Review on 📷 Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm F4.0-5.6 R Zoom Lens for Micro Four Thirds Cameras - Black: Review & Comparison by Joseph Mathis

Lightweight zoom kit that produces pretty good images. 80-300mm equivalent on a standard 35mm full-frame lens. Pros: Relatively cheap ($99), smooth focus and zoom controls. Fast focusing on bright scenes. Good contrast and color rendering. Sharp enough for many applications with decent bokeh at a low F. The more I use it, the more I'm pleasantly surprised by the images. Overall I think the optics are first class for a lens in this price range. Easy. Cons: Most of them are to be expected - slow focus or no focus on low contrast/dark shots. While <80mm allowed fast focusing (<0.25s), at maximum focal lengths, focusing was slow and often stuttered. The entire assembly is plastic - at least I was expecting the MFT mount that connects to the camera to be metal. This is perhaps the most frustrating feature for me as I wonder how many times one can attach/remove a lens before something breaks. Finally, why is the filter ring 58mm (expensive for example) but the front optic is only 34mm? Other things to note: At 150mm, the lens physically extends about twice as much as at 40mm. So with the lens hood on, this lens is huge (I'm used to small primes) - it's light, but your camera wins' Don't be 'compact' with this lens. Comments for future improvements: I hope Olya is listening :). It would be a very good lens as a straight F4 lens (maybe 40-120mm F4). It would be VERY VERY nice if it had a metal case - or at least a metal base plate/bayonet (weather protection would be even better). ). Finally, if the filter ring could be made smaller, that would reduce the cost. Perhaps for a slightly larger amount, RII includes these improvements? All photos below were taken with a lens at mostly full zoom (150mm) on an Oly EPL7 body. Note that the Transformer shot is a double crop of the image to show lens detail from center to edge.