Olympus M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Wide-Angle Zoom Lens for Most Micro Four Thirds-Format Cameras V314060BU000

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For Olympus and Panasonic micro 4/3. Sharp at all focal lengths and apertures!

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Sharp, wide-to-portrait lens. Fantastic results with this lens!

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Whatever your subject or setting, this lens is really sharp!

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I bought the lenses before my trip to Hawaii & it took amazing landscape pictures.

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When I need an all-purpose close-in, street photography, like lens in an urban environment this lens is usually mounted to one of my Olympus bodies. It’s a nice lens. Like all Olympus Pro lenses it earns respect. But zooms are tricky in terms of character and so far the only MFT zoom that really wowed me is the Olympus Pro 40-150mm 2.8. That lens is unbelievable. The 45mm 1.2, 75mm 1.8, are, in my opinion, also absolutely must-own lenses as well. Which leaves this 12-40mm 2.8. I feel it’s optically superior to the Panasonic 12-35mm 2.8 but the Panasonic 12-35mm 2.8 has it’s own benefits if you use it at all on Blackmagic Design or Panasonic camera bodies. If you don’t mind the extra weight/length seriously consider the 12-100mm F4 from Olympus. But back to this lens. If you can score it for a great price pick one up. Otherwise I would suggest getting other Olympus lenses before buying this one to complete your system. That’s what I did and am happy with the lens for the urban/street photography scenario. It’s really not bad in that regard. Wish I could give a more glowing review but the other Olympus lenses are so unbelievably amazing that it would be unfair to speak better of this lens. It’s good not amazing.

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This lens came as a bundle with my Olympus camera, & I couldn’t be happier. Its takes amazing pictures.

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Yes, it is expensive. This lens starts at a very respectable 12mm, which is pretty wide compared to most lenses and zooms to 40mm, which is only so-so. Nevertheless, this range may very well be the range that many of us shoot the majority of our pictures.Now, let’s just say this right up front as a person who has experience with almost every lens that FUJI makes, this Olympus lens is maybe only a tad below the Fuji lenses as far as build quality is concerned. And even that may not be an accurate statement, because I am basing it on the FEEL of the zoom as you twist the barrel. It’s simply not as smooth as Fuji’s best lenses, but it is smooth.The lens itself just oozes quality, and in this respect, it really is like a hi-end Fuji XF lens. Now, it SHOULD be, because of it’s price. But not everything we pay high prices for is worth the price. But in this case, it is, particularly if you can get it on sale. One thing I have noticed about Olympus lenses is that they have this weird thing going on where some of their cheapest lenses that look and feel like junk still take really good pictures. For example, I have the cheapo 40 – 150 mm lens for which I believe I paid $99, and every time you twist the zoom barrel, it reminds you of fine grit sandpaper and it rattles with looseness and you feel the grit with the twist. But I have to tell you, for $99, this cheapo lens knocks off pictures that are sometimes astonishing considering its price point. And mind you, at that price point, you’re not getting all of the fancy lens coating, special glass, etc. What I’m trying to say, and many people I believe will agree with this, is that Olympus is really turning out a wonderful set of lenses at all price points. Even the “low-end” lenses can take very good pictures.So, this lens, being one of the “PRO” models, is at the high-end of the price range, but it shows both in its mechanical construction, it’s appearance, and most importantly, it’s photographic output. It is extremely sharp, fast focusing, not terribly heavy, and has a smooth zoom mechanism. It employs the same mechanism as Fuji for entering manual focusing: you simply pull the ring on the lens barrel towards you, and the distance marking appears and your immediately in manual focus mode. Push the ring back (away from you) and you’re immediately back in auto-focus. It’s a really nice design. The lens is not optically stabilized, so if you’re shooting with a camera that does not have built-in image stabilization keep that in mind before making this purchase. But it is a CONSTANT F/2.8, which means that all the way through the zoom range you can shoot at F/2.8, making the optical stabilization less of an issue and making the lens suited for shooting in darker areas. I am very impressed with this lens and look forward to testing and experimenting with it more, but from my initial examinations and tests, it looks like a keeper to me. Five stars. P.S. Amazingly, this lens comes with a very nice lens case. Fuji, ARE YOU LISTENING? What’s with all these high-end, expensive lenses NOT coming with beautifully branded lens cases that would only cost $10 to make and that people would gladly pay that extra $10 to have a special lens case included with the lens they purchase? Olympus did it with this one, and that’s the way it should be. I know I’m on a hobbyhorse, but if you think about it, this omission of custom cases for expensive lenses is really stupid for a number of reasons. These camera manufacturers that are making such gorgeous lenses, such as Fuji, whose lenses are frequently compared to lenses three times their price, do not come with a beautiful lens case that says “Fuji” all over it. Really dumb move.

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This is my first review of this lens and I intend to do follow-ups. I used this lens as my main lens on a recent trip to San Francisco on vacation. We visited many of your typical tourist areas and I tested the lens in a variety of situations. First, I should also report I used this lens on an Olympus E-Pl9. From other reviews I gleaned many people say the lens is too big for a Pen. This was not my perception. I found it to be large, but manageable, and in fact enjoyable to use. I simply cupped the bottom of the lens in my left hand and used my right to do everything else. It felt fine and for those concerned with aesthetics, it looks very cool on the Pen. Regarding the quality of the images, the lens came into focus quickly and produced nice sharp images. My only concern is that in most situations the sunny blue sky looked a bit dull and not very blue. My iPhone 10 did a much better job. That makes me raise an eyebrow. In all fairness, I suspect I need to learn a little bit more about maximizing this lens with my camera. The iPhone is basically a point and shoot, while my Olympus Pen and lens combo is not. Is this lens a keeper? Yes. However, I will update this report again after I use the camera/lens combo a few more times.

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I have the Olympus 45 and 25 primes. So I will talk about this lens in comparison to those. It’s almost as sharp as the primes wide open. With a little bit of sharpening, the images would look identical to the primes. The obvious weakness is that you lose one stop of light. One way to compensate for this is to use a lower shutter speed. If you don’t have a moving subject then this can work. You can shoot using a combination of this zoom and primes and easily not be able to tell which is which. The other factor is size and weight. It’s much bigger and heavier than the primes. The only reason I would recommend this over a prime lens is IF you need to switch focal lengths quickly during a shoot. For example, if you are shooting a model or an event and simply don’t have the time to switch lens or if you want just one good all purpose lens. I traded my primes for this because I just wanted to carry around one lens. Oh, the camera grip helps a lot with these heavy lens.The first photo is 12-40. The second photo is 25mm f1.8 lens.

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I can barely find faults with this. Of course, I would like a 24mm & 80mm equivalent lens, both at 2 stops faster than this (i.e.: at f/1.4), but they would be just as big as this, to have the same quality, I’d be carrying two, and I’d have to switch back and forth. I took photos of walls to see how accurate it is at the edges, and took photos at various focus lengths, apertures, and focal distances. It’s sharper at 1 stop less light (f4), but I think that’s on par with any premium lens. It’s a little heavy for the MFT system… I’m used to wearing a thin camera strap and not having my camera bounce, which is why I like the OM-D cameras (E-M5 & E-M1). As a side note, I don’t have a Panasonic camera, so I don’t know how it performs on that. But on the other hand, the pull down clutch for enabling *only* manual focus is life-changing for me. I thought it would be just a gimmick, but it’s very useful. Also weather proofing is nice, but for 3x the cost of a non-sealed lens, I often end up just taking the lens I really want out, and “risking it”. 🙂 Due to weight and length, the only other weather sealed lens that I would consider is the Panasonic 8-18, but that’s a totally different beast; apples and oranges.