Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 12 mm F2.0 Lens, Fast Fixed Focal Length, Suitable for All MFT Cameras (Olympus OM-D & PEN Models, Panasonic G Series), Black

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As seen in the photo above, the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 12mm f2 is a truly small lens that easily fits in the palm of your hand. Being a metal lens means it's somewhat heavier than you'd expect based on its size alone, but it's still extremely lightweight in comparison to most SLR lenses. The primary advantage of the Leica lens is its 1.4 aperture which lets you work in low light conditions while avoiding the higher ISO values, but it is up to you to decide whether if this characteristic alone is worth the extra expense.

Olympus 12mm f2 or Panasonic Leica 12mm f1.4? | Mu-43 Olympus 12mm f2 or Panasonic Leica 12mm f1.4? | Mu-43

Now take this advice for what its worth, this is my technique and one that has enabled me to get (in my opinion) quite nice images with a sensor that is half the size of the full frame cameras that are generally associated with astrophotography. It is perfectly acceptable to capture the image all in one frame, its just that on a M43 sensor there may be a lot more noise than you would normally see. Olympus E-M1 MK II . Olympus M.12-100mmF4.0 @12mm . f/11 . 15″ . ISO 64 – Milky Way over Dunmore Head in Dingle, Co Kerry As I stated early on in this review, I own the GF-1 and 14mm f/2.5. Personally, I think the 14mm is a great value for the money and I would choose it over the 12mm simply because of the 12mm’s price. You could buy the Panasonic 14mm f/2.5 and the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 (my favorite M43 lens) for less than the 12mm f/2. That’s a solid kit and you’d only need to add something in the telephoto range which can be had for a less money than the primes. That’s my personal opinion, take it for what it’s worth. More Comparison Images When looking at both my test shots and the various sample images I took out in the field, I had difficulty coming across any relevant examples of chromatic aberration, which would suggest that it is very well controlled on both the 12mm and 12-40mm. If you are about to spend this kind of money, you want to make sure that the lens delivers proper optical performance and one thing is for sure: the 12mm is sharp. Right from 1.4 it delivers excellent results which means it becomes an interesting option for low light events, weddings and astro-photography. Distortion and chromatic aberration are a non-issue.Build quality and AF speed are important, but what about image quality? Can Panasonic’s 14mm really keep up with Olympus’ new 12mm lens that costs more than three times as much. In short, yes. The images produced from these lenses are very compatible but there are a few slight difference between these lenses. Contrary to our expectations, we found that the 12-40mm is actually slightly sharper in the corners between f/2.8 and f/8, thus dispelling the notion that primes are always sharper than zooms.The zoom lens also has superior magnification capabilities which can be useful if you enjoy close-up work with wide angles. The field-of-view is equivalent to 24mm in full format terms so it's a moderate ultra-wide angle lens. The max. aperture of f/2 is certainly fast with respect to light gathering but don't expect wonders in terms of depth-of-field - in the MFT scope you are are effectively "loosing" about two f-stops so it "behaves" like a "24mm f/4" here. This is still sufficient for quite shallow depth-of-field images if you move close enough though. I even went so far as to buy Panny’s 24mm (equiv) OVF, the VF1, which they produced for the bottom end of the LX3’s zoom. I use an OVF (a rather expensive Voigtlander) with the Panny 14 — it’s magic! If you get the opportunity to get your hands on to the Panny OVF (or any other 24mm equiv accessory OVF) I recommend giving it a try. More fun that a lot of stuff that’s not even legal! 🙂 That's a bit disappointing for a premium fixed-focal lens, although as seen above the automatic correction works well. (By the way if you happen to be a RawTherapee user, entering an amount of about -0.160 in the Distortion field on the Transformations tab has approximately the same effect as the in-camera processing.)

Olympus 12mm F2.8 for Astrophotography: Micro Four Thirds Olympus 12mm F2.8 for Astrophotography: Micro Four Thirds

Actually one of the most popular sensors for Astrophotography is the similar one in the Olympus Em1mk1, the Panasonic MN34230. Its inside the ATIK Horizon, Horizon 2, ZWO 1600MM, the QHY 163 camera. Similar results can be seen in the corners; the Leica lens retains a very small advantage over the Olympus through the aperture range. Happily the amount of detail remains decent even at the fastest apertures.Below are center crops from the images above. Not surprisingly, both look very good but I actually think the Panasonic is slightly sharper and resolves more detail in the center than the Olympus although it could be that extra 2mm of reach, it’s debatable. While the Panasonic may be very sharp in the middle, the Olympus is slightly (and I do mean slightly) sharper and more contrasty across the image which is what will matter to most. Panasonic GF-1 with Panasonic 14mm Panasonic GF-1 with Olympus 12mm Look-up shot from the entrance to Sogetsuryu school of flower arrangement located in Akasaka, Tokyo.

Olympus M.Zuiko Lens 12mm f2.0 Review | PCMag

Sharpness for a wide angle is good wide open, but the corners have at least twice the blur circle as the central area, and thus have a touch of softness to them. Stopping down to f/4 makes this an edge-to-edge winner, though: decently sharp across the frame. In between, f/2.8, is very usable for me, even into the corners, but again, you'd need to get to f/4 to pull everything up to the highest level this lens is capable of. Overall I expected a sharp lens, and that's basically what Olympus has given us. Some will quibble that the 12mm f/2 doesn't reach the highest possible results attainable on the current m4/3 bodies, but this is still a very respectably sharp lens.

Both of these lenses mange color fringing surprisingly well. So well in fact, that I spent several minutes scouring images for traces of color fringing…nothing. This is extremely impressive considering how wide these lenses are. Distortion, on the other hand, is an issue. Both lenses display a noticeable amount of distortion which has to be expected with lenses that are this wide. Like I stated before, the Panasonic will actually compensate and correct this in-camera when shooting JPEGs but that isn’t helpful unless you have a Panasonic M43 body. Not surprisingly, the Olympus seems to have slightly more distortion but that has to be expected due to it being a wider lens. But honestly, considering their size and focal lengths, I’m very impressed with how well both of these lenses manage distortion. Conclusion f2.8 Fis

Used Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 12mm f/2 | MPB

Park Cameras, York Road, Burgess Hill, West Sussex, RH15 9TT | VAT No. GB 315 9441 58 | Registered Company No. 1449928Since the JPGs and RAW files of MFT cameras contain lens correction data, distortion doesn’t pose a problem with either of these wide-angle primes. I did notice that the Olympus lens suffers from a little more barrel distortion than the Panasonic but it isn’t a cause for concern.