Lens review

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 14-42 mm f/3.5-5.6 ED

11. Summary

• very good image quality in the frame centre,
• good image quality at the frame edge,
• chromatic aberration well-corrected,
• slight coma,
• low astigmatism,
• negligible vignetting,
• efficient autofocus.

Cons:

• very high distortion,
• at longer focal lengths the work against bright light could have been better.

Although the suggested price of this lens is very high for a kit (more than 250 $) I think few people will buy it separately. Most of users will decide to purchase it together with a Micro 4/3 body because the real cost of the lens is at the level of less than 70 $ then – such is the difference between the price of the body alone and the price of the body plus the tested lens set. Taking this into account you can hardly have any reservations here because the real price/image quality ratio is really sensational.

Sample shots

Olympus E-P1 + M.Zuiko 14–42 mm f/3.5–5.6 ED
Camera: Olympus E-P1 Parameters: 42 mm, f/8.0, exp. 1/200 sec., ISO 100 File: JPEG, 4032×3024 pix, 5.33 MB	Camera: Olympus E-P1 Parameters: 33 mm, f/8.0, exp. 1/200 sec., ISO 100 File: JPEG, 4032×3024 pix, 4.85 MB	Camera: Olympus E-P1 Parameters: 36 mm, f/8.0, exp. 1/200 sec., ISO 100 File: JPEG, 4032×3024 pix, 5.02 MB
Camera: Olympus E-P1 Parameters: 36 mm, f/8.0, exp. 1/200 sec., ISO 100 File: JPEG, 4032×3024 pix, 5.37 MB	Camera: Olympus E-P1 Parameters: 40 mm, f/8.0, exp. 1/200 sec., ISO 100 File: JPEG, 4032×3024 pix, 4.72 MB	Camera: Olympus E-P1 Parameters: 33 mm, f/8.0, exp. 1/200 sec., ISO 100 File: JPEG, 4032×3024 pix, 4.89 MB
Parameters: 42 mm, f/8.0, exp. 1/25 sec., ISO 6400 File: 4032×3024 pix, 4.9 MB	Parameters: 42 mm, f/5.6, exp. 1/640 sec., ISO 800 File: 4032×3024 pix, 5.7 MB	Parameters: 15 mm, f/4.0, exp. 1/4000 sec., ISO 3200 File: 4032×3024 pix, 5.3 MB
Parameters: 42 mm, f/5.6, exp. 1/80 sec., ISO 1600 File: 4032×3024 pix, 6.5 MB	Parameters: 42 mm, f/5.6, exp. 1/100 sec., ISO 400 File: 4032×3024 pix, 5.6 MB	Parameters: 27 mm, f/8.0, exp. 1/60 sec., ISO 1600 File: 4032×3024 pix, 6.7 MB
Parameters: 38 mm, f/5.4, exp. 1/40 sec., ISO 800 File: 4032×3024 pix, 5.6 MB	Parameters: 14 mm, f/5.6, exp. 1/200 sec., ISO 100 File: 4032×3024 pix, 5.1 MB	Parameters: 42 mm, f/5.6, exp. 1/640 sec., ISO 100 File: 4032×3024 pix, 5.6 MB
Parameters: 42 mm, f/9.0, exp. 1/2000 sec., ISO 6400 File: 4032×3024 pix, 6.7 MB	Parameters: 26 mm, f/5.6, exp. 1/1000 sec., ISO 100 File: 4032×3024 pix, 5.4 MB	Parameters: 14 mm, f/3.5, exp. 1/50 sec., ISO 400 File: 4032×3024 pix, 5.8 MB
Parameters: 14 mm, f/3.5, exp. 1/60 sec., ISO 800 File: 4032×3024 pix, 6.0 MB	Parameters: 42 mm, f/8.0, exp. 1/320 sec., ISO 100 File: 4032×3024 pix, 5.5 MB	Parameters: 36 mm, f/8.0, exp. 1/800 sec., ISO 200 File: 4032×3024 pix, 5.7 MB
Parameters: 14 mm, f/8.0, exp. 1/500 sec., ISO 100 File: 4032×3024 pix, 5.9 MB	Parameters: 14 mm, f/5.0, exp. 1/1250 sec., ISO 100 File: 4032×3024 pix, 5.5 MB	Parameters: 34 mm, f/5.1, exp. 1/1250 sec., ISO 100 File: 4032×3024 pix, 5.2 MB