Similarly, it is not easy to preview the narrow depth-of-field that f/2 should provide (but which is considerably diminished by the very short focal length). In short, the f/2 aperture provides a good headline but it is hard to exploit its full potential using an all-electronic camera. 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. Although both the M.Zuiko 12mm and Leica 12mm are very enjoyable lenses to use, I would personally recommend the Olympus lens for a number of reasons. If you ask me which is the one lens you should choose for MFT, the Olympus M. Zuiko 12mm is for sure at the top of the list. It is a wide angle prime that can easily live up to its full-frame counterparts. It isn’t too expensive, it has fast aperture, and a very nice bokeh despite its focal length. The autofocus works to a T with the GH3, E-M5 and the E-P3. It is the perfect lens for landscapes, city-scapes and street photography. It can focus really close (0.2 cm) but be aware that the closer your subject is to the lens, the more it will be distorted. For me, it rarely unmounted from my E-M5! The perfect match!

Olympus 12mm f/2 Lens Review | Sans Mirror | Thom Hogan Olympus 12mm f/2 Lens Review | Sans Mirror | Thom Hogan

Very balanced, and I agree with what you have said. I finally decided against the f2 12mm, deciding in favor of smallness with the f2.5 14mm (for professional reasons I also have to have the 9-18 zoom, given that there’s no 9mm or 10mm prime, which is what I would really like), but zi looked very closely at it and agonized over it. You will not have trouble from vignetting with this lens, whether you shoot in jpg or RAW. Even at full aperture, the vignetting is less half a stop. In comparison: For a standard lens on a camera with a full-frame sensor, one and a half stops, so three times as much, is not unusual. In use, this lens proved itself highly resistant to flare and loss of contrast, yielding contrasty images, even in harsh contra-lighting situations.The first thing that’s immediately noticeable about the sharpness of this lens is the high, very even sharpness. Just as with the Olympus 25 mm f/1.8, which we reviewed a short time ago. Actually, the sharpness in the center is equal to the sharpness in the corners. And that’s starting at full aperture. That is a very good performance and expands the usability of this lens. Many bright lenses have clearly softer corners at full aperture. Where sharpness is concerned, with this lens you’re completely free to use every aperture between f/2 and f/11. The amount of sharpening is somewhat a matter of personal taste. For me, the standard jpg files of the Olympus OM-D E-M1 are a bit too sharp. But there are many photographers who find that perfect. View the image below at 100% and form your own opinion. Both lenses have a minimum focus distance of 20cm. For the 12mm, this corresponds to 0.08x magnification (0.16x full frame equivalent). The official specifications for the 12-40mm state a maximum magnification of 0.3x (0.6x equivalent) but this is because the zoom is able to maintain the same minimum focus distance up to 40mm. Although we don’t know the magnification at 12mm, you can see from the examples below that it is higher than the prime lens.In fact, the PRO zoom is a great semi-macro solution that I often use in the place of my M.Zuiko 60mm f/2.8 when I don’t need 1:1 magnification. Chromatic Aberration, Distortion and Vignetting Disclaimer: Though I give tips in this article it is not an in depth tutorial on capturing the milky way and post processing. This article is my experience shooting Astrophotography with the Olympus OM-D system and the techniques I use to capture relatively clean Milky Way images with M43 sensor.

Olympus M.Zuiko 12mm f/2 ED - Review / Test Report Olympus M.Zuiko 12mm f/2 ED - Review / Test Report

Forgoing the plastics that make up the majority of the Panasonic, Olympus opted for and all metal construction for the 12mm. Because of the all metal construction, the Olympus 12mm feels wonderful in your hand but the weight may bother some users. The difference in weight is especially noticeable when switching between these lenses. The Olympus’ weight and length actually makes my GF-1 heavy and slightly off balance when in use. Replace the Olympus 12mm with the Panasonic 14mm f/2.5 and you would think the GF-1 just lost a few pounds. Olympus 12mm f/2. Shown with focus ring set to manual focus mode. The field-of-view is equivalent to 24mm in full format terms so it's a moderate ultra-wide angle lens. The max. aperture of f/2 is certainly fast with respect to light gathering but don't expect wonders in terms of depth-of-field - in the MFT scope you are are effectively "loosing" about two f-stops so it "behaves" like a "24mm f/4" here. This is still sufficient for quite shallow depth-of-field images if you move close enough though. I’ll admit it. I have a huge thing for wide angle lenses. I’ve always been fascinated by the way you can represent the vastness of a place, using the lens’ natural distortion to make interesting compositions, and playing with perspective or tri-dimensionality. Since I first began photographing with DSLRs, I have always made a point to invest in good wide angle lenses. My favourites are the Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 and the Nikkor 24mm f/1.4. Generally I will shoot my foreground at an ISO no higher than 200 and for 1-2 minutes depending on the composition. I then wait, this is time consuming for sure and requires you to be at your location around sunset to enable you to find a composition, set up your shot, capture your foreground and then wait to capture the night sky. Both lenses feature a ribbed fly-by-wire focus ring that is pleasant to use and accurate when combined with the latest manual assist of Micro Four Thirds cameras such as magnification or focus peaking.

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Inside are 11 elements in 8 groups, with all kinds of special elements (DSA, aspherical, ED, and Super HR). There are seven diaphragm blades. Close focus is around 8" (20cm). Because of the 84° diagonal angle of view you don't get much magnification at the close focus distance (1:12.5). The front element does not rotate during focus and has a 46mm filter thread. Stabilization Olympus style is done with the sensor, so there is no stabilization in the lens. Pure RAW score:This table shows the performance of this lens if the file is saved in the camera as a RAW file. This score approaches the intrinsic quality of the combination of lens and test camera. If you make use of Photoshop, Lightroom or DxO Optics for the conversion of RAW files, then the RAW scores are the same as the jpg scores.

Olympus M.Zuiko Lens 12mm f2.0 Review | PCMag

Lateral chromatic aberrations, typically seen as blue or purple fringes along contrasty edges, are a bit of a problem with this lens – while not as pervasive as with some other ultrawides, they are still a bit too evident in areas of high contrast for a lens that costs this much.

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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. To me, this lens embodies what the Micro Four Thirds system is all about; high quality compact cameras and lenses. The perfect balance between size, weight and image quality. There are faster wide angle lenses, but these lenses are much bigger, heavier and often very expensive. It can't be compared to a big zoom like the 12-40mm which serves a different purpose. We tested this lens in combination with the new flagship of the digital PEN fleet; the Olympus PEN E-P3. As you can see, the M.Zuiko 12mm f2 is a perfect fit for that body in terms of size and proportions (and styling as well, if you can get hold of an E-P3 with a silver finish). The Olympus 12mm ƒ/2 uses Olympus' MSC (Move-Still-Compatible) technology, making the lens fast and near-silent to autofocus; the lens focuses between close-focus and infinity in less than a second. Autofocus results can be overridden at any time by simply turning the focusing ring. If there is one true fault with this lens its that the Olympus LH-48 metal lens hood is an accessory for this lens and it does not come with the kit, why Olympus continues to follow this trend is beyond reasoning with, however it seems to be part of their practice to charge customers at each opportunity.

Used Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 12mm f/2 | MPB

While not offering as wide a field of view (28mm equivalent instead of 24mm), the Panasonic 14mm ƒ/2.5 is less than half the size, weight and price of the Olympus 12mm. However, its performance is almost equivalent - for sharpness, it's a hair softer in the corners wide open, but that's about it. However there is somewhat higher chromatic aberration and slightly more corner shading. Distortion appears the same. The only other difference is that the Olympus offers a slightly wider maximum aperture - ƒ/2, instead of ƒ/2.5. All Micro Four Thirds lenses from Olympus and Panasonic have a unique lens profile to correct distortion either in-camera (JPGs) or via a RAW converter such as Adobe Lightroom. For this reason, you won’t notice very much barrel distortion from either lens in field conditions. The 12mm F2 was one of Olympus' first few mini sized prime lenses, released together with the Olympus PEN E-P3, before the era of OM-D cameras. The idea of compact sized prime lenses was genius, pairing them with smaller sized cameras like the PEN series. However, over the years Olympus has also made incredibly high performing standard zoom lenses, such as the 12-40mm F2.8 PRO. The 12-40mm lens is sharp, even at wide open, and if you were to show me images taken from 12-40mm vs 12mm side by side, I may have difficulty to tell each of them apart. The F2 vs F2.8 advantage is true and present but it is not that significant for wide angle framing, for wider angle lenses do not render shallow depth of field as easily as longer focal lengths, say 25mm or 45mm lenses. The F2 brighter aperture allows capture of more light for dim environment, but it does not make that huge of a difference because wide angle lenses are also less susceptible to camera shake compared to longer lenses. Furthermore the 5-Axis Image Stabilization from current Olympus cameras can sufficiently compensate for the loss of brightness in the PRO zoom lenses. Olympus and Panasonic bodies – as well as most raw converters – correct geometric distortion automatically. Even the live image seen on the LCD screen or through the electronic viewfinder – if your camera has one – is auto-corrected for distortion. In the case of the M.Zuiko Digital ED 12mm f/2, the correction is quite successful, with only a minimum of “residual” distortion seen in the photos. Unfortunately the weather here in Wales wasn’t very cooperative when we had the two lenses in for testing, so we had to forego comparing them for astrophotography. I can confirm from previous tests that the Leica 12mm is an excellent choice thanks to the very low levels of comatic aberration and astigmatism at f/1.4. You can see some examples below from last summer. GX85, 10s, f/1.4, ISO 200 – 12mm f/1.4 GX85, 10s, f/2, ISO 800 – 12mm f/1.4

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Below are center crops from the images above. Not surprisingly, both look very good but I actually think the Panasonic is slightly sharper and resolves more detail in the center than the Olympus although it could be that extra 2mm of reach, it’s debatable. While the Panasonic may be very sharp in the middle, the Olympus is slightly (and I do mean slightly) sharper and more contrasty across the image which is what will matter to most. Panasonic GF-1 with Panasonic 14mm Panasonic GF-1 with Olympus 12mm Lens configuration:11 elements in 8 groups (1 DSA element, 1 aspherical glass element, 1 ED lens element, 1 Super HR element) The main advantage the 12mm has over the 12-40mm is its slightly better resistance to flare when shooting into direct sunlight.Everything else, from centre sharpness and the character of the bokeh rendering to the AF and MF performance and even the price, is more or less on par. Laowa 4mm f2.8 Fisheye: recently announced, it offers a circular perspective with a 210˚ angle of view. Not yet tested, and I admit I’m not keen on circular fisheyes (but that’s just me). It’s cheap though. I’m using my little lenses on the E-PL3. It delivers so much photographic fun and performance I don’t even mind about the IBIS being useless! It sounds as though you’re have lots of small camera fun too.