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

Product Information

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).

For the most part, the lens lives up to what you’d expect in this department, with a tightly assembled body with high-quality plastics and a metal shell over most of the lens body. However, I felt that it fell a bit short of what I would generally consider a ‘Pro’ build. The inner lens tube rubbed slightly when turning the zoom ring, and the extending tube has a small amount of play. Overall, it’s a well-built lens, but the sister to this lens, the 40-150mm f/2.8, has a more solid construction in my opinion. Stopping down to ƒ/4 to ƒ/5.6, you have the "sweet spot" of apertures for critical sharpness at all focal lengths. Corner to corner, the lens displays fantastically sharp images in this range of apertures. We did see some diffraction softness come into play at the smaller apertures such as ƒ/16-ƒ/22, but overall it wasn't very severe. The world’s most compact, lightweight model 1 delivers unrivaled portability, and an inner zoom system improves usability Chromatic aberrations are well controlled throughout most of the zoom range. Between 12mm and 18mm fringing only exceeds half a pixel width when stopped down to between f/11 and f/22. At 40mm fringing just exceeds three quarters of a pixel width towards the edges of the frame at f/2.8, but even so, this low level should be difficult to spot.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. ;-) This lens appears to be particularly affected by diffraction at small aperture settings, with a dramatic reduction in sharpness being visible at f/22. Although this may not be an issue for many, those wishing to use small apertures for longer exposures, might want to use a neutral density filter instead so that the lens can be kept closer to its optimum aperture range. The 62mm front element sits relatively vulnerable at the front of the lens, though Olympus supplies a reversible LH-86 petal-type hood that you can use to give some protection. As you zoom, the lens extends in length by a considerable amount, so don’t get deceived by the 3.3” (84mm) collapsed size; the lens will easily hit 5” with hood when zoomed. Focus does not rotate or move the front element.

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. However having owned all 3 lenses and as an owner of the Panasonic GH5 and Olympus EM5 II I decided that the build quality of the Olympus 12-40mm edged out the Panasonic and so I kept it over its rivals. When I say edged out, it is night and day. The Panasonic’s feel like a consumer grade lens with very good optics. The Olympus 12-40mm feels like a professional grade lens in every way. An interesting feature on this lens is the programmable L-Fn button near the lens mount along the upper left side. Presumably, standing for "Lens Function", the L-Fn button can be configured using compatible Olympus cameras to set various options -- and options not even related to the lens itself. You can program it to toggle adjustments such as white balance or RAW, but it can also be set as an AF-stop button. The placement is convenient as it's right near or under your thumb when using the proper camera holding technique to support the lens in your hand. (Note: Despite being part of the Micro Four Thirds system, the L-Fn button won't function with Panasonic cameras, although you can mount this lens to those cameras.) In terms of features, the M.ZUIKO Digital 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro lens has quite a lot to offer. For starters, it has a so-called L-Fn button, which allows users to temporarily suspend continuous auto focus when something suddenly comes between the lens and your intended subject. This is mostly useful when shooting a movie clip with C-AF enabled, but the feature can also be used when photographing action. The lens has a versatile focal range. At the 12mm end, the diagonal angle of view is 84°, i.e. the same as that of a 24mm lens in a 35mm system.In terms of image quality sharpness is outstanding throughout the zoom range enabling you to shoot it wide open at f/2.8 without concern. It can do everything from wide-angle landscapes to portraits and it does it all well. Yes other lenses may be better at specific roles but none offer the versatility and fixed bright aperture of this lens.

This lens isn’t specifically built for macro, with a maximum magnification ratio of 0.3x / 1:3.3 (0.6x / 1:1.7 in 35mm eq.) and a minimum close-focusing distance of around 20cm (7.87 in.). Still, the Olympus 12-40mm ƒ/2.8 Zuiko PRO provides a respectable performance in the macro category. In terms of the optical construction, the new Olympus 12-40mm ƒ/2.8 Zuiko PRO is comprised of 14 elements in 9 groups, with two EF elements, 1 EDA lens, 2 HR lenses, 1 HD lens, 1 DSA lens and 2 aspherical lenses. It has a 7-bladed circular aperture that stops down to ƒ/22.

Olympus 12-40mm f2.8 Review – Focus

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.

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. TheOM System 12-40mm f2.8 Pro II we tested was a loaner unit provided to us by OM System. It was used with the: 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.

There is also an additional function button on the lens which you can program to activate a variety of features by simply customising it in camera. 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. Distortion is well corrected in camera, but without corrections applied, Imatest detected 5.51% barrel distortion at 12mm being replaced with only 0.965% pincushion distortion at 40mm. The level of distortion at 12mm will be quite noticeable in images with lines parallel to the edge of the frame, although the distortion pattern is uniform across the frame throughout the zoom range, which should make applying corrections in image editing software afterwards, relatively straightforward. The OM System 12-40mm f2.8 Pro II doesn’t contain a whole lot of innovation over the previous lens. It has better optics, fast autofocus, and a whole lot of things the previous version had. But in the grand scheme of things, there’s not a lot that’s groundbreaking here. Comparatively speaking, it doesn’t shine as much compared to many of the other PRO-monikered lenses from OM System. Ergonomics