OLYMPUS M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm F2.8 Pro Lens, for Micro Four Thirds Cameras

Product Information

The world’s most compact, lightweight model 1 delivers unrivaled portability, and an inner zoom system improves usability Olympus OM-1 + OM System M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro II (1/640 sec, f/2.8, ISO200) (Image credit: James Artaius) OM System M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro II: Key features If you are shooting on a Panasonic body then perhaps you might prefer to go with the Panasonic lens to take advantage of Panasonic’s depth from defocus system and in the case of the mark ii lens their dual sync IS. The Panasonic lenses are both lighter than the Olympus. A retracting mechanism makes this the world’s most compact, lightweight model as a fixed aperture value, 300mm equivalent (35mm equivalent) telephoto zoom lens, measuring approximately 99.4 mm long (124 mm long when in use) and weighing approximately 382 g, making it amazingly compact and lightweight. The lens was designed with a focus on ease of use when shooting and is equipped with a mechanism that makes it possible to retract and store the lens simply by turning the zoom ring. It also uses an inner zoom system that keeps the lens length the same across the entire focal length, suppressing center of gravity changes while zooming. Using compact, lightweight lenses in the front drastically reduces the feeling of heaviness, eliminating the long lens barrel and weight at the front of the lens, which is common to telephoto lenses, making shooting easier and more well-balanced.

The scale on the left side is an indication of actual image resolution. The taller the column, the better the lens performance. Simple.The Olympus 12-40mm is sharp from 12mm all the way through to 40mm even wide open at f/2.8. At 12mm the corner performance is slightly softer than the centre but still way better than something like a Canon 17-40mm L. As mentioned the lens is bitingly sharp in the centre at f/2.8 and performance increases slightly when stopped down to f/4. 100% crop of above image Richard "If I take an image on a 150mm F4 lens on micro four thirds, and one at 300mm F8 on full frame for the same exposure time, then both sensors will be exposed to the same number of photons." Vignetting on the Olympus 12-40mm lens is very well controlled throughout the entire aperture range and at all focal lengths. There is some vignetting at apertures wider than ƒ/5.6, but light falloff never even reaches half a stop. In fact, most focal lengths show closer to a quarter of a stop of light falloff between ƒ/2.8 and ƒ/5.6 (12mm shows a little more between ƒ/2.8-ƒ/4). No one is saying the exposure changes when you engage a crop mode. In fact that article and several of my comments spell out that the standard exposure model is designed to work across formats.

There are two rings on this lens, the zoom ring and the focus ring. The zoom ring is located closer to the camera body and is about one inch long and has metal ribbing for an easy grip. It rotates smoothly, but has a nice resistance, which is stiff enough that it won't creep, but it definitely takes two fingers to rotate. This lens, while an internally focusing lens, is not an internally zooming lens, and will extend while zooming. It actually extends ever so slightly from 12mm until about 18mm, then from 18mm onwards, it extends more significantly, about an extra inch or so. The Olympus OM-D E-M1 used for this test is a great match for the lens, offering good balance, fast auto focus, and full environmental seals. The M.ZUIKO Digital 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro lens itself is very well built, fully living up to the PRO designation that Olympus have given it. The new Olympus 12-40mm ƒ/2.8 Zuiko PRO was introduced alongside the Olympus OM-D E-M1 and is part of the company's new "Zuiko PRO" line of professional-grade Micro Four Thirds lenses. The 12-40mm focal range translates to a 24-80mm field of view in 35mm terms, and with the constant ƒ/2.8 aperture, this new Olympus lens is a very versatile lens that should work great in low-light. It's also a rugged lens with splash-, dust- and freeze-proof construction, which makes it a great match with the equally-rugged E-M1. Panasonic 12-35mm or Olympus 12-40mm? That’s actually a tougher call than it might seem. The Panasonic seems a little more “balanced” between it’s wide and telephoto ends in terms of sharpness. The Olympus beats it at 12mm and f/2.8 but loses to it at 35mm f/4. The Panasonic has more chromatic aberration, though, though their lens corrections do a better job in a number of areas. You can’t really fault either of the two lenses, so the choice really falls to two things.The concerns of a M43 user about equivalence are mainly focal length so they know what FoV they're getting. Maybe a little DoF concern so they can get some subject separation. Impulses: "I'd be curious how well those hold up at 42-61MP" -- not great... which is often better than the very best MFT lenses have ever done. ;-) Tipping the scales at 382 grams and measuring 84mm in length and 70mm in diameter, the Olympus M.ZUIKO Digital 25mm f/1.8 is quite a substantial standard zoom lens, but given the constant f/2.8 maximum aperture, that's perhaps no surprise. When it's zoomed out to 40mm, it measures nearly 13cms in length. In this Olympus 12-40mm f2.8 review I will go through the pros and cons of this professional grade zoom lens after having used it for well over a year in my personal and professional work. As with most m4/3 lenses these days, the assumption is that you're going to be shooting JPEGs and using in-camera correction, or using a raw convertor that has lens corrections. So "performance" is getting a little tougher to define these days. Let's start with the "corrected" parameters of the lens:

I thought the Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 was good, and it is, but I like this Olympus even better. It has less distortion and CA and it's sharper on the wide end. It seems to me that this lens gives a more consistent output then the Panasonic f/2.8 zoom. The biggest surprise may be that it comes with a lens hood. Bokeh is a word used for the out-of-focus areas of a photograph, and is usually described in qualitative terms, such as smooth / creamy / harsh etc. In the M.ZUIKO Digital 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro, Olympus employed a seven circular-bladed diaphragm, which produces some very nice bokeh, at least in our opinion. However, recognising that bokeh evaluation is subjective, we have provided a few examples for your perusal. Further, the OM System 12-40mm f2.8 Pro II struggles more with exposure preview settings activated. If you’re using the simulated OVF function, you’ll get the best autofocus performance in terms of accuracy, speed, and all. I wouldn't be afraid to use this lens at any focal length from f/2.8 to f/8, though technically f/4 is probably a slightly "best” aperture overall, and I mean slightly. That, too, is a bit unusual for a fast lens. One other thing that I found unusual: there's very little field curvature at 12mm (or anywhere in the lens, for that matter). I didn't really find myself having to adjust for field curvature or focus shift, which was a bit unexpected.Linear distortion: Without correction, the lens has a great deal of troublesome linear distortion. At 12mm, it measures over 8% barrel distortion and that doesn't get down to reasonable levels until somewhere about 22mm. By the time you get to the 40mm telephoto end of the lens, things have reversed into about 1% pin cushion distortion. Short answer: if straight lines are at all important to you, you'll absolutely want to correct the output of this lens at all focal lengths except maybe 25-30mm, and probably even there, too. The front element does not extend nor does it rotate during focusing (and zooming), making accessories such as circular polarizers easy to use with this lens. Optical design with 14 elements in nine groups for excellent resolution across the entire zoom range Of course the camera's built-in corrections take care of much of this, though with a bit of strangeness. At 12mm corrected JPEGs have about a half percent barrel distortion. The oddity is that the camera takes the modest amount of pin cushion distortion at marked 25mm focal length and changes it into a modest amount of barrel distortion! This tells me that the table the camera is using is more a smoothed curve than a very precise set of values for each and every focal length. Those looking for a professional specified standard lens for their Micro Four Thirds camera are now spoilt for choice with offerings from Panasonic, and this lens from Olympus.

My point is when you open up that aperture 2 stops to get the correct DoF you're image is suddenly going to be overexposed by two stops. F4 is faster than 8. In addition to water, oil, and dust repellent performance, the fluorine coating on the front-most lens reduces friction. Both lenses can easily be cleaned with a blower or cloth when dirty, allowing users to continue shooting immediately. MAIN FEATURES: M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm F2.8 PRO IIDuring my testing, dual sync IS between the GH5 and 12-35mm ii made no noticeable improvement in the image stabilisation and didn’t allow me to handhold shots for any longer than when using the Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 on the GH5. Overall: You'll be correcting the output of this lens either by shooting JPEGs and letting the camera do it, or you're going to want to use a converter that has a lens conversion ability for this lens. In those cases, you'll get very good results, slightly better wide open than the 12-35mm f/2.8 Panasonic I reviewed earlier. If you don't correct for the lens, you're going to have a lot of linear distortion and vignetting that will rise to high visibility. Chromatic aberration is the lens' inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software. If I take an image on a 150mm F4 lens on micro four thirds, and one at 300mm F8 on full frame for the same exposure time, then both sensors will be exposed to the same number of photons. It doesn't matter what ISO rating is recorded in the EXIF: if you view them the same size, they'll have the same depth-of-field, the same diffraction and very similar tonal quality and noise. In most almost way they'll look essentially the same.