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

Product Information

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. Zooming to 40mm results in a slight reduction in sharpness at maximum aperture, although performance is still very good in the centre of the frame and good towards the edges of the frame at f/2.8. Stopping down to between f/4 and f/5.6 results in outstanding sharpness across the frame at this focal length. The Olympus M.ZUIKO Digital 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro lens attached to an Olympus OM-D E-M1, extended to 40mm

I really wish OM System made an f2 or f1.7 zoom lens instead. This has the depth of field of an f5.6 lens on full-frame cameras when being used wide-open. And it leaves a lot to be desired. The Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 was the first of its Pro lineup of lenses, eventually going to be a set of four (7-14mm f/2.8, 12-40mm f/2.8, 40-150mm f/2.8, 300mm f/4). As such, it’s a high performance lens that’s been built at a high level of quality, as well.Sell the kit you’re not using to MPB. Trade in for the kit you need to create. Buy used, spend less and get more. Buy. Sell. Trade. Create. 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.) The Mad Kiwi: focal length does have at least a little to do with the f-ratio, given that the “f” in “f/4” is the focal length. The overall expression “f/4” (focal length divided by 4) gives the diameter of the entrance pupil which is ± the “hole” through which light enters from the subject. 150mm f/4 and 300mm f/8 have an identically-sized hole of 37.5mm, therefore they collect the same amount of light from any given part of the scene. It’s just that the 150mm lens then spreads that light on an area a quarter of the size, leading to a higher density – but that doesn’t make it collect more light from the subject, any more than a focal reducer on the 300mm lens would. (It’s clear that the latter can’t make more light enter the lens since it’s mounted after the point where it happens, yet it does reduce the f-ratio of the overall combination, demonstrating that the f-ratio doesn’t tell the whole story.) 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.

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. Regardless of what someone's typed into Wikipedia, f-number has no direct connection to shutter speed: it's mediated through ISO, which assumes you care about how much light per sq cm your sensor is receiving, not how much light per portion of the final image your sensor is receiving. 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. 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. Build quality slightly lower than what I would consider a true pro-grade build, though still well-constructed

OM System 12-40mm PRO II, 40-150mm F4.0 PRO Specifications

Perhaps the closest alternative to the Olympus is Panasonic's 12-35mm ƒ/2.8 lens. With it you get a similar, albeit slightly shorter focal length range and a constant ƒ/2.8 aperture. It also features built-in optical image stabilization, which might be a moot point for Olympus users as most of the company's cameras feature sensor shift IS. It's also a very sharp lens at all focal lengths and does well at controlling CA, but it shows more distortion and more vignetting than the Olympus -- and it's more expensive. The Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 is a lens that fills a need for a lot of shooters, and I’m happy to report it does so with excellent quality. The lens is simply brilliantly sharp across the frame right from wide open and at all focal lengths. It’s really hard to ask more from a zoom. It might be the overall sharpest standard zoom I’ve had the pleasure to use. There is only a minimum of light fall-off in the corners, which you will probably not even notice in your real-world photos, and distortion is commendably kept well under control too. This is a pretty easy question to answer. If you’re getting the OM System OM1, then get it bundled with the OM System 12-40mm f2.8 Pro II. Should you upgrade to it? Honestly, I’m not sure. If you go with the Panasonic 25-50mm f1.7 and pair it with the 10-25mm f1.7, you’ll probably be in pretty great shape. But you’ve got far more range with the OM System 12-40mm lens instead. However, you’re at only f2.8! Years ago, it was an impressive feat to have a 24-80mm equivalent lens with an f2.8 aperture. But the world has moved on.

At 12mm sharpness is already outstanding across the frame, and there is only a slight improvement in clarity when stopped down one stop. This pattern is repeated at 18mm with excellent sharpness being achieved between maximum aperture and f/8. MPB puts photo and video kit into more hands, more sustainably. Every month, visual storytellers sell more than 20,000 cameras and lenses to MPB. Choose used and get affordable access to kit that doesn’t cost the earth. 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. Chromatic aberrations, typically seen as purple or green fringes along contrasty edges, areonly really noticeable by their almost complete absence from our test images. The optical formula is unchanged, comprising 14 elements in nine groups, including one Extra-low Dispersion Aspherical (EDA) element, two aspherical elements, one Dual Super Aspherical (DSA) element, two Extra-low Dispersion (ED) element and one High-Definition (HD) element. It features a minimum focusing distance of 20cm (7.9”) and measures 67mm (2.6”) diameter, 84mm (3.3”) long and weighs 382g (13.5oz) without the lens caps or hood.No M43 shooter is worried about that, we know the performance will be a bit nosier than the FF and the resolution will likely be a bit smaller, we're fine with that. aspherical element, 1 dual-sided aspherical element, 2 ED glass elements, 2 HR glass elements, 1 EDA glass element, 1 HD glass element 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. Purchasing anything through the B&H Link below helps support Admiring Light at no additional cost to you: 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.