Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm F4.0-5.6 R Zoom Lens, for Micro Four Thirds Cameras (Silver)

Light kit zoom that gives fairly good images. Equivalent to an 80 - 300mm on a standard 35mm/full-frame. Pros: Relatively inexpensive ($99), smooth focus and zoom controls. Fast focus on bright scenes. Good contrast and color rendition. Sharp enough for many applications with reasonable bokeh at low F. The more I use it the more I am happily surprised with the images. Overall I think the optics are first rate for a lens in this price range. Lightweight. Cons: Most of these are expected - slow or no focus in low contrast/dark shots. While < 80mm gave rapid focus (< 0.25 sec) focus was slow and often got confused at max focal lengths. The entire assembly is plastic - at the very least I would have expected the MFT mount that mates with the camera to be metal. This was probably the most disappointing feature for me as I question how many times the lens can be mounted /dismounted before something breaks. Finally, why is the filter ring 58mm (e.g. expensive) while the front optic is only 34mm? Other things to be aware of: At 150mm the lens physically extends out to about twice the length of the 40mm setting, so with the lens hood on this lens is huge (I am used to small primes) - it is light but your camera will not be "compact" with this lens on it. Comments for future improvements: I hope Oly is listening :). This would be an extremely good lens as a straight F4 (maybe 40-120mm F4). Would be REALLY REALLY nice if it were in a metal body - or at the very least, a metal baseplate/mount (weather sealed would be even better). Finally if the filter ring could be made smaller it would keep costs low. Perhaps an RII for a little more $ will include these improvements? All photos below shot with lens in mostly in full zoom (150mm) on Oly EPL7 body. Note transformer shot is a 2x crop of an image to show detail of lens from center to edge.

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So, what can you expect out of a 40-150mm zoom on a micro 4/3 system, which can be had for $120 or less on a regular basis? Frankly, more than you might expect. Lets get the bad over with. This thing is chintzy. It is all plastic. It feels like a toy in hand. No compromises were made in the price of this lens. Every expense was spared. The build of this lens is, at best, as bad as the worst kit lens I have used in the last decade. That isnt to say it feels bad. It doesnt. But youre not going to mistake it for a well built lens once youve actually used one. And you know what? Thats fine. I dont think this lens is great for the normal price. But at the sale price? You cant not buy it, even if you have a nicer setup. Why is that? This thing is absolutely, positively, miniscule. It will fit in many pockets. It barely weighs more than a pancake lens. It isnt any longer when retracted than many little kit lenses, so it can fit in very shallow spaces. I use an Olympus PEN alongside my big Canon system, and particularly with prime lenses, it can compare very well to my 6D and 24-105L. If I only bring the Pen with me, I never feel bad about it like I did when I used to use a P&S as a secondary lightweight camera. The 40-150 isnt good enough to hold the mantle of "Well, this is damn near as good as my big kit!". Its not even as good as the first generation Canon 55-250mm IS... but its close enough to that that the size and price make up for everything - it makes the Canon 55-250mm look like a monster in comparison. If you need some reach on an m4/3 camera, but also desire the smallest possible kit - this lens is a fantastic little compromise in a tiny, inexpensive package. It wont wow you if youre used to shooting bigger lenses, but if you want something that you can take anywhere, arent too fussy about the results, and, if you can get close enough, will get some genuinely good looking shots. Some people freak out a little bit when you point a "small" telephoto lens - my 70-200 f4L is a relatively compact telephoto lens for a full frame system, and it will literally scare some people away from the camera because they think I am filling the whole picture with a pimple. While a quick look through the lens can quell that fear, this little lens will scare nobody. In short, this is a fun little lens. Image quality isnt great on an absolute scale, but its good enough for casual use, and will surprise you from time to time. But it is so tiny and so inexpensive that theres literally nothing like it out there at all with this sort of range. Pick this lens up. Shove it somewhere when youre bringing your camera around, and you might just find a shot with it that you would have never had otherwise. After all, if the best camera is the one you have with you, shouldnt that apply to lenses too?

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This lens is pretty awesome for how cheap it is. Its sharp and has pretty good contrast. Obviously its not as sharp as some of Olympus better primes or higher end zooms, but its cheap and small and light and good enough. The build is solid, but its all plastic. And I do mean all plastic. The focus ring feels pretty good, but the zoom ring has the grindy plastic-on-plastic quality the 14-42 kit lens has. Also, the slow aperture is going to make this lens most usable during the day, but Ive gotten some decent shots indoors too. In-body image stabilization helps a ton here. The grindy zoom ring is the main thing keeping me from giving it 5 stars, since everything else cant really be helped at this size and price.

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A very slow lens in terms of aperture, but a nice lightweight small-footprint zoom which offers a great range from 80mm to 300mm on MFT for a very decent price. It is sharp at all ranges & focuses quickly with my Panasonic cameras. Ive used it many times in places like churches or event halls which require higher ISO settings, for outdoors which is great at normal ISO settings. Highly recommended for the price.

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Good for what it is -- increadibly low-cost, lightweight, and reasonable competent telephoto zoom lens for the m43 system. I purchased this lens to have a long zoom option in a lightweight kit (E-M5 II, 12-40 pro, and this zoom), and it does the job. Normally I use the 40-150 pro, which is much bigger and heavier and has some of the best image quality of any lens in the system. Dont expect that kind of performance and youll be fine. Its got decent plastic construction, not the best Olympus does but not too bad, nicely damped focus ring, and a fairly smooth zoom ring that could be a little better.

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Ive had this lens a month and havent used it all that much yet. So far, I am very pleased with it; images look great, lens is affordable, its lightweight... I also have the 12-50 and 25 1.8 which are both great lenses (5 of 5 stars.) Focal range aside, this lens feels a little different from them mainly in build quality. Let me start by saying I think the build quality is fine. This one feels cheaper. It has a plastic mount, feels less solid, and the zoom mechanism isnt as perfectly smooth. All that being said, its a great lens and if it was a difference of this one for $199 and those issues fixed in a more expensive one, Ill take this one. I didnt buy it as my main lens, its there for telephoto reach and it does that well. It works fine, takes great pics, and didnt break the bank. If you will be working in this range the majority of the time, Id recommend the 75-300 of Pro model because Im sure they are better lenses, but if youre looking for a compliment to a kit lens or prime and cant spend $500+ then you cant go wrong with this one.

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