The Olympus E-M1 is by far the best MFT camera of the year according to our 43rumors readers (POLL results here). And now let’s see what new lens they liked most:
[poll id=”220″]
The Olympus E-M1 is by far the best MFT camera of the year according to our 43rumors readers (POLL results here). And now let’s see what new lens they liked most:
[poll id=”220″]
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99 Responses
Although the 12–40 PRO is obviously the overall best quality lens from all above I’ve still voted for Panasonic 12–32.
Do you ask why? Because the Olympus pro grade lens doesn’t contribute so much to the system’s strength as there is already a lens with at least comparable IQ and performance: the Pana 12–35.
But this little jewel 12–32 brings something absolutely new to MFT: the term of literally pocketable high grade zoom lens.
Can you tell me what the obsession with “pocketable” is? I don’t take pictures with a camera in my pocket. I always carry my camera around my neck, no matter how touristy it may look, or, when necessary, I have it in a gear bag where I can reach it quickly and where it is protected from bumps and prying eyes.
Isn’t carrying a camera in a pocket like carrying a pea shooter in a purse?
A bag isnt suitable in every situation like for instance a party, a crouse, while shooping, at the dinner table, in the skii slope, while skydiving, when im at a friends house, while cooking, dansing, jogging, driveing, living.
Among all your activities, you forgot reeding and riting.
+100!
No shit. Good one! 🙂
Pocketability? That’s what my iPhone is for.
The pocketability fixation is something that makes zero sense when thinking about an interchangeable lens camera. Even with the GM1.
How so?
E-M5 + 20/1.7 fits a coat pocket, E-PM2 with 14/2.5 easily does, as does the GM1 with 12-32.
GM1 + 14/2.5 or 12-32 or 20/1.7 in one pocket, 45/1.8 in the other 🙂
No, you don’t have to, but that doesn’t change it being pretty useful for many people.
Mr TheEye, your prejudices are showing. It’s a bigger world than your personal priorities, no need to put others down.
I for one love to have a quality camera in a jacket pocket on occasion.
BTW I hope you didn’t vote for the evidently-fragile 12-40 Oly f2.8? We can’t have a dud win Lens of the Year!
Not an exciting year lens wise. Mostly refreshes and duplicate focal lengths. IMO E-M1 OSPDAF is the most exciting news concerning lenses for m4/3 cameras.
Let’s hope 2014 brings something really new that fills those few remaining holes in m4/3 lens lineup.
Tiny sensors, not so tiny prices. f4 equivalent aperture primes costing way more than their full frame cousins. What’s the point? Why not just use an iPhone, lol? Pure fail from Nano Four Thirds – which won’t last much longer as it was doomed on arrival.
(I’ll be sticking to my manly 36 mega-pixels, and super sharp lenses, lol.)
Something Freudian in “Nikon D800e 14-24mm f2.8″‘s fixation on the size of his sticky manliness?
I’d wager he suffers chronic DRY maniless.
In other words, he NEEDS some… BAD. REAL BAD!
D800 + 14-24 f2.8 VS E-M5 + 7-14 f4:
http://camerasize.com/compact/#290.110,289.31,gd,t
1.970 kg vs 0.725 kg
3630 euro vs 1660 euro
http://www.dxomark.com/Lenses/Compare/Side-by-side/Nikon-AF-S-NIKKOR-14-24mm-F28G-ED-on-Nikon-D800-versus-Panasonic-LUMIX-G-Vario-7-14mm-F4-ASPH-on-Olympus-OM-D-E-M5___813_792_536_793
2.7 times the weight, 2.2 times the price and less than 2 times better (only 1.7 times sharper). Only a pro photographer making big prints can claim that he needs a 800+14-24 f2.8 !
F2.8 on FF vs f4 on m43.
That’s a very fair comparison…
Sure it is. An f4 FF equivalent would not be much smaller, just cheaper.
That f4 is only for DOF, it remains a f2.8 for exposure. And that beneits me as a landscape photographer.
The faster aperture and even the difference in light gathering would be completely offset by image stabilization in any sort of challenging lighting condition…
It’s actually f2.8 vs f8 full frame equivalent (+ masses of distortion). That’s 8 times more light, double the sharpness and over double the resolution, for just over twice as much (no idea why your using the EM-5 – the EM1 is Olympus’s so called flagship and not much cheaper than the D800e lol).
I guess if your too weak, too poor and you enjoy inferior resolution,sharpness and quality, then stick with nano four thirds, or better yet, just stick with your iPhone.
Well, one thing is for sure, you don’t have any idea what you’re talking about. And, it’s even more obvious that you have never even used an E-M1.
Good luck with your D800E and your Nikkor 14-24/2.8; great equipment for those who care to lug it around. I’m sure you’ll notify us all with the url of your photo exhibition. Of course — without such an url — we may suspect that you don’t really know how to use your manly equipment.
+1 for the url.
To post so many wrong things at one time, you deserve an award.
We need an m43 Troll of the Year award! The problem is there are so many worthy contestants it’s going to be hard to decide.
Why oh why doesn’t 43rumors have any moderation of this sort of blatant trolling and basically anti-43 posting?
It is a massive failure of this site that they allow such unfriendliness to be the main thing posted, never-endingly.
I am leaving this site in the main, and I suggest as many 43 lovers as possible do the same. Maybe the owners and advertisers will notice , and THEN we might get some of the necessary attention paid to moderation.
“That’s 8 times more light”
If you mean photon, maybe. But D800 is not 2 stops better for every parameters, it’s a little bit less…
“double the sharpness”
Clearly WRONG, the 14-24 can’t resolve the 36 MPix sensor
“I guess if your too weak”
I’m not weak, I do a lot of sport like rock climbing (that’s include walking with a heavy bag), hicking and skiing but to carry 2 kg for a body and just one lens is so BORING. And you don’t even have a tripod wich will be much bigger to support your BIG camera.
“too poor”
This is VERY LOW…you seems a very scornful guy
“you enjoy inferior resolution,sharpness and quality”
YES A LOT !
“just stick with your iPhone.”
Unfortunaltely: 1) IPhone doesn’t have a 14 mm equivalent 2) I don’t like apple
I will just stick with my E-M5 !
+100 to the Troll suppression task force. Always funny reading the off the wall trolls but its always better reading the articulate responses from photogs.
Nice try…
Let me know when m4/3 has wide zoom f1.4 which is equivalent to Nikon’s f2.8 FF so that it’s worth reading. Plus, Pana 7-14 actually is not that great and far away from 14-24. This is from my direct experienes.
When you say 1.4 ALL you are talking about is the ability to get the same depth of field. I’m more than willing to give up a tiny bit of DOF for what I gain in smaller size. Besides, most of the primes make up for it, AND have better performance wide open than their FF counterparts. In my experience many fast FF lenses need to be stopped down to get the same sharpness.
When it comes to exposure, 2.8 is 2.8 is 2.8, no matter what sensor. This “equivalence” so many argue about is such a small part of the overall equation.
You don’t get the point.
If you’re obsessed with comparison, you should compare “Apple” to “Apple”.
For example, Nikon 14-24 should be compared against 4/3 SHG wide zoom lens. That will be interesting to seee.
Let me know when Nikon makes a lens with a built-in shrink ray to downsize your camera, so you don’t sound like a fool making this comparison.
How much are you familiar with Pana 7-14? This lens is nice but not that great. It cannot be called as superb or great lens. I’m okay for general purpose but I won’t select it for serious IQ demand.
A good photographer can use anything. Cameras are just tools… Like some of the people who post here with comments like this 🙂
Thumbs up
So for a moment you thought about switching to an EM1 w/ 12-40….. Mmmmm.. that’s a good start…
To be fair m43 is waaaaayyyy to bloody expencive – tiny bits of glass, double the cost… no optical VF – double the price…
Well not double but still more expencive for less… they are creaming in the profit compaired to DSLR… I bet oly made waaaayy less profic on 43 then on m43..
On this point i agree with you – cost should be less – evon though I belive the system is better than FF setups…
I agree and disagree. I think m43 tends to be too expensive at the entry level. Especially when you consider the lack of viewfinder and lack of external controls. However, when you look at the E-M1, this camera is far from expensive when compared to any equivalent body. I think the GX-7 was priced right, but the E-P5 was not, because of the lack of viewfinder. I had no problem with the E-M5 price either. But, it does get murkier as you move down the line.
Hopefully, the entry level OM-D will change this.
Nowdays, when the price of FF gears tends to be decreased, that of m4/3 gears tends to be increased.
That is the fact.
Someone is butthurt that Nikon only launched mediocre cameras and lenses this year.
This type of post makes me wonder what is between some folks head. Using a H5D-60 I can easily say what a fuzzy pic a D800E captures. Yet for someonw who knows about photography Having a H5D-60 it is far better to have the advatages of a smaller system as a carry around where the difference between FF and m4/3 is far less than FF and the the H5D-60. adly many posters just wish to advatise their lack knowledge of and abilities.
Nikon D800e 14-24mm f2.8? HA WHAT A JOKE! That is just crap gear with a red ring for amateur posers. You want to be a proper gear head? Start lugging around a Hasselblad H5D with a Leica Titanium Edition strapped to your belt! Oh, don’t forget the Porsche Turbo to be properly accessorized.
Looks like old Full Frame has a new handle. But he’s apparently still compensating for his inadequacies elsewhere by having wet dreams over equipment he can’t afford on the allowance his mom gives him.
This year I bought a Voigtlander 50mm T1.5 M mount and Panasonic 7-14mm: I don’t own any of the lenses in the poll. I have tried Zuiko12-40 and I like it. I have tried Pana12-32 and I find it nice and really portable. My heart would vote for Voigty though.
I would like to a comparison in image quality of the 12-32mm vs the 12-40mm lens. obviously they are quite different animals but their output could be compared in the areas that the 12-32mm has to offer.
Yep, it’s good to finally see a wider kit zoom, especially one that’s so small, yet performs so well.
I tried the 12-32mm on my GX7 at B&H and the few images I shot looked pretty nice… even considering I forgot to change the exposure ;-)! It will be interesting to see what the compact 35-100 looks like and how it performs.
Would love to give the 12-32mm a spin on my E-PL6. The small size is appealing…but the lens is mostly plastic (right?).
Perhaps after it is sold separately and the price drops a little I may consider one….It is pocketable power in daylight!
It seemed plasticky, but honestly I was more interested in the GM1, except the battery was dead 🙁 . I popped my 20mm onto it and put the 12-32mm on my GX7. The twisting extending/locking mechanism is a nice touch. And it extends very little when zooming, just like the 14-42mm II. It has pretty nice color and sharpness, too. I hope they start selling it separately!
My girlfriend was loving the GM1… that’s always a good sign! 😉
You mean she has “GM1-envy”? Hmmm…
You have both reviews at lenstip.com.
Oooops thought you meant the 12-35mm
None of the above. The olympus 75mm f/1.8 is my winner.
Just wait for Nocticron.
Haha well, that’s just it, the 12-40 really had no competition this year. I’d take the 75, 45, 25, 17 and 12 over the 12-40 in many ways. Then again, having almost that entire range in one solid kick-ass lens, is awesome also.
Nokton 0.95, Noctitron & Ibelux….I need light in these dark times
Dark times indeed!
Waiting for the Olympus 40-150mm 2.8
Admin, you should add the Zeiss Otus. While tremendously pricey, it makes a beautiful portrait lens for studio applications on a m4/3 body. Unfortunately there is nothing with a native mount that has quite the same resolving power and defocusing characteristics.
The Otus seems very poor for portrait work without a ton of PP. It makes people’s skin look like a chicken’s hide.
You don’t need to sink 4k into such a lens to get beatiful results. Check out this awesome gallery with shots taken entirely with a Sigma 60mm! http://500px.com/viv
> Sigma 60mm
… which was also released this year, but @Admin forgot to include it in the poll.
broody, those portraits have also clearly taken tons and tons of post production or just a cheap plugin filter. People’s skin doesn’t even look like skin anymore after so much smoothing, sheesh.
I vote none of it .
2013 no lens for me .
But 2014 , likely I’ll get double , the Nocticron is a must plus the 15mm Summilux .
Cheers .
No question, the Voigtländer 42.5mm.
It may have the most beautiful rendering of the three Noktons. It really is a very special lens.
I can’t wait to see what Voigtländer brings out for 2014.
So if one were to own one 0.95, you recommend the V 42.5?
Tough choice.
The 17.5mm is pretty versatile, but there’s just something about the 42.5mm that I like more than the other two. I like carrying them together. They pair well!
I tend to use the 25mm by itself, when I’m not carrying other lenses. Sort of like SLR days of yore. 😉
I have the 17.5 and the 42.5 and I voted for the 42.5. As Jeff said, it is a tough choice. I use them almost 50-50. The rendering of the 42.5 is absolutely beautiful, even wide open. At f2.0 is (sharp)^3 and the blurred background really beautiful. I also have the Olympus 12 f2.0, 45 f1.8, and 75 f1.8, and the PanaLeica 50 f1.4, but the Voigtlanders spend more than 80% of the time in my camera. They are my favorites by a wide margin.
If I was put to have only 3 lenses for my system with no limitation on budget these would be the following:
1. Panasonic 12–32/3.5–5.6 (cannot see the reason to have bright normal zooms as you cannot separate the background anyway below 32 mm, so I prefer here the compactness over brightness);
2. Panasonic 35–100/2.8 (OR Olympus 40–150/2.8, but the former is much more compact and it has OIS);
3. Panasonic 42.5/1.2 (no comment, an obvious choice).
“cannot see the reason to have bright normal zooms as you cannot separate the background anyway below 32 mm”
Well, how about speed? It lets you use faster shutter speeds or lower ISO.
Sensors get better and better (just think about it, even ISO 1600 was unimaginable for regular use 15 years ago) so the real point for bright lenses is the shallow DOF, that is, the background separation feature.
As 4/3 and m4/3 user, I voted No. None of m4/3 glass is comparable to SHG 4/3 glass nowdays. m4/3 glass even doesn’t come close.
So true !
They don’t compete in size, either. Maybe you forgot that almost no one bought 4/3 because the bodies and lenses were as big or bigger than APS-C cameras.
I have the 12-40, and I really like it. Although,
this vote is too easy, because it didn’t really have any competition. I’ve played around with the 12-32, and it’s an amazing little lens, but again, the vote is for the best. 12-40 wins hands down.
i voted the Panasonic 14-140mm.
excellent sharpness for a 10x zoom.
Sad day! The 12-40mm wins as best lens.
The lens is perfect, at least for internet review standards. Sharp and all but that comes at a price. Character. Bla pictures are the results, so to say. People who have paid the price will defend the lens to their death.
Manufactures have started to react to the reviews online. What can you test? Sharpness, distortion, etc. They have optimised this lens for exactly this reason with the glass and with the onboard computer. But no character.
As mentioned above the 75mm would have been a much better choice. Sharp and lovely AND character! You are going to have a hard time to take a bad picture with the 75mm.
A sad day because all manufacturer are going to develop lenses like this in the future. They need the internet hype to sell. Emotions and character are subjective and difficult to test.
Emotion and legendary lenses were always rare and might become even more rare. A sad day indeed.
my vote is for the lomo is lame kens for lame system
like some old holga camera’s that have FF film size too? should make wonderful pictures Because only sensor size matters right?
+10
… and don’t forget that it surely needs the proper logo on the front for it to count for anything at all!
let’s not forget the “I shoot full frame” t-shirt… a must when out for shooting….
Well, Admin, this is what you get for posting a poll on the day after Christmas! Lots of silly CaNikon trolls. If their cameras and lenses are so great, why aren’t they out taking pictures with them? Oh, I know — their widdle arms are all tired from carrying around those hefty cameras and lenses, so instead they’re taking a rest by sitting down for a while and trolling on Micro 4/3 forums.
This is what Santa brought the trolls for Christmas:
http://www.amazon.com/Clipper-Heavy-880-3-400lb-Capacity/dp/B0009PAIU8
the
Voted for 12-32 since I want to see more smaller lenses.
12-40 in itself wasn’t big deal IMO – but its price was.
The (missing from the list) Sigma 60mm is also on the short list of the new interesting lenses.
P.S. If only Panny had properly updated the 20mm…
voted for the 12-40mm as i brought one
its a very good lens very happy with it
my tarvel gear is now E-M5 12-40mm 35-100mm 7.5mm fisheye
i am hopeing that next year will be better for lens was hopeing to get
the 150mm f2.8 from Panasonic heard form some one who had used the portotype
so the pice did not sound that bad for the size off the lens
i dont think that companys lesten to the internet if they did there would be
a MFT 300mm f4 weath sealed lens
i am thinking of going FF 600mm lens the same pice as a new car (if only i could get troll prices)going to see whats comes frist my photo gear acounnt hitting €12000 or some one makeing a good Super telephoto for MFT my money is on the
acount
Those voting (and especially those who bought it) should be taking a look at this:
http://www.mu-43.com/showthread.php?t=56256
🙁
I think that geeky pixelpeepers can’t really enjoy Photography.
It won’t be a spectacular lens but it works nice for me.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcosartoriphoto/11438415995/sizes/o/in/photostream/
It’s sad that a guy feels the need to hide behind the name of his gear (because he owns that gear, right? 😉 )
I understand his ignorance when trying to wrongly compare two different systems.
I don’t understand why he feels the need to come to a different system forum and show his ignorant arrogance.
Bad connection: my comment wanted to be a reply about Panasonic 7-14mm comment above.
AMIN: You forgot the SLR Magic 25mm f0.95! That is my vote!
Not a exciting year for m43 lenses, I was looking for none of the above. And I find the em-1 to be just a em5 with a grip for twice the price. Looking forward to the 15mm leica and the GM1 once it drops to $300. Like the GX1 panny always likes to over price.
Voted 20/1.7 loved the update from the old one.
tiny sensor tiny quality is all depends what u want olympus doomend adn m43 tooooo 2014 brigs real cameras to all of us
Strange then that the d800 makes so lowsy video without any detail or DR when it has such a big sensor.
12-40 best lens? The olyfans have the same QI of a hamster.
12-32 is a miracle!!!!
Me too I can cherry pick my battle and conveniently crown my winner 🙂
..the Olympus 12-40 is not pocketable :p
Why don’t you get a bigger pocket?
I’d think this is rather a matter of you getting a better brain that is capable of the little thought it takes to figure out why others might want to be able to put a camera with lens mounted in their pocket.
Not everyone can be a genius like you!
Yes, it takes real genius to look a little bit beyond your own preferences and needs.
Even before I looked, I knew the 12-40 would be winning. The Oly fandom overwhelms web sites far beyond the number of Oly cameras sold. It’s a very good lens optically, but concerns about it’s build quality, combined with Oly’s outright lies about it’s construction, disqualify it from any “best” competition.
“its” (personal pronoun)
I think the poll question should have been “Which is your favorite lens of 2013?” or “Which is the most useful lens of 2013 to you?” “The search for “The Best” is silly, since “the best” varies with personal preferences and with the used metrics.