In Praise Of A Little Ripper Of A Lens
My kit for Japan was pretty set early on. The surprise change for me was dropping the 12-60 kit and taking the 9, 15 and 17 primes instead, but the lens that was never under threat was the 40-150 Olympus kit.
Wide open, slightly cropped and fully extended. All good here.
This very cheap feeling, kit-est of kit lens is not underestimated by reviewers, many putting it front and centre for “best buy” and some even placing it higher up in the range.
I would not want better. The lens responds well to processing, starting from a flat, neutral base, but holding fine detail, good contrast and colour.
Very nicely behaved.
This behaviour is also ideal for mono.
It’s biggest problem is the forrest of competitors, Olympus alone offering three 40-150 lenses, Panasonic even more in that general class, but as the very cheapest and lightest, it is a travel shooters life saver.
There was a time not that long ago when an image as stable and competent as this one would have been considered “fine art” grade simply because of its quality. I remember seeing sublime medium format film era work that had that special something, which is of course what most modern digital cameras can achieve more easily, but the above came from a hand held, three model old base M43 camera (EM10 Mk2) and kit tele with a second hand street value of about $300au. How big would be too big for it? Bigger than I will ever need.
The lens has ideal characteristics for a landscape lens, edge to edge sharpness, fine micro-contrast and decent distortion control. It is also reasonably immune to flare and uncontrolled highlights.
This type of image can blow out easily, but the 40-150 and 12-60 Pana kit lenses control that well. Some of my lenses have more “glow”, but that can be a double edged sword.
To be honest, I used it too little, most of these images coming from our first day, with me switching to the 45 for the rest of the trip, but that was not the lenses fault, just my funk on the trip meaning anything would basically do.
Flat and even both in rendering and distortion characteristics.
In Capture 1, I find the de-haze control, which I often apply before Clarity, Contrast or Brightness, is less needed thanks to the inherently strong micro contrast, but Saturation and Clarity do add depth.
I have the other two 40-150 lenses Olympus offers, but see no reason to use these better built and theoretically superior lenses for this type of work. The shallow depth of the f2.8 is a creative option and the f4 lens is possibly the best value over all, but the little kit lens has no reason to feel inferior except in build and that has to be balanced with it’s easy replaceability (about $100 in a kit).
I honestly never feel ripped off by the results, never wishing I had sacrificed travelling comfort for “superior” results.
It even adds a little inner glow sometimes, like the 17mm f1.8 or 12-40 f2.8.
AF speed is excellent, smooth and silent enough for video, Bokeh is nice, better than the f2.8 on the whole and balance decent enough on most cameras.
Is it a war-zone lens? Not on its own, but realistically you could take three or four of them and feel safe enough.
Just magic.