I bought this lens instead of the kit lenses with my first MFT, an EM-10 about seven years ago. Its my 'go-to' on so many occasions.

Vielen Dank für das Video. Beides sind empfehlenswerte Alternativen. Die LX100 und das 12-40 Viele Grüße Joe

My wife got the 12-40 for me when it came out in 2014 I believe? It's extremely sharp at all apertures and focal lengths. It's a spectacular lens.

@Gary_W

Жыл бұрын

It is spectacular indeed, I think I will definitely use this lens a lot for event photography in the future.

A super great lens for sure

Thank you 😊

I absolutely love my 12-40! Before buying MFT I rented an EM5ii and Lumix 12-35 and had no complaints either. In fact, probably my hardest decision when I finally bought was deciding between those two lenses and since it was three years ago, I can’t even tell you why I decided on the Olympus but I remember debating over the two for a number of days. A tip: the lens hood on the Olympus has been known to break, and the spring pop out, and the authentic Olympus lens hood can be a little pricey. If you want to preserve the original Olympus lens hood, you can buy an off brand hood specifically made to fit the lens. I bought mine at Amazon for probably about $16 and have used it continuously for almost 2 1/2 years with no problem. I keep the authentic Olympus hood in the box.

@Gary_W

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing and thanks for the lens hood tip!

0:09 Here for a great review. I must confess, I was not expecting the intro music... and it startled me in the office with my volume cranked LOL.

@Gary_W

6 ай бұрын

Sorry about that, I have since replaced the intro, hopefully the new one doesn't cause any issue. 😁😁

It's a beast

I've owned the 12-40 for many years. One of my favourite lenses for the system. Aside from Panny 12-35, the Panny 12-60 and the pancake kit zooms, there are other rivals to this lens. Ironically, Olympus released 3 major rivals in the last few years. The very well loved 12-100 f4 Pro IS, the small 12-45 f4 Pro and the 8-25 F4 Pro. Of course, Panny has a similar lens to the 8-25 in the form of the 10-25 f1.7. Both were very tempting to me, but I chose the 8-25 in the end

@Gary_W

Жыл бұрын

Hello, woww very interesting to know that you are from Iceland! I love Iceland so much! I'd definitely get the FZ1000 for its image quality with its significantly larger sensor. Bird photos could be a bit restricted, but I believe that if you are capturing puffin birds in Vestmannaeyjar near their nest then it should be close enough. FZ300 could be better for the long zoom range, but it will definitely suffer in lower light situation, for example during sunrise or sunset. I would personally still prefer the FZ1000. I hope this helps!

Thanks for sharing portrait shots with 12-40. It would have been nice to do portrait comparison between 12-35 and 12-40.

@Gary_W

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for the comment! I would love to do a portrait comparison using both the 12-35mm and the 12-40mm, unfortunately my 12-35mm just got worse and I don't think I'm able to do that comparison any time soon.

I had Olympus 12-50 . Great lens for the price and the size . Since i was looking for do it all lens . I got 12-40 . Finally the lens that i built like a tank

@bigrobotnewstoday1436

4 ай бұрын

I have both and I was using the Olympus 12-50mm for macro ring photos for my weddings. I now use the Olympus 60mm.

Hi Gary, my Oly 12-40 sits on my EM1 mkii and is a great combo. But I also have an EM5 mkiii which was supplied with the 12-45 f4 pro lens. Although loosing the wider aperture the lens sharpness is virtually identical to the 12-40 and it is considerably lighter.

@Gary_W

Жыл бұрын

The 12-45mm pro is quite an interesting lens as well, I think it's a good mid range zoom for travel!

@JT-zb2km

9 ай бұрын

Hi, did you find with the f4 that you lose some of the background blur compared to the f2.8? Thanks

Dont forget to mention the focus puller... It is a really fun feature because it can use hardstop for manual focus mode

@Gary_W

Жыл бұрын

Thanks, I did mention it in the video! Truly a nice feature to have, especially to nail focus when I'm photographing flowers or small insects.

This made me want to buy this lens

@Gary_W

2 ай бұрын

😁

A lot of people sleep on the Panaleica 12-60mm f/2.8-4.0 but for travel it’s a great option, sharp across the range with nice optical character. I believe it got a bad rep as a lot of “filmmakers” bought this with the GH5 and all they see is the variable aperture but it’s a great travel lens

@Gary_W

Жыл бұрын

That is also a great lens and probably could be a good choice for a mid range zoom! I haven't personally tried it but I heard good things about it.

@Sven-R

Жыл бұрын

I had to make the decision between those two lenses. I finally decided to take the Panasonic Leica 12-60mm, because of the longer reach. I think both lenses are equally good when it comes to image quality.

I do like this lens and do use quite a bit along with the 40-150mm f2.8 but carry both it can be a bit heavy as you said. For travel I usually use the 12-100 f4 and just up the iso and then take a prime 17 or 25

@Gary_W

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing, the 12-100 f4 I think is a great travel lens. This 12-40mm is more like a "workhorse" kind of lens for me.

Personally, I want the Panasonic 12-35 f2.8 for obvious reasons; smaller, lighter and it zooms in the same direction of my other lens (several Nikon lens and a Panasonic 35-100 f2.8). But I can't currently find it here (with good condition and reasonable price). So I went for Olympus 12-40 f2.8 instead. I just got it today. It's a used but in quite good condition and a relatively low price. I haven't a chance and time to seriously test it in real use, but the lens is so surprising after some quick checking and test shots. It's sharp. It's fast and accurate. It's also great for close up shot so I can almost fill the frame with SD card at minimum focus distance. With 2x digital zoom on Olympus camera, the lens acts as 24-160mm lens so it covers most of my need (especially as a small and lightweight system for more casual trip/less serious work, compared to my Nikon DSLR). It's also funny that the lens extends a bit at 12mm, fully retracts at 17mm and then fully extends at 40mm, which shares the similar characteristic to my Nikon 17-55 f2.8 (extends a bit at 17mm, fully retracts at 24mm and fully extends at 55mm, those are roughly similar equivalent focal lenght!!). Does the Panasonic 12-35 f2.8 also share this characteristic too? Still haven't got used to the zoom direction though.

@Gary_W

4 ай бұрын

Good to hear! My 12-35mm doesn't extend at 12mm like on the Olympus 12-40mm, I still love my 12-35mm but it died so I have to repair it first before I can use it again.

Hi Gary. Ive always been wanting thus 12-40mm f2.8 Pro. I am using Lumix cameras, but recently a pre-owned OMD eM1 with the pro lens included along with 25mm, 45mm and 20mm for about slightly less than price of two Pro 12-40 lenses.. im tempted to try the em1 but not sure if its worth it. I remember you saying to use what we have and dobtge everyday challenge rather than going for new shiny things 😂. Is em1 any better than G85 or G9?

@Gary_W

8 ай бұрын

Hello, that is true, I much prefer to use what we already have, unless we really need it, than to buy new stuffs. I do still get tempted many times though 😁. I don't think EM1 is that much better than G85 or G9. If you already own a G9 or even a G85, the EM1 won't provide much extra value to what you already have. Regarding the 12-40mm f2.8 lens, the reason why I bought it is because my Panasonic 12-35mm f2.8 is broken, and I badly need a standard zoom f2.8 lens for event/video photography that I do quite frequently, and in that situation using prime lenses is not ideal due to how fast things are happening. I hope this helps! 😁

@JT-zb2km

8 ай бұрын

Thanks for your advice Gary, love your videos.

Got one with my OM-1 in a kit. It's a great lens, especially if you want a single lens that can do a bit of everything. But I ended up selling mine on, because I'd rather have the versatile 12-100mm or the compact 12-45mm for travel and landscape, and I'd rather switch to a much brighter prime for low-light or portraiture.

@Gary_W

5 ай бұрын

Agree with you, for travel and landscape, the 12-100 might be more useful than the 12-40.

I find my pana leica 12-60mm f2.8-4 on my GF10 is more stable than lumix 12-35mm f2.8 in video. Its stabilisation is stellar when you put the pana leica on GH5ii. In low light, i find there is not much difference in performance. I prefer to use prime lens like 20mm, 42.5mm, and Sigma 56mm. I am planning to buy a sigma 16mm for a wide angle lens. I also plan to buy lumix 7-14mm f4 but really worried i will use less of the lens. My focus is more on casual video and i love blurry background. For landscape i find 12mm focal length would be enough for the moment. I have tried the ultra wide angle on iphone and it has failed to convince me to buy the ultra wide lens.

@Gary_W

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing some information, I haven't tried the 12-60mm f2.8-4 yet but it seems like a very good lens and that extra reach could be useful.

@Mraz75

Жыл бұрын

@@Gary_W after watching several times of your video.. i guess you got me hooked on 12-40 Olympus. Hahaha.. but have to wait the price of the lens gone down first

what is the difference between mark I and mark II of this lens?

@Gary_W

9 ай бұрын

Honestly I haven't tried the mark ii version of 12-40mm f2.8, so I can't really comment on that. They probably make a few slight improvements over the previous version.

Is it bulky?

I would like to see your guitars, maybe you could play for us, you could run some product photography and show us which gear you are using for that. We see the guitars lined up in the back but you haven't referred to them yet. Could be a new video?

@Gary_W

Жыл бұрын

I would definitely love to create guitar video again in the near future, I have some music ideas that I want to share in one of my future videos 😁

Is this lens too big to take as the go-to for hiking?

@Gary_W

5 ай бұрын

Maybe not too big, but for me personally if I'm going hiking I would use smaller and lighter lenses instead of the 12-40mm f2.8. Something like the kit lens can deliver similar result with smaller form factor and less weight.

It's a fantastic lens - but I found the Panasonic Leica 12-60 f2.8-f4 is better for my needs as the extra 20mm reach is more useful than the constant f2.8.

@GallicGarlic

Жыл бұрын

I don’t enjoy using zooms with varying apertures myself

@GallicGarlic

Жыл бұрын

Also the so-called f/2.8 is only available at the widest focal ..

@Gary_W

Жыл бұрын

The 12-60mm f2.8-4 is a great lens too for sure, it'll be a better choice for travel for that longer reach and slightly lighter weight.

@fabscams4136

Жыл бұрын

@@GallicGarlic f2.8 is available up to 18mm, it's really not a deal breaker, I only use it for travel during the day, I switch to primes when walking the streets or doing low light photography.

@GallicGarlic

Жыл бұрын

@@fabscams4136 exactly .. the f/2.8 is available.. until 18mm.. 😂

Just need the better photo camera to make the system perfect. You have the better video camera there.

@Gary_W

8 ай бұрын

I do use my GX85 and G85 for photo as well, I used to have Olympus camera in the past but for me the Panasonic cameras are more than good enough for photo.

You didn't mention one of the most useful things about the Zuiko 12-40 when comparing to others: the MF clutch. It is useful as fuck

@Gary_W

10 ай бұрын

I thought I already mentioned it somewhere in the video, but yes I agree it is useful on many occasions.

azjoe_6310 poses the question I’d like the answer to. How does the L12-35 compare with the O 12-40? Mask On Nurse Marty (Ret)

@Gary_W

Жыл бұрын

Can't go wrong with either one! The L12-35 has OIS for even better stabilization on Lumix cameras, but the O 12-40 is ever so slightly sharper than the L12-35 in my observation, not by much but might be important for some people.

show us the bokeh !

@Gary_W

9 ай бұрын

Go to around 7:00 mark for sample pictures