature missing, though, is built-in optical stabilization, simply because Olympus uses in-body stabilization for its Pen cameras. This means that Panasonic G-series owners won't get any form of stabilization at all with this lens, which is an important consideration for a relatively slow long zoom. This is the key distinction relative to the most obvious alternative, Panasonic's own Lumix G Vario HD 14-140mm F4-5.8 OIS; however the additional complexity of the stabilized lens results in a rather higher price. Let's see how the Olympus performs. Headline features

Falloff of illumination towards the corners of the frame is constant throughout the zoom range. Corners are one stop darker than the image centre throughout the zoom range at maximum aperture. Visually uniform illumination is achieved with the aperture stopped down by one stop from maximum throughout the zoom range.So I can presume the Panasonic 14-140mm, specially mkii, is better IQ wise then? (Since it's generally thought to be better than the Oly 14-150). At the 14mm end of the range, the diagonal angle of view is 75 degrees, which is similar to that of a 28mm lens on a 35mm camera. Colours, overall I wasn’t a big fan of the colour renditions too. Olympus does make images a touch warmer compared to Panasonic (which seems more bluish with a touch of magenta) but this lens seems to like turning things to a orangey-brown, especially in landscapes and vegetation.

Sharpness rendition. Not sure how to explain it best or even properly but I really hated how the sharpness of the lens was rendered. The sharp areas (within DoF) was so harsh and muddied it make the picture look “dirty”. The lens was sharp in itself but not very pretty, especially at the wider angles where there’s little to no separation between the in focus and out of focus region (unless you shoot at minimum focus distance). The Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-150mm f/4-5.6 II is generally light on features (putting aside its huge zoom range, of course). There is no distance scale, focus limiter, function button or tripod collar. Apart from the focus and zoom rings, the lens barrel is entirely devoid of controls. The most attractive feature of the lens is its extensive weather sealing. The focus ring of the lens is an indented ribbed plastic just 1/2 inch wide. The ring uses a ''fly-by-wire'' system to achieve manual focus results, and the E-P1 provides some interesting manual focus functionality. When you turn the focus ring with the MF assist option on, the camera brings up a magnified center view to allow you to precisely focus. The ring will turn forever, as there are no hard or soft stops in the focus ring, and there's no way to know how many ''degrees'' of turning action are available. The fly-by-wire operation does allow for an interesting option: you can set the focus ring direction to either left or right, from the camera's menu. Compared to the E510's dual-zoom kit, this lens offers significantly better depth of field control (this was quite a surprise for me, as the sensor size and the f-stop specifications are pretty much the same), more precise focusing, especially at the tele end, and, also at the tele end the focus is often faster, even if the focusing system is contrast-detect and not phase-detect. We understand this can sometimes be difficult with work commitments, but we will do our best to accommodateyour needs.The lens provides average macro performance, which isn't surprising as it's not marked specifically as a macro lens. Its minimum close focusing distance is around nineteen inches, and it provides 0.24x magnification. A perennial problem with superzoom lenses is zoom creep, or a tendency for the lens to extend under its own weight when carried normally. Our review sample seems almost immune to this; the trade-off is that somewhat stiff zoom action. Compared to Micro Four Thirds kit zooms Looking to upgrade your equipment? Get competitive prices on major brands with our part-exchange service.