Used Olympus Zuiko Digital ED 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 EZ Zoom Lens for Micro Four Thirds System - Black

2018-05-21T20:00:00

I bought this lens to replace my 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 lens as my go to lens. I really wanted the Pro lens, but funds are a bit tight. I was concerned that the difference wouldn't be enough to justify it and I would be better off saving a bit longer for the Pro. I am sure that the Pro is much better in a lot of ways, but I love the Macro function. The color and clarity is much better than my previous lens. I couldn't be happier with! I like having it zoom internally and love how light weight it is for it's size.

David

Originally posted at

2018-05-05T20:00:00

This lens came bundled with my EM-5 II, and although it's slightly long, it's a convenient travel lens. I've used it in rainy weather without much worry because of the weatherproof design. It's a real plus given the peace of mind when shooting in inclement weather. I also really like that it can switch from macro, to manual/electric zoom very quickly.

IC

Originally posted at

2018-04-10T20:00:00

I went on a trip to Japan with my E-M1 and didn't want to lug a bunch of gear with me. I took the 12-50mm and a 25mm fast prime. I thought I'd be using the 25mm most of the time, but in actuality, I never took the 12-50mm off the camera. I was able to shoot at night and captured some great night time scenes of Akihabara and Tokyo Tower. Given the somewhat tepid reviews this lens had received, I was surprised at the sharpness and clarity. For what it is--an all-around jack-of-all-trades lens--it's great.

Al

Originally posted at

2018-03-16T20:00:00

I use to have a Rokinon 12mm f2 lens, but it was so bulky, heavy, manual focus, and even though it had the f2, it wasn't worth carrying around, I hardly used it. Welcome the 12-50mm; wide enough for those landscape photos and enough zoom to get some nice portraits. It's now my kit lens, and the one I use the most. Photos are nice and clear.

Andres

Originally posted at

2018-02-09T19:00:00

This is my go to everyday lens. I would prefer the 12-40 pro but in the mean time this does great, just take your time when shooting. Never used it for Macro but its great for landscapes. my only complaint is its long and sometimes cumbersome to carry around attached.

Paul

Originally posted at

2017-11-28T19:00:00

This is an awesome go to lens for everyday shooting. Stays mounted to my E-M10 II. This lens has the best of both worlds, electronic zoom or manual. Images are sharp.

DARRELL

Originally posted at

2017-11-25T19:00:00

THis is a very good lens, and nice to use. I use one with the E-M1 and it makes for a lightweight, easy to handle, weatherproof unit with excellent macro capabilities. It is also capable of producing excellent image quality. (I will add a few photos to the gallery). It's also inexpensive. There's nothing not to like about this lens. The 12-40mm is a nice lens also, but is bigger and heavy to carry around, I usually opt for the 12-50mm as my everyday lens.

Torchy

Originally posted at

2017-10-08T20:00:00

I have owned this lens and the 12-40 f2.8 pro lens for a couple of years, and am a former professional photographer. I generally don’t write product reviews, but I can’t help but think that most of the reviewers of this lens have missed the point of what it brings to the photographer, so I thought I’d chime in. Here are the qualities that make the 12-50 truly special: 1. Balance on the OMD EM1 camera is outstanding--the overall package handles a lot better than the OMD-EM1 with the 12-40 f2.8. 2. Excellent focal range, covers most uses. Better range than the 12-40 f2.8. For quite a few purposes, it’s possible to use the focal length doubling feature in the OMD-EM1 and extend the lens reach out to 100mm (200mm 35mm camera equivalent). 3. Motorized zoom is essential for professional video. The 12-40 f2.8 doesn’t have this capability. 4. Built in macro. 5. Inexpensive but weatherproof. 6. LIghtweight--much more pleasant to carry than heavy, faster lenses. Granted, the optical qualities of this lens aren’t comparable to the 12-40 f2.8, but in an era when most of the creative process happens in post production (rather than during image capture), and when lens qualities can be corrected in post production, it isn’t as necessary as it used to be to lug around optically outstanding--but heavy and unwieldy--lenses. Since the OMD EM1 has much better low light performance than digital cameras of even a few years ago, and dramatically better performance than film cameras, the need for fast lenses to pursue low light is much reduced. Boka and blurring the background via a wide f-stop can now also be done in post production. So there is much lower value in using faster, heavier, more expensive lenses than there used to be. All in all, I like the 12-50 better than I do the much more expensive and less versatile 12-40 f2.8, based on the former’s versatility and convenience. In no way do I find that it limits my photographic capabilities.

MSRW

Originally posted at

2017-08-08T17:17:00

This is a great lens. My pictures were tack sharp. Nice zoom range.

CAROL B.

2017-07-26T20:00:00

This lens is on my camera 90% of the time, because most of my photos are taken on hikes and river trips, and this lens works great in those situations. The 12 - 50 range adequately covers most situations, the weatherproofing is nice, and it's fairly light. I am very happy with the image quality (but admit that I am not a pixel peeper). I have seen a lot of reviews extolling the superiority of the 12 - 40 pro over this lens, but personally I have no desire to switch because the 12 - 50 is so much lighter to carry in a backpack and gives me images I am happy with

Jan

Originally posted at

2017-06-20T09:24:49

I wasn't expecting much from this lens and was delighted with the results. Not only is is one of the few lenses I have that can go out in the rain, but it is surprisingly sharp and the macro function is much better than expected. I like it so much, I bought a second one for my husband and it has become his "working" lens for almost everything. It is a far better basic lens than the original 14-42, in my opinion. Sharper and more versatile. If only it were one stop faster. Okay, two stops faster.

MARILYN A.

2017-03-05T19:00:00

The lens is full of surprises trying to figure out it functionality needs some practice to familiar and to master the lens. The lens efficiency is amazing in terms of usage. I feel the focal length is short for the say I shoot things. The mechanical zoom is still slow even it made the setting fast. Manual zoom is faster yet it is jumpy. The left and the right turn is a little weird after getting so familiar with other lenses. The macro capability is amazing. As a whole, very efficient lens.

Gerard S.

Originally posted at

2017-03-02T19:00:00

This was my kit lens with OMD E-M5 and with decent image quality. Like the Macro feature in this. Good lens to start with if it comes as a kit.

Srikanth

Originally posted at

2017-02-20T19:00:00

This is a very versatile lens, great for everyday shooting. I love that it is weatherproof and has macro ability that performs well, all in one package.

Eric

Originally posted at

2017-02-17T19:00:00

Pairing this with my E-PL7. Slightly larger than the other similar options, but I enjoy taking macro photos and this lens has a great macro mode. Overall a good medium quality lens. Not Pro level, but that is reflected in price.

Kent

Originally posted at

2017-02-12T19:00:00

Does everything it needs to. It's a definite upgrade from the 14-42 lens. Sometimes the autofocus makes a whirring noise when shooting close up and macro photos but you can usually fix this by selecting your focus point on the touch screen.

Adri

Originally posted at

2017-01-12T19:00:00

Excellent lens, the electronic zoom is awesome and silent, the pictures it takes are very nice with a nice out of focus background, the macro is excellent,. This is a good lens to carry when you don't want to overcrowd your lens bag.

Robert

Originally posted at

2016-12-19T10:52:07

Solid ...great zoom ...bad in low light as the fstop only goes to 3.5 but love the automatic option for the zoom

josh p.

2016-12-19T06:10:37

The zoom range covers mostly what I intend to shoot. It is light and relative sharp. It will be my main lens on E-M5II when I travel, although I will bring along with me the Panasonic 45-175mm.

Bayard L.

2016-12-04T19:00:00

good kit lens overall really like the macro feature. would recommend

jeremy

Originally posted at

2016-11-28T19:00:00

I bought this lens with an OMD-EM-5 (Mark I) shortly after Olympus brought out the body. I got it from a local camera store wanting to support them. To start off, the body is terrific, although since greatly surpassed by the EM-5 Mk II. I will not review the body here. The m.Zuiko is a well built internal zooming and focusing lens which promises a lot. Sadly, it fails to deliver. The range of focal lengths is great for walking around. However at essentially all apertures and focal lengths it is soft. The principal problem in my single sample is significant chromatic aberration. To some extent this is clearly a conscious choice in the design because it is somewhat corrected by the camera's firmware -- if and only if you're shooting in JPEG. But serious photographers using a camera this sophisticated will be shooting and printing from RAW where the internal post processing is not available. The other major problem I have is the serious amount of flare in the system, particularly when facing into bright lights. It is intrinsic and cannot be fixed in software post-exposure. The effect is a subtle to serious loss of contrast and color saturation, making for flat images. As slow as the lens is, this sample could not be used wide open at 12mm. Stopping down more than one stop to f/8.0 seemed mandatory to get acceptable images from the point of view of edge sharpness and also color saturation. That pushed me up against the envelope in several dimensions: 1) exposures have to be longer, and even with five axis stabilization this can get out of hand, or 2) the ISO setting has to be faster, creating a noise problem given that the sensor is a micro 4/3 (yes, you can get away with ISO 1250, faster than almost any film ever made, but we are in a digital era) and 3) with small apertures and short focal lengths, separating subject from background and getting creamy bokeh becomes impossible. Pictures made with this lens tend to have no more background separation than a shot made in broad daylight with a very small sensor point and shoot. The lens is yet slower at 50mm, which means that you may need to shoot between f/8.9 and f/11 to get acceptable sharpness and CA when shooting RAW. Longer focal length + smaller aperture <=> longer exposures or higher sensitivities. In turn this means noisier images and less subject-background separation. The actual sharpness at long focal lengths also falls off as can be seen in the Olympus MTF charts for the lens. The lens is unacceptably soft wide open at 50mm, and even stopping down only gets to barely acceptably at f/8.0 before the effects of diffraction impare performance a f/11. Olympus provides the lens with a macro setting which enables quite close focusing at 43 mm, fixed focal length. Is it an advantage to have a crippled macro setting as opposed to no macro? That's a personal choice. I preferred to work from a little farther away with a longer focal length or the ability to zoom to fill the frame. Note that the lens is so slow that a tripod or other steadying assist is mandatory. I bought the brilliant 60mm, f/2.8 macro which solved those problems. The lack of inherent sharpness means that any closeup pictures will lack the high subject sharpness that makes a great macro picture. It's particularly noticeable in photos of flowers and leaves where stamens, veins and edges really should look as if engraved with a laser. The problems come not from the construction of the lens, but rather the compromises that have to be made to get a compact 4:1 zoom that can be sold at a price that made the combination of body and lens extremely attractive and still let the designer obey the laws of physics and the refractive indices of glasses in the standard catalogs. My real problem is that I did not think through the compromises before opting for the 12-50 mm as opposed to the smaller, lighter, slower, and cheaper 12-42. Nevertheless I was initially so disappointed with my pictures that I nearly returned the whole m4/3 system. That would have been a mistake. Today I sold the 12-50 lens and bought the 12-40 f/2.8 PRO lens. Now that lens is simply magnificent!!

peter

Originally posted at

2016-11-22T19:00:00

I love this lens. It's so versatile and, in my opinion, one of the best values in Olympus lenses. I like that it has such a wide focal range of course, and the macro function is very impressive, but the thing I like best is the really good images it captures. I'm not too concerned with its speed (but admit that's what cost it 5 stars) because I fully understand it is a "daylight use" lens. I have the 25mm f1.8 for nighttime shots. What this lens really does well on my E-M10 Mark II is serve as a "one-lens" solution for walking around during the day sightseeing. I took some really great shots with it on my last trip to San Diego. Very impressive clarity, contrast and color. Good bokeh in all shots that show that aspect. Oh, and I really like the size! It's not at all "too big." Its length actually makes it much easier to hold the whole camera. And with the hood on, it stands up very well (nice and level) when put on a table. I really like using the manual zoom mode for still shots (a bit more control), but have to say that the electric zoom mode is perfect for video. The macro mode is very impressive. What else is going for it? How about weatherproof? Dedicated function button (really useful to me)? In summary, two words...Buy it!

WalterBear

Originally posted at

2016-09-30T20:00:00

Very good for casual shooting and travel and OK for other purposes (macro, portrait). Excels in optimal conditions (enough light) but starts having trouble as the light gets lower. I don't think the size or the weight are too much as I've never thought the setup with it and the E-M5 was cumbersome. Haven't done any videos so can't comment on that but it does have a motorized zoom which should come in handy. Weatherproofing proved to be a great feature. Overall, a good all round lens which doesn't break the bank.

Mirko

Originally posted at

2016-07-17T20:00:00

This lens is a perfect when you only can bring one lens with you and it's weatherproof. The electronic zoom it's a great help to capture thing for far away. Also, it can convert to macro, like have two lenses in one!

decia d.

Originally posted at

2016-04-23T06:14:38

this is my first lens as i delve into mirrorless. smooth, light, compact, internal focusing - and i'm like the images it produces! what's not to like?

FRED S.

2016-04-04T13:21:19

PRO - The only ‘cheap’ weatherproof MFT lens as of 2015. - Nice focal length coverage with 24 mm equivalent at the wide end. - E-zoom mode is handy for video shooters. - Not bad sharpness wide open. - Generally fine image quality. - Has its own L-Fn button. - Feels well balanced on E-M1 and allows for comfortable one-hand grip. CONTRA - I’d prefer zoom ring switch to have a lock as I sometimes switch it accidentally. - With electronic zoom you can’t see at which focal length you are before you look in the viewfinder. - At 25mm your widest aperture is f/5.1. Though I’m not sure it’s different with other non-premium zooms. - May be a bit large for everyday zoom. Generally, the lens has some particularities which may suit or not suit you. If you don’t gain much from electronic zoom (which is ‘love it or hate it’ thing sometimes) and/or weather resistance, there may be better options for you. Personally I’ve been using it for 2 months with my E-M1 and selling it because I’ve found out that electronic zoom is just not my kind of thing.

Daniel B.

2016-02-16T19:00:00

Yes a bit slow, yes a bit big, but true its a good go to lens for the beginner. Unitl I started purchaing primes this was my lens of choice.(didnt know better at the time) At the time of purchase I was really into the weatherproofing thing, it seemed I really didnt need that feature. i dont use the macro so much and really cannto tell you how it is. I can say i have used this extensively for some landscape shots. They come out ok. Just ok, nothing too sharp but its been working out fine for my publishing. if you want a good budget lens for all around, and can deal with the physical length of it. then go for it.

Paul

Originally posted at

2016-01-20T19:00:00

Been around for a while but still good lens to have in the kit because of the 12mm wide view. 28-100 a good general purpose range. Very sharp, fast focus, 44mm MACRO function a bonus. Weatherproofing makes it useful when you don't need more than 100mm reach. Light, compact, handles well on PEN and OMD bodies. Primes can do better, but zooms are nice when the distance changes and you can't zoom with your feet. Nobody says the photos don't look good because they do. Nice travel lens when you don't want to bring a bag of them and you know you don't; need anything longer than 100mm.

harvey

Originally posted at

2016-01-10T19:00:00

I love this lens and it spends most ot the itme on my EM-5. The performance is commendable. Having the 12mm for my landscpae shots is a definite plus. Never had any issues with it and is durable as well. getting a little rain onit didnt seem to affect it except for the lens getting wet and thats a simple wipe off. I wasnt to used ot the "weatherproof" aspect but it is a plus when you are troping around in the tropics where it rains frequently, I like to stay within the 30mm (MFT) range though going any further I feel like Iam stretching the capabiities. But this is a great GP lens. very satisfied with the product and will continue to use it. I am actually conseidering buying another one for my EM-10.

Paul C.

Originally posted at

2016-01-06T19:00:00

This is a very handy and versatile lens. You get a lot for your money if you are just starting out it will fill any gaps in your prime lens collection nicely. Covering 24mm - 100m 35mm equivalent focal lengths gives you very wide angle through to short telephoto. So you are set with macro, ultra wide, wide, and portrait all in one lens. The form factor is pretty good - it's light, fairly small although a tad on the long side. It's a little soft, but you can't expect a lens that does so much to be razor sharp. Good for video as well as photos. I prefer to shoot wide angle and have some very nice wide angle Olympus primes, but this lens is my go to when I need to shoot macro, portraits or video..

tsg

Originally posted at