Discount Olympus ED 14-150mm f/4.0-5.6 micro Four Thirds Lens for Olympus and Panasonic Micro Four Third Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera Lowest Price
August 9th, 2011
Low Price Olympus ED 14-150mm f/4.0-5.6 micro Four Thirds Lens for Olympus and Panasonic Micro Four Third Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera – Review & Rating
- High-power wide-angle M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-150mm F4.0-5.6 zoom lens; 35mm equivalent 28-300mm
- ED (extra-low dispersion) glass for superior image quality
- 100 percent angle of view
- Lightweight design; ideal for everything from portraits and indoor scenes to sports and landscape photography
- Designed to maximize the performance advantages of the Micro Four Thirds System
OLYMPUS 261504 Zuiko Digital 14–150mm f/4.0–5.6 ED Lens
List Price: $ 599.99
A good enough lens for the M4/3 system,
1. I recently purchased this lens for my EP-1 and will put forth some observations about this lens.
* Size: As most reviews of this lens have noted, it’s obviously longer than the 14-42mm Olympus kit lens. However, the “how much longer” is only truly appreciated when you mount it on you camera; when you do so, you’ll think silently “… hum, this is a bit longer than I thought it would be.” But depending on your expectations / purposes for this lens, it may or may not matter. For myself, I knew ahead of time that this lens was going to be overtly longer than the kit lens and thus I was prepared for it. Furthermore, since the 14-42mm kit lens, although smaller, is not a very compact lens like the 17mm pancake, the EP-1 with the 14-42mm is never going to be a combo where I’m going to be able to put it in my large pockets etc… Thus, I would need to carry the EP-1 + 14-42mm in a case etc… If that’s the case (and it is with me), having the EP-1 with the 14-150mm is no big deal because it’s still compact enough to still fit in my case and it’s certainly light weight.
* Build Quality: basically… decent enough–> translation–> overt plastics. Olympus is trying to keep costs down so as to attract as many folks into the micro 4/3 camp. However at some point, please–> make some lens that don’t feel like a semi-toy. With that being said, the optics are good and in the end–> it’s all about the pictures.
* Focus: One of the biggest reasons I transitioned to this lens from the kit 14-42mm was the annoying way the kit lens had to refocus each time and the in / out movements it had to go through. Everytime I would use the kit lens, it made me feel like I was using some first generation autofocus lens from the 1980s. This lens, although not lightening fast, definitely focuses smoother and quicker than the 14-42mm, which may not be saying much to some folks, but bottomline, it focuses quicker, quieter and “better” for whatever that means. If you have the new 9-18mm micro 4/3 lens, it focuses like that lens.
* Image quality: very good. As with all of the Olympus lens thus far (in the micro 4/3 line), this lens gives clear, sharp, nicely rendered color images etc… I won’t and can’t go into a technical analysis of the lens, but in general, when viewing the images taken with the camera, most will be very happy with the results. No surprises here.
* Speed: As everyone knows, you can’t have everything in life. If you want a faster lens, you’re going to end up with a bigger lens… and a more expensive lens… or a lens with a smaller focal length range (which is what I would argue for). I along with everyone else would have liked a faster lens, but this is basically a consumer grade all in one, does everything lens and thus f4 is in line with this kind of product.
2. In summary, this is a very good lens for all Olympus micro 4/3 users who understand and accept the limitations of this lens. Now as wish list to Olympus: please come out with some quality (optically and build quality) lens, esp prime lens.
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|A great weight-quality tradeoff,
I purchased this lens along with an Olympus PEN E-PL1 for a safari to Tanzania. While I loved my film SLR and my collection of lenses, it was inappropriate for this trip (changing film and lenses in dust clouds, airport X-rays, and nearly 2000 pictures), so I needed to move to digital with a single zoom lens. I opted to purchase a Micro Four Thirds system rather than a DSLR, hoping that the tradeoffs of sensor size vs. weight vs. price would be good ones.
The total cost was about $1100 (~$500 for the camera (with a 14-32 lens), ~600 for the 14-150mm lens). With Micro 4/3, the effective focal length is twice the rated, so this lens is equivalent to a traditional 28-300mm zoom. I could have picked up an equivalent DSLR setup and lens for about the same price, but it would have weighed over 6 pounds. My combination was about 4 pounds. This was significant when much of the shooting was waiting for several minutes for an animal to “do” something and there was no place to set up even a monopod out the hatch of the safari truck.
My big concern was going to be image quality. The 4/3 sensor is about 30% smaller than a DSLR sensor, but still 5-9 times the size of a compact digital. Fortunately, we were able to do some side-by-side comparisons with photos my daughters took. The larger sensor was clearly better all around – it blows away any of the compact cameras. For example, I was able to get some great shoots of a leopard in a shady tree from about 200 yards away. That was not possible with the compact cameras we had.
Overall, I could not be happier. While the 4/3 sensor clearly will not match the quality possible with a DSLR, it is wonderfully capable and flexible for the serious amateur. This lens is our new travel companion.
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|Good Image Quality, but…,
This lens is a fine addition for anyone with one of the new Olympus four thirds cameras, i.e. the EP-1 or EP-2. It’s about half the size and weight of a comparable SLR lens and the image quality is excellent. My only gripe is that its maximum aperture is only 4.0. Seems to me that Olympus could have engineered a one half stop or full stop faster lens. Plus, auto focus is nearly unacceptably slow, especially in low light. There is a lot of back and forth searching before auto focus locks on. So, this is NOT a lens for fast moving subjects. With these limitations, it seems a bit overpriced at $600.00.
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