Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150 mm F4-5.6 Lens, Telephoto Zoom, Suitable for All MFT Cameras (Olympus OM-D & PEN Models, Panasonic G Series), Black

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A lens like this is useful only if its autofocus is 100% reliable autofocus when paired with your camera of choice, and here again there is very little to complain about. Olympus also offers a 1.4x teleconverter especially for the 40-150mm which extends the reach to an equivalent of 421mm with a maximum aperture of f4. I’ve provided three samples with it in my gallery, but here’s one as a preview. You can find the same shot taken without the teleconverter for comparison in my gallery and note the aperture selected delivered the best result in this instance. This first image above was taken with the 40-150mm f2.8 at its maximum telephoto focal length and with the aperture wide open at f2.8. The shooting mode was set to continuous low with the auto focus set to continuous. I selected the central AF point and tried to keep the rider in the red and blue silks in the center of the frame. This is the eighth frame of a ten-frame sequence, exactly half of which (the first frame and the final four) were sharp on the subject in the AF frame.

The OM System M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm F4.0 Pro is a compact, lightweight and weather-sealed telephoto zoom lens for the Micro Four Thirds system. To keep this lens light and compact, there’s no stabilization system built-in. Olympus bodies typically have some pretty great stabilization though. I managed to shoot this lens at 40mm for a two-second exposure, though I had a much better hit rate with a 1.3-second exposure. If this is the first article you’re reading about this lens, I can tell you in advance that the 40-150mm is a great lens, perhaps one of the best MFT lenses I’ve had the pleasure to test. I used it for dance shows, day and low-light events, animals, portraits and other situations to discover how well it can serve the Micro Four Thirds system. E-M1, 1/640, f/ 2.8, ISO 200 – 97mm E-M1, 1/640, f/ 5.6, ISO 200 – 56mm E-M1, 1/200, f/ 2.8, ISO 3200 – 45mmOlympus PEN-F + Olympus M.Zuiko 40-150mm f/4.0-5.6 R (45mm, 1/125 sec, f/4.1, ISO200) (Image credit: James Artaius) Olympus M.Zuiko 40-150mm f/4.0-5.6 R: Key features Bokeh is a word used for the out-of-focus areas of a photograph, and is usually described in qualitative terms, such as smooth / creamy / harsh etc. Speaking of manual focus, it works in a focus-by-wire fashion. This should not put you off using it as it feels pretty natural in use, and actually enables the camera to display a magnified view of the subject automatically, i.e. without your having to press a dedicated button or enter the menu. The focus ring is slim but is adequate for the job. Before I move on to talk about the optics and focusing, just to note that like several other lenses in the Olympus range the 40-150mm f2.8 Pro has a L-fn function button on the barrel that can be assigned to one of a number of functions from the custom menu on the camera. Olympus 40-150mm f2.8 Pro optics Of course, we could argue equivalency. But for 95% of my photography, the debate is mainly conceptual. Yet, that’s not to say a bit of extra full-frame light sometimes doesn’t come in handy. But I am saying that a lens I’m willing to carry is always helpful.

For many a while, I agonised over selling the lens due to its bulk. It was only after I really started to use the lens that, not only did I get used to it, but grew to love it as one of my favourite lenses in the system -still is! Of course, the µ4/3rds image will be 1/4 the area, and if you blow it up to have the same print size as the full-frame image, it will have less DoF. But what you’ve done in that case is you’ve enlarged the pixels — depth-of-field is dependent on reproduction ratio! Which is where the “Fool Frame Fanatics” come up with their DoF goofiness.

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But if 150mm is long enough and you typically shoot in good light or static subjects in any light, the tiny Olympus 40-150mm F/4 Pro might be all the lens you need. As many of you will know over the last couple of years I’ve turned exclusively to Micro 4/3 cameras and lenses which I now use for all of my professional and personal work (bar the very rare occasions when I’m part of an event with Canon). There have been a number of reasons behind the switch – there is quite a lot of wear and tear on my muscles and joints and I suffer from RSI and a degree of arthritis. For that reason alone it was quite impossible for me to continue to carry large DSLR bodies and lenses. Downscaling to small lightweight equipment has been a lifesaver – and contrary to the many urban myths which circulate in photography forums, for most usage there isn’t a big trade-off in image quality or performance. I hear it said time and time again that Micro 4/3 is not for professionals because there is ‘too much depth of field’ at a given aperture and ‘too much noise’ compared to a modern full frame system. These statements are often made by people who have not used nor compared each system in real-world conditions. Because if they had, they would understand that the settings we use on a Micro 4/3 camera can be quite different to those we would choose on a full frame camera when photographing any given scene.