Review on Olympus Zuiko Digital Thirds Cameras by Rick Howlett

Finally there's a fast wide-angle lens for the Micro Four Thirds system. Two other lenses that can shoot at 12mm are the Olympus 9-18mm and the Panasonic 7-14mm, both f/4 and up. The build quality of this lens is excellent. It is all metal with a smooth machined finish. It weighs 130g, which is only double the Panasonic 14mm f/2.5 lens. It's also twice the size but still smaller than the standard zoom lens. The wide-angle lens is as small as it gets - the beauty of the Micro Four Thirds system. The lens doesn't come with a lens hood that you have to pay for (a lot of money). similar to Panasonic 14mm and 20mm. I have a two-stage ND filter that I can reuse here. Good. The autofocus speed is fast and quiet. The focus ring is excellent. It can be pulled back to instantly switch to manual focus mode and pushed back to return to autofocus - no menu required if you're using a touchscreen camera. When it's behind, it shows a distance indicator. This lens can focus from 0.2m to infinity. So you can either focus manually using the distance indicator (fast) or manually by wire (slow), I prefer the former. The optical performance is remarkable. Sharpness in the center and in the corners when the aperture is wide open. While it's sharpest at f/2.8, the difference between that and f/2 is perhaps only visible at 100 per cent zoom. Chromatic aberrations and vignetting are almost invisible. Distortion is very well controlled, even with faces on the edge of the photo. I use this lens more for landscapes (usually buildings) and street photography. The f/2 setting is a great advantage when shooting indoors (bottlenecks) where the lighting is poor most of the time. F/2 can give you some depth of field, but only if your subject is very close, close to your face. With normal use, the depth of field is minimal. Composition with this lens is difficult, but you can always crop the frame, which is more likely to happen if you don't get close enough. If you don't want to shoot that close to people, you can use a lens closer to 35mm or 50mm equivalent. I find the wide-angle zoom more flexible, at least for me, but sometimes low light just gets in the way. shooting chances. I was in a bar once with a 7-14mm and had to put my camera on a table to shoot without shaking hands at high ISOs. At least now I can get an advantage of two f-stops with this 12mm lens, don't shoot with a table or tripod. Yes, this lens is expensive, but it's worth it. If you need a wide-angle lens for low light, now you have that option. At a Glance + Superb build quality + Small, light and portable compared to DSLR equivalent + Very good sharp image quality + f/2 aperture is great for low light shooting + Fast and quiet focusing + Focus lock ring can be used for instant switching Manual focus mode + Accepts 46mm filters + Worldwide warranty - Lens hood not included - Lens pouch not included - Expensive but worth it Updated January 2, 2012 Comments section below.