{"id":4865,"date":"2015-04-06T20:27:14","date_gmt":"2015-04-07T01:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/?p=4865"},"modified":"2015-04-08T13:09:16","modified_gmt":"2015-04-08T18:09:16","slug":"review-olympus-12-40mm-f2-8-pro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/review-olympus-12-40mm-f2-8-pro\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Olympus 12-40mm f\/2.8 PRO"},"content":{"rendered":"

In late 2013, Olympus released the M.Zuiko 12-40mm f\/2.8 PRO lens. \u00a0It was their first foray into the ‘PRO’ line, which has now been joined by the 40-150mm f\/2.8 PRO and will soon add a 7-14mm and a 300mm f\/4. \u00a0I didn’t get a chance to review the 12-40mm back when it was released, but seized the opportunity when I had the new OM-D E-M5 Mark II in for review. \u00a0The 12-40mm f\/2.8 has been highly touted by many in the industry, and I was eager to get my hands on the lens and see if it lived up to the strong reputation.<\/p>\n

\"Olympus<\/a>
Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II with Olympus 12-40mm f\/2.8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you\u2019re not familiar with my reviews, I review from a real world shooting perspective. You won\u2019t find lens charts or resolution numbers here. There are plenty of other sites that cover those. I review products on how they act for me as a photographic tool.<\/em><\/p>\n

Construction and Handling<\/h3>\n

The 12-40mm f\/2.8 is a solidly constructed high-end optic featuring weather sealing against dust and moisture. The lens is bigger than any of the slower standard zooms for Micro 4\/3, but quite compact for a wide to telephoto standard zoom with a constant aperture of f\/2.8. The lens has a focal range that gives a field of view similar to a 24-80mm lens on a full frame camera, encompassing a versatile range from super-wide angle to short telephoto.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Olympus 12-40mm f\/2.8 PRO with hood<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the most part, the lens lives up to what you’d expect in this department, with a tightly assembled body with high-quality plastics and a metal shell over most of the lens body. However, I felt that it fell a bit short of what I would generally consider a ‘Pro’ build. The inner lens tube rubbed slightly when turning the zoom ring, and the extending tube has a small amount of play. Overall, it’s a well-built lens, but the sister to this lens, the 40-150mm f\/2.8, has a more solid construction in my opinion.<\/p>\n

The lens extends during zooming towards the long end of the range, and very slightly at the widest focal lengths, with the lens at its shortest length at 16mm. The zoom ring moves smoothly, though damping is less than on many other lenses. The focus ring is very smooth and precise, and features a manual focus clutch mechanism, allowing for quick switching to manual focus, complete with focusing scale. It’s worth noting that the focus ring still turns when the ring is pushed forward for AF operations, which allows for full-time manual focusing, or manual focus when manual focus is engaged via the camera.<\/p>\n

The 12-40mm f\/2.8 PRO comes with a reversible lens hood that locks into place and requires pinching two side buttons to release the hood. Frankly, I though the locking mechanism was a bit clunky and unnecessary, and slowed down storing the lens. The 12-40mm also has an Olympus L-Fn button on the side, which adds an additional programmable button for use with any Olympus camera. As not all of my Micro 4\/3 lenses have the L-Fn button, I typically don’t use it, as I operate on muscle memory while shooting most of the time, and having a button that’s only there on certain lenses tends to slow me down a bit.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The lens at its shortest length (left) and longest (right). The manual focus clutch is also pulled back to reveal the focus scale in the right hand image.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Autofocus Performance<\/h3>\n

The 12-40mm f\/2.8 features a very fast and very quiet focus motor. I tested the lens on the OM-D E-M5 Mark II, and in most situations, the lens was extremely fast to focus and very accurate. I had a few situations in dim light where the camera thought the lens was in focus when it was clearly well out of focus, and I had trouble getting it to sweep through the full range to lock on, but this only happened a few times during my testing. In all other cases, even in lower light, it locked swiftly and surely on my subject.<\/p>\n

As I noted in my review of the E-M5 Mark II<\/a>, the 12-40mm f\/2.8 was excellent for continuous autofocus as well, and had a good hit rate while tracking moving subjects.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the lens, like all Olympus lenses, doesn’t have an optical stabilizer. This is fine if you’re shooting with an Olympus body, as the outstanding in-body image stabilization of any recent Olympus camera negates any need for an optical stabilizer. However, if you own a Panasonic camera other than the GX7, you’ll want to consider the lack of lens-based stabilization in the 12-40mm.<\/p>\n

Continue: Image Quality<\/a><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Image Quality<\/h3>\n

When a lens has the word “PRO” in its official designation, hopes are very high for outstanding optical performance. Thankfully, the 12-40mm f\/2.8 PRO lives up to those expectations.<\/p>\n

\"Statehouse<\/a>
Statehouse Reflected – Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II with Olympus 12-40mm f\/2.8 PRO @ 40mm, f\/6.3, 1\/100s, ISO 200<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sharpness<\/h4>\n

The Olympus 12-40mm f\/2.8 is a very sharp lens, and that includes performance throughout the focal range, and even at wide apertures. The center of the image is very sharp right from f\/2.8 at any point in the zoom range. The borders are a bit softer, but are still very good. Stopping down a stop or two increases sharpness across the frame, from wide-angle to telephoto.<\/p>\n

With the E-M5 Mark II<\/a>, I was also able to test the extremes of resolution with the 12-40mm due to the High Resolution mode of that camera. Good sharpness was maintained across the frame in the 40 Megapixel mode, though the 64 MP RAW files only show limited improvement with this lens. Still, if you’re looking for a versatile lens to take advantage of this feature, the 12-40mm is a good candidate.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, the lens is as strong at infinity as it is when focusing closer, with only the very closest focusing distances showing a slightly softer image at f\/2.8. While the lens doesn’t reach true macro-lens levels of magnification, it does a darn good impression of one with its extremely close focusing capabilities. The 12-40mm f\/2.8 is capable of 0.3x magnification, which is about as good as one can get from a standard zoom. Stopping down to f\/5.6 or so is a good idea when focusing this close, as it brings sharpness back up, and adds needed depth of field for such close shooting.<\/p>\n

Bokeh<\/h4>\n

With a fast f\/2.8 aperture, the 12-40mm f\/2.8 PRO can produce nicely blurred backgrounds at the long end of the zoom range, or at closer magnifications. Overall, the lens performs very well in this department, with smoothly rendered backgrounds and evenly illuminated specular highlight discs in out of focus areas. While you certainly won’t mistake the lens for something like the Olympus 75mm f\/1.8 in this area, the performance is great for a standard zoom lens.<\/p>\n

\"Olympus<\/a>
Olympus 12-40mm f\/2.8 PRO @ 40mm, f\/2.8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Contrast, Color and Chromatic Aberration<\/h4>\n

The 12-40mm f\/2.8 features nice strong contrast at all apertures, without being overly bold. Color response is quite good and rich accurate colors pop without the need for excessive post processing.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, in the area of chromatic aberration, the 12-40mm stumbles a bit. The lens produces visible lateral chromatic aberration in the form of cyan and magenta fringing, especially at the edges of the frame, throughout the zoom range. CA is highest at the wide-angle settings. CA can be corrected with post-processing tools and is managed in-camera when shooting JPEGs, but it will result in some minor loss of accutance vs. a better corrected lens.<\/p>\n

Distortion, Flare and Vignetting<\/h4>\n

With regards to distortion, the 12-40mm requires a caveat. The lens has virtually no visible distortions throughout the range, if you are looking at JPEG images or utilizing a RAW converter that reads the built-in distortion profiles, such as Lightroom. However, if you shoot RAW and use a converter that doesn’t read this profile, you can see that the lens has dramatic barrel distortion at the wide end of the zoom range (and a notably wider field of view).<\/p>\n

Before Adobe Camera RAW was updated for the E-M5 Mark II, I was processing RAW files in PhotoNinja. Immediately, it became apparent that the lens uses software correction to achieve the final field of view and low distortion at the wide end of the zoom range. However, given the very high image sharpness, even at the edges, in the corrected images, I don’t view it as a very big deal. \u00a0To see the difference in field of view and distortion, see the shot below, showing the same RAW file at 12mm processed in Photo Ninja, which has no distortion profile, and Adobe Camera RAW, which automatically corrects for the distortion. \u00a0The uncorrected version has a notably wider field of view, but also pronounced barrel distortion.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The same RAW file processed in Photo Ninja (no distortion profile) and Adobe Camera RAW (distortion profile) – Click to enlarge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 12-40mm performs very well with regards to vignetting, with minimal light falloff at wide apertures, and essentially zero stopped down a bit.\u00a0The lens is prone to flare in the right circumstances, but it’s not a bad performance in this area. If the sun is placed off-center in the frame, large purple and green ghosts can occur, though loss of contrast is less than with many other lenses. \u00a0It certainly does a nicer job with regards to flare resistance than the Panasonic 12-35mm f\/2.8, which suffered from terrible flare with the sun in the frame.<\/p>\n

Continue: Conclusion and Image Samples<\/a><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n

Pros:<\/h4>\n
    \n
  • Compact weather-sealed body<\/li>\n
  • Excellent feel to the focus ring, including a nice manual focus clutch mechanism<\/li>\n
  • Outstanding image sharpness across the frame at all focal lengths, apertures and distances<\/li>\n
  • Very pleasing bokeh for a standard zoom lens<\/li>\n
  • Rich contrast and color<\/li>\n
  • Excellent close-focus abilities<\/li>\n
  • Fast, quiet and accurate autofocus<\/li>\n
  • Good control of vignetting<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Cons:<\/h4>\n
      \n
    • Build quality slightly lower than what I would consider a true pro-grade build, though still well-constructed<\/li>\n
    • Lateral chromatic aberration visible at most settings<\/li>\n
    • Prone to flare in certain circumstances<\/li>\n
    • Barrel distortion at the wide end when not digitally corrected<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      The Olympus 12-40mm f\/2.8 is a lens that fills a need for a lot of shooters, and I’m happy to report it does so with excellent quality. \u00a0The lens is simply brilliantly sharp across the frame right from wide open and at all focal lengths. \u00a0It’s really hard to ask more from a zoom. \u00a0It might be the overall sharpest standard zoom I’ve had the pleasure to use.<\/p>\n

      It’s not a perfect lens, with some chromatic aberration and reliance on software distortion correction, and I felt the lens, while nicely constructed, fell a bit short of what I consider to be ‘pro-grade’ in the build quality department. \u00a0However, optically, there’s not much to worry about. \u00a0Color and contrast are excellent, bokeh is very pleasing and the prime-like sharpness makes this a phenomenal lens for landscape use and everyday utility. \u00a0If you shoot Micro 4\/3 as your primary camera system, the 12-40mm f\/2.8 should be in your kit. \u00a0\u00a0The lens is moderately expensive at $999 US, but for the optical quality you get in a nice compact package, it’s well worth the cost. \u00a0The other competitor in this space is Panasonic’s quite good 12-35mm f\/2.8<\/a>, but in my opinion, the Olympus is the better optic, and should be the first choice when Micro 4\/3 shooters are saving up for a fast standard zoom, unless optical image stabilization is a requirement.<\/p>\n

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