Just spent £40 on the auto lens cap … it’s worth it … makes your shorting much smoother less fiddly and worrying

Man, you're such a nice person.

@robinwong

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks, but we have not met yet!

Robin I like your style with these videos. You keep them short but with a lot of information. So many KZreadrs must like the sound of their own voice because they drone on and on and still haven’t said anything. Keep up the great work.

@robinwong

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the kind words! I hate hearing my own voice! That's why I made them as short as I can

A breath of fresh air amongst all of the get better gear videos. Thanks

@robinwong

5 жыл бұрын

Gear will help us achieve specific purposes/goals, but photography generally, not so much! The only way to get better is shoot more.

Some cameras have very good kit lens . Panasonic G9 has 12-60 2.8-4.0 as its kit. I bought it separately. And I must say: this is one of the best zoom Ive ever used.

Good advice, once more. Kit lenses have much worse reputation than they deserve. If you can't make a decent photo on a kit lens, I don't think you on can any lens😀

@robinwong

5 жыл бұрын

Very wide words from an amazing photographer!

@wayneshum

4 жыл бұрын

Robin can you tell me which camera model and kit Len you refer to, I want one too

I love the #5 reason. I am still using em10 mark ii and em5 mark ii for all of my videos project together with kit lens. They are awesome.

Some years ago I bought a used E-P1 with the first M.Zuiko 14-42mm ED lens. I didn't use it very much, because I have some better lenses. But some time ago I began to use this old 14-42mm for fun and I was impressed by it's results and quality. When I was dumb and didn't know much in photography, I always hated the limitations and bad low light conditions. Now I know better.

Really love my kit pancake. Just looking at it sitting on the E-M10 looking so compact is *so* satisfying. And yes, it focuses and shoots *very* well too.

@robinwong

5 жыл бұрын

The pancake lens matches the E-M10 really well!

Great advice. I love that you take time to make videos targeted at the people that are just coming into photography.

It still amazes me how good the kit lenses are on m43. I shot apsc and full frame for years before switching and all the kit lenses were crap.

Very well made point regarding limitations; it forces the photographer to develop and be creative.

I absolutely love this video. I own a Omd em10 ii, with this precisely kit lens. And now I feel a bit ashamed for not using it more... thank you for your input. Nice one.

Yep, that 14-42 kit lens is great! Treated myself to a Olympus E-M10III kit with the camera bag and 16 GB card. Got it for $499 USD, so I was able to include a 17mm f1.8 prime and still keep it well under $1,000. Love the whole setup! It's fun to finally mess with m43, after years of shooting APS-C and FF. 🙂📷

I just recently discovered your channel and I love it! You're such a positive person, it immediately boosts my mood just by watching your videos. Thank you for your hard work and keep these videos coming!!

You made some good points, Robin! I love the 14-42 II R and 40-150 my E-M10 came with. My 14-42 is not as sharp as my 25 and 45 1.8 or the 60 2.8, but just as sharp as my 17 1.8, or ever a bit more throughout the range. And that is absolutely sufficient. Even the 40-150 is very sharp in the majority of focal lengths. And very light, portable and affordable! What a plus for Mft! I recommend this system to everybody, especially all the parents searching for a good family camera.

You are doing very well with your presentations. The other guy that does well is a Terry Lane in Melbourne. I've followed Terry for many years but never commented. I will next time I think. Well done Robin. Keep it up. Thank you.

Bought an EPL1 that came free with an underwater housing - great for pool and kayak. Added the EZ 12-42mm and fits nicely in pocket of a bike shirt. When I use it I am always impressed - as long as decent light available.

@robinwong

5 жыл бұрын

I had an E-PL1 before as well, tiny little gem that was

Yesssss, fully agree on number 5

Very enlightening and useful video, thanks for sharing your knowledge and creativity, Robin!

A great motivating video! Thank you!

Great shots and advice

Very impressive for such a small and lightweight lens - and pro lenses are EXPENSIVE!

Just got one. This is helpful!

I recently bought the 14-42 R11 which Olympus aren't making any more. Thank goodness there are still some available online b/c the 12-40 Pro was showing up hot soots on some of my photos on a new OEM 10 Mk 11 that I bought to have an infrared full spectrum conversion done on it. It's awesome so just don't go throwing out any lenses! Of course after having bought this lens I was able to use the Pro 12-40mm back on one of our OEM 1 Mark 11 bodies where it really shines. Until I acquired the cheaper lens, I made do with one of the macro lenses which worked well for some landscapes. That in itself gave me discipline. To accommodate for the narrower diameter, I bought a set of up/down adapter rings. Where there is a will and you're ready to try out something different...

@robinwong

5 жыл бұрын

Those are some really creative ways of shooting! I've not tried infrared photography yet so that's something alien to me.

This was an absolutely amazing video, it completely blew my mind! You're a talented soul, keep at it buddy! Thank you for helping me🙏🏻

Superb confidence and presentation - subbed.

Thank you Robin. Your advice on this is just what I am seeking for. I appreciate it. I've been a beginner for many years. I expect Reason 5 to keep my level a bit further:)

You're right! The kit lens on my E-M5 continues to impress me long after I bought Pro 2.8 lenses. It's the reason I haven't bought a 60mm Macro yet!

@robinwong

5 жыл бұрын

The 12-50mm is a class on its own. The macro capability is incredible!

thanks for the encouragement!

Very good. I had no time for the kit lens at first, but over time I appreciated more.

Reason #5 is so true. Kit lens from the last fifteen years or so have been so well made, if I can’t get decent photos with the kit lens it is me the photographer to blame.

Great advices as usual I hope one day you’ll organise a workshop in Rome 👏👏

Your videos are awesome Robin

Thank you so much for these videos. just ordered OM-D E-M10 Mark IV. and I learned a lot from watching your videos. It will be much easier now to understand the functions etc..

Your channel was recommended by the Olympus education Facebook group, their advice is sound! Excellent first video.

Love your attitude, Robin; again, another great video for all levels of photographers. The advice to "force" yourself to shoot within the parameters of a kit lens (limitations on f-stops and zoom lengths) will indeed make you a better photographer. I deliberately set myself that same 'challenge' with the OM-D E-10 mark ii I recently bought, which came with the 14-42 pancake lens you show here, that you put forth in this video. I think of Henri Cartier-Bresson and how he shot with only a 50mm lens on his camera, "back in the day", and how we all revere his works, even to this day! Thanks for helping us all keep that "spark" that makes us go out and shoot!

素敵な動画でした！　本当に参考になりました。ありがとうございます。

Thank you for your very encouraging review. I just bought a used Pen E9 in blue as a "pick me up" for the kit lens I got with my EM10 Mk 3 and this combination is great for taking a camera along every day.

Thank you. I have been avoiding from using my EM10ii for quite sometime. Should make use of it more frequent now.

A great help - Thanks

Your blog, Sir, helped me a lot. Glad I stumbled upon your YT channel. :)

It's true that limits on equipment may make one a better photographer. Sixty years ago, when I was a kid starting out in photography with a manual 35mm rangefinder camera, a friend dropped my light meter and broke it. So I had to read light without a meter, which forced me to seriously study photographic mechanics and light dynamics. In the end made my work became quicker and more certain. In addition, I only had one lens, a 50mm, which forced me to not only move around for the best shot but also to improvise. For example, I fashioned a toilet paper tube into an extension tube with a focusing screen from waxed paper, using a coat-hanger wire frame for macro work.

Good info. Thanks.

Great video that makes 5 excellent and truthful points about the lowly Olympus 14-42mm EZ kit lens. In addition, the other lowly M.Zuiko 40-150mm f/4 - 5.6 (which I believe was a second kit lens at one time) is also quite an exceptional telephoto considering that it can be found for sometimes as low as USD $99. It's just another example of the great optical quality lenses that Olympus is capable of. Keep these great videos coming, Robin.

I use this lens on a PL-7 body for a very compact walk-around kit. Adding the LC-37C automatic opening lens cap was a great replacement for the tiny 37mm snap-on cap, which was so easy to lose.

You have successfully inspired me, and I just bought the 14-42mm ez kit lens for 50usd and am pleased with it!

I like hearing someone talk positively about a kit lens - I've done most of my photography with kit lenses but so many people out there immediately think you must have primes for good photos - without even comparing their kit lens in tests. The majority of people won't see the difference between a kit lens and a prime lens at the same aperture.

Thanks Robin. Really sound advice. Kit lenses are a great (and inexpensive) way to learn how to balance all of the controls on your camera to get quality results. Perseverance pays off..............

My canon m50 kit lens is fantastic. The 15-45mm that comes with it is very impressive.

@robinwong

5 жыл бұрын

Awesomeness, keep on shooting! That Canon deserves going out for adventures.

Another great review. I have this and the Panasonic 12-32 Kit lenses and I enjoy both. However I prefer this Olympus Kit Lens because of the Auto Start, motorised zoom and longer reach. Very happy that I bought it because of your review. Thanks.

Hi Robin i am new to your channel and i am enjoying your videos. I have a kit lens of 18-55mm and i love it, kit lenses always gets people to talk bad about them. The way you explained that the kit lenses are great is so refreshing to hear. Looking forward to see your next videos. Thank you Robin for having this channel. George E

Marketing has trained us that if one spends more money, one will get better results. We, (or at least I), try to buy my way into being better at what I am doing. Photographers from 20 years ago took better photos than I without the equipment of today.

Such a great reviewer.

Watching this video is like going to a formal photography class.

Thank You Robin. I Shell buy just m10 markIV with the kitlens. To use under travel.

love all reason

Hi Robin, thanks for posting this. When I first got my camera, I couldn't do anything remotely nice with this lens, but it was from reading one of your earlier articles that I started really paying attention to making the 14-42mm work. This lens certainly has some very real limitations, but as you've shown, it really can reward beginner shooters with good images if they slow down and really put the effort into learning the basics. Using it has really helped me squeeze a lot more out of the other lenses I own or have borrowed. IMHO, it's also hard to find anything in the MFT lineup that is as compact and versatile at the price of the 14-42mm pancake.

@robinwong

5 жыл бұрын

You are right about not finding anything else that is as compact and versatile! Such a little gem the pancake it.

Nice videos. I appreciate your efforts 🙏

#6 Keeping the kit lens makes your camera easier to sell and you get more for it when its time to upgrade.

I do use my kit lens a lot because its so tiny and light.Also thefocal range is nice to work with. When looking on other the price lists in the trade the oly 14-42mm ez kit lens is not just very inexpensive,in fact it is quite pricy and an indication of its quality. Just love it. Yes i do use other lenses aswell.

I bought my MFT bodies, usually body only since I want to get by in the cheapest possible way and don't sell older gear (I still have the FT 14-42 that I can use with adapter). After years of shooting with the 20mm prime that I bought second hand from Luke Ding, last year, I bought a kit lens, the Panasonic 12-32 because I wanted a cheap 12. I guess you could call it, The Return To The Kit Lens

@robinwong

5 жыл бұрын

I hear many great things about the Panasonic 12-32mm! Though I've not personally used it. I should probably get my FT 1442mm fixed.

I fully agree with you Robin. About 90% of my photos I shoot with this kit lens. Because it is so small, it allows me to carry my camera with the kit lens in a pouch on my hip every single day, making it possible to seize opportunities as they present themselves to me. I have used kit lenses of other brands. The Olympus kit lens is way better than most of them.

thank you very much. I found that the limit is not the lens, but my skill

Nice honest video: I like your style

@robinwong

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Being honest is important!

Bravo.. 👏🏽

I love kit lenses ! I buy all my gear used and I can get a great kit lens for so little. My favorite ones are the Pentax 18-55mm, Pentax 35-80mm and the Nikon 28-80mm G The Pentax 35-80mm is my go to portrait lens on an APSC sensor camera. Reason #6, Kit lenses have less glass elements in them which translates to almost prime lens quality.

Great video, i like your style to do them

@robinwong

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks, Mikael for the comment.

Lumix 12-32mm kit is a sharp lens too! It is a neat pancake lens, and no button release. Seems great 12 through 32mm. In the Olympus short zoom kit, I own the 14-42 II R, which seems pretty fair, sharp enough in the center. One more thing..... thanks Robin for yet another great review. -Loren Go Olympus - go Panasonic - MFT! In DSLR - go Nikon ;)

Excellent video and motivation! As the saying goes... a little bit altered though... "Real photography (decisions) is happening just a few inches behind the camera (and in this case, lens). Thank you so much!

The kit lenses (for a beginner) are actaully a good value. Yes they may not be the sharpest as compared to some of the pro lenses like the 1.8's and 2.8's out there, but they are a great learning too, partially because many are zooms and offer a comparable 24-70mm zoom equivalent, good for learning, and it comes with the camera in many cases, or is $100 extra with the camera body, so a good value. And realy some kit lenses are quite good. For example (and while not m4/3) some of Fuji's 15-45 and 16-50 kit lenses (and even the Nikon Z APSC kit lens -- the 16-50) are quite sharp for what they are and are great for beginners and even just casual shooters who want a good lens for walking around or travel.

@Robin Wong, Kit lens are awsome, but that's true for Zuiko lenses not for any manufacturer lens.

I also am a fan of high end compacts (Sony RX100 series or Canon G7x line, and similar), as the fixed lenses are both versatile, decent quality, and fairly fast, offering a lot of versatility for fledgling photographers to learn the trade without investing into a lens system that they may know little about. Additionally, they make very good sidearm cameras should the main be on a tripod or out of commission. I learned on the G7X mkii myself for a couple years before going full frame.

I like your videos, I really appreciate your time and the advice you give I am new to photography I find it an interesting world with infinite and creative possibilities I am thinking of buying a camera and what worries me most was the lens kit and what would be the next I would buy, thank you very much for your advice

I just bought the Olympus 14 to 42mm lens here in Canada . I paid 400 dollars . I'm using it on my lumix gf5. This lens is very good . I prefer Olympus lens to Panasonic. Thanks for videos about this lens .

You're great!!! 😃

I don’t think people throw away the kit lens, just put it away. 🤗 p.s. those were some beautiful shots you too with the kit lens on the Pen.

ilove my kitlens because i can use it anytime anywhere i use it on a client shoot i owned a m.zuiko 14-42mm ii r

awesome video, like.

I got an Oly EM5 with the 12-50 kit lens and also got the 40-150 inexpensive zoom for $99 as a special with that camera. I specifically got it to bring on a project I worked on through many countries in Africa, along with my primary Nikon FF gear. I wanted to see how it would work for me. I got many favorite photos, along with photos used in my project, with the EM5 and was so impressed with the camera, I switched to the MFT system. Thanks for the video, Robin!

@robinwong

5 жыл бұрын

That's a very inspiring story! Glad that the Micro Four Thirds system worked out well for you and you've switched over!

Well，thanks.

Number 6 reason - live somwhere near to sea or closer to ecuator! Sun makes your kit shooting wondeful pictures!

Good man.

Hi Robin, I'm new to your channel and have been able to see a lot of great content so far, glad I saw this..led me to your other videos. 😊 I've actually been holding on to my kit lens for quite some time and exactly, it made learn how to think and be more creative in using it to compensate for missing features. Unfortunately, it's been acting weird, it keeps on saying check status of lens or I only see a black screen 😔 I tried tips I saw on the internet but nothing worked. Im considering buying a new lens to explore what more I can do or see but if you know of a way I can salvage my beloved kit lens, would greatly appreciate it. Thanks for your hardwork. 😊

Another great video, I would love to see a basic live composite video.

@robinwong

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the suggestion! Yes Live Composite is in the list of topics I want to cover

@ChiefT00

5 жыл бұрын

Me too!!

Hi Robin. I think that what you say is completely true whilst talking about Olympus 14 - 42 mm kit lens. But, unfortunately, the same can not be said regarding other camera makes kit lenses: I'm afraid that some of them aren't but a bunch of plastic

Nice tips bro!

@robinwong

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks!

It's awesome because it always seems to develop a fault and cease to work: "Please check the status of a lens."🙄 I have two currently that no longer function and onevof them was already repaired by Olympus a couple of years ago but the fault returned. So it's replaced by 17mm f/1.8 on one camera and 45mm f/1.8 on the second.

Thanks Robin for giving the kit lens its due. Many of us sleep on the kit lens and never use it to its full potential. I still use mine and they work just fine.

I have been collecting older evolts lately. Just for fun. I find the DSLR feel to be kind of cool. So far E-300 was a horrible investment lol it died so fast. Don’t know why. But the E-410 is pretty nice. I really wished there were more 25mm available. I want that nifty 50 equivalent.

That's a really helpful video - thank you. My quandary, is I'm about to get an M1-mkii, which is body only. Should I buy one of the kit lenses or a prime lens as my first lens? I've been looking at the zeiko 14-42mm.

I have purchased this lens recently by a Hong-Kong website price € 122,--. Price in The Netherlands € 349,--. Thats a real difference. In terms of quality an excellent lens for this price.

Always when "pro" photographers (Peter McKinnon, Pixel Viilage for example) on KZread or anywhere else for that matter say "kit lenses suck, don't use them, upgrade ASAP, you cannot get good photos with a kit lens, they aren't sharp, they don't have the shallow depth of field etc etc", I tend to dismiss them as being "pros". I'd like to show them a couple of photos which I took on my Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite which has a pretty mediocre camera. Telling an amateur that the kit lens sucks so fucking much when you have tens of thousands of dollars worth of highly expensive lenses is just pure idiotism. With that said, great video man, and thank you so much!

You're holding an E-PL7 I believe and it is a terrific unobtrusive tiny little camera, but not with the EZ14-42 because the Panasonic PZ14-42 is far better on it. I had the EZ on an E-PL1 or E-PL2 (sold) and it proved very clunky on any MFT compared to the PZ. Because the PZ14-42 is practically glued to my E-PL7, I had to buy a second one.

Great lecture for photographers wannabe s

Io trovo che questa lente sia fantastica e sono sempre piu convinto che anche le lenti standard Olympus sia avanti.

My only problem with my kit lens is that, although it is small, it is not as small as the pancake design of the EZ model shown in the video. I have two kit lenses: the 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 II R, that came with my Pen E-PL2, and the 12-50mm f3.5-6.3 EZ (weather sealed) that came with my original OM-D E-M5. Both give me great results and the weather sealing on the 12-50mm has been extensively used in waterfalls, rain and water parks. But when with my 14-42mm, even though the results are probably comparable with the kit lens in the video, I always wish it was in the same form factor as the EZ version... And it is not worth buying the new version, as the results will be about the same...

Please make a video on bridge camera zoom photography...... Reach the unreachable

I do a lot of my street photography with this lens, and it is absolutely great for that purpose. It is a great Olympus lens after all 🤘

@robinwong

5 жыл бұрын

Indeed it is an awesome lens!

Many years ago, I bought the E-M5 it came with a kit lens 12-50, it’s quite good I t thought at that time until I upgrade to 12-40 2.8, kit lens is good but pro lens is excellent.

@robinwong

5 жыл бұрын

Of course, higher grade lenses will always be better in every aspect. But when someone just bought their first camera, the kit lens is definitely more than good enough!

@emmanuelthtan8572

5 жыл бұрын

The 12-50 mm is very versatile and I used it quite often.

@robinwong

5 жыл бұрын

@@emmanuelthtan8572 indeed it is

@emmanuelthtan8572

5 жыл бұрын

@@robinwong Yes, I've beeen using it for several years and proven to be more than satisfactory. The onous is on the photographer not the lens and easy to carry around for street photography!

@robinwong

5 жыл бұрын

@@emmanuelthtan8572 you are right, the easier it is to carry the better so we can use it more and not miss a moment