[nandadevieast]

Hi Klaus, Vim and others who know this,


MFT has a plethora of new, old and updated Kit lenses for their various cameras. With kit lens I mean the regular variety, like various 14-42s, 12-35s and other focals and not PRO zooms etc.


Is there a gem hidden there that you have used? Great IQ etc.


Thank you,

Anurag

[Guest]

There is no best as there is frequently a trade off between cost/performance/weight. Generally the best bargins (imho) are the primes. The 45f1.8 and 60f2.8 are both fantastic lenses that won't cost a fortune (esp on the used market). For the wid(er) end there is the 17f1.8. There are better primes that are more expensive. For the zooms I tend to swear by the leica and pro (which wrote off). Part of the issue is that the consumer zooms are pretty slow to start with and if you stop down a bit you run into diffraction. 

[wim]

I agree to a large degree with you2.


I do think you could make a shortlist, however, of different types of setups.


Starting with consumer standard zooms, the older 14-45 Panny, non-retractable, tested here on PZ, is still one of the better ones. However, the Panny 12-32 and Oly 14-42 EZ retractables are considered to be quite good, and go well with MFT bodies because of their compactness. They are pancake lenses after all in their collapsed states. All the other ones I would not (and do not) recommend, unless you have an extremely tight budget.


The Panny 14-140 and Oly 14-150, current editions, are not all that bad either, but quite a bit bigger, and obviously heavier, bigger, slightly less sharp and diffraction bound at longer FLs. Nonetheless, great lenses as simple travel zooms or even for video.


Generally speaking the 40/45-150s in their current, newest incarnations are not too shabby either.


At the short end, zoom wise, there are the Panny 7-14 F/4, not very compact but an excellent lens, the Oly equivalent, and the very compact Oly 9-18 (although not considered the best). If you're into fisheyes, and do not want to spend too much, it is either the Panny F/3.5, or 3rd party alternatives.


There are quite a few great and compact primes, like the Panny 14 F/2.5, 20 F/1.7, Oly 17 F/1.8.

Slightly bigger, but still light and good value for money are the Panny 25 F/1.7 and 42.5 F/1.7, and the Oly 12 F/2.0, 25 F/1.8 and 45 F/1.8.


Another good line of lenses, although generally a little less fast at F/2.8, are any of the macro lenses.


There also is the Oly 75 F/1.8, also a great lens, but quite expensive, just below the pro lines of both Panasonic and Olympus, price wise.


In short, quite a few good options, IMO, for many different budgets.


HTH, kind regards, Wim

[Klaus]

I quite like the Pana 14-42mm II

 

http://www.opticallimits.com/m43/844-pan...442f3556ii

[nandadevieast]

Wim and Klaus

Thanks