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Micro Four Thirds - Black
SLRgear Review
July 15, 2011
by Andrew Alexander
The Olympus 12mm ƒ/2 ED M.Zuiko Digital was released in June 2011 alongside the E-P3 camera. The lens is designed to fit the micro four-thirds mount, and will not mount on standard four-thirds bodies.
As a four-thirds lens, it produces an equivalent field of view of approximately 24mm. It does not ship with its rectangular LH-48 lens hood - this optional accessory is not widely available in North America at the time of writing, and is rumored to cost approximately $100. The lens takes 46mm filters, and is available now for approximately $800.
Sharpness
The 12mm ƒ/2 is an excellently sharp lens. Wide open at ƒ/2, there's just a hint of corner softness, and stopping down to ƒ/2.8 reduces that almost completely. Tack-sharp results are available from ƒ/4 all the way to ƒ/11, where diffraction limiting begins to set in. At ƒ/16 we note some slight softness, and just slightly more at ƒ/22.
Chromatic Aberration
CA is slightly noticeable in this lens, in the corners; according to the test charts, it's more obvious when then lens is stopped down compared to wide open, but I think that's a symptom of corner shading slightly obscuring the color shift. If you take a look at the sample photos, you'll see slight magenta-green color shifts in areas of high contrast, but nothing to get overly worried about.
Shading (''Vignetting'')
There is some corner shading when the lens is set to ƒ/2 - the corners are 3/4 EV darker than the center at this setting - but at any other aperture, there is no corner shading to speak of.
Distortion
Distortion is about what you'd expect for a 24mm-equivalent lens - +0.5% barrel distortion in the corners, and easily correctable in post-processing if you like your straight lines straight.
Autofocus Operation
The Olympus 12mm ƒ/2 uses Olympus' MSC (Move-Still-Compatible) technology, making the lens fast and near-silent to autofocus; the lens focuses between close-focus and infinity in less than a second. Autofocus results can be overridden at any time by simply turning the focusing ring.
Macro
The lens does not provide any useful macro ability - at its close focusing distance of 20cm (around 8 inches) it provides only 0.08x times magnification.
Build Quality and Handling
The Olympus 12mm ƒ/2 M.Zuiko looks and feels like a premium offering, with an old-school aesthetic and all-metal construction. Being a micro-four thirds lens, it's not big, and not particularly heavy, either (4.6 oz), and it mates well to the PEN series of cameras. The size of the lens belies its complexity - its optical architecture is made up of a concoction of 11 elements in 8 groups, including DSA (Dual Super Aspherical), Aspherical, ED (Extra-low Dispersion), and Super HR (Super High Refractive index) lens elements. The diaphragm is made up of 7 rounded elements to provide pleasing out-of-focus results.
There are no switches or control surfaces on the lens other than the focus ring - all lens functions are controlled by the camera. The focus ring is an interesting design element of the lens. The ring is metal with raised ribs, about a 1/2-inch wide. The ring can be pulled backward from its default configuration to enter a manual focusing mode, which exposes a distance scale in feet and meters; a distance scale is omnipresent, but isn't of much use unless you pull the focus ring back to display the distance scale. There is no infrared index.
The operation of the focus ring deserves a bit of explanation. In regular use, with the focusing ring covering the distance scale, the ring operates as PEN users are familiar with, moving the focusing element of the lens with a fly-by-wire system at a more or less constant speed, as well as activating the manual focusing mode of the camera and bringing up a magnified view on the LCD. When the focusing ring is pulled back, exposing the distance scale, the focusing speed is variable, dependent on how quickly the ring is turned. This emulates the feel of manual focusing, in that on a purely manual lens the lens will focus as fast as you turn the focusing ring. In addition, there's a little extra resistance when the ring is pulled back, offering a bit more fidelity to make small adjustments. Finally, in this mode the focusing limits are presented as hard stops - when you hit infinity focus or close-focus, the focusing ring will stop. This offers about ninety degrees of travel.
For a more detailed look on the lens' pairing with the Olympus E-P3 body, you may wish to read the Imaging Resource review.
As mentioned, the lens hood for the 12mm ƒ/2 is a fairly pricey add-on, and we didn't have one for testing. The LH-48 is a slick rectangular hood, which slips on and is attached with a setscrew. It doesn't appear to reverse onto the lens for storage.
Alternatives
With the micro four thirds mount still relatively new on the camera scene, at the time of writing there's little in the way of alternatives.
Panasonic 14mm ƒ/2.5 ASPH LUMIX G ~$350
While not offering as wide a field of view (28mm equivalent instead of 24mm), the Panasonic 14mm ƒ/2.5 is less than half the size, weight and price of the Olympus 12mm. However, its performance is almost equivalent - for sharpness, it's a hair softer in the corners wide open, but that's about it. However there is somewhat higher chromatic aberration and slightly more corner shading. Distortion appears the same. The only other difference is that the Olympus offers a slightly wider maximum aperture - ƒ/2, instead of ƒ/2.5.
Olympus 17mm ƒ/2.8 M.Zuiko Digital ~$300
If you don't need such wide angle performance, the Olympus 17mm offers a 35mm-equivalent field of view, and is just one stop slower than the 12mm ƒ/2. It's not in the same league as the 12mm however: it's not as sharp, and chromatic aberration is fairly high. However, it's much less expensive, weighs significantly less, and is much smaller.
Conclusion
There isn't much to add here that the tests don't already say for themselves - the Olympus 12mm ƒ/2 M.Zuiko offers excellent results for sharpness in a quality package. The price might be prohibitive for some, but if you can afford it, you won't be disappointed.
Product Photos
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Sample Photos
The VFA target should give you a good idea of sharpness in the center and corners, as well as some idea of the extent of barrel or pincushion distortion and chromatic aberration, while the Still Life subject may help in judging contrast and color. We shoot both images using the default JPEG settings and manual white balance of our test bodies, so the images should be quite consistent from lens to lens.
As appropriate, we shoot these with both full-frame and sub-frame bodies, at a range of focal lengths, and at both maximum aperture and ƒ/8. For the ''VFA'' target (the viewfinder accuracy target from Imaging Resource), we also provide sample crops from the center and upper-left corner of each shot, so you can quickly get a sense of relative sharpness, without having to download and inspect the full-res images. To avoid space limitations with the layout of our review pages, indexes to the test shots launch in separate windows.
Olympus 12mm f/2 ED M.Zuiko Digital
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Micro Four Thirds - Black
Olympus 12mm f/2 ED M.Zuiko Digital User Reviews
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https://desksnear.me/users/popovov
reviewed July 20th, 2024 -
- Very small - Excellent build quality - Nice colors- Rear element moves when cleaning - Not the sharpest 12mm option for mft - Some field curvature - Maybe some sample variation
I really enjoyed the form factor of this lens: so small and excellent build quality. Even if not weather sealed, I took it into the rain several times and never had any issue.
reviewed May 22nd, 2022
I did not kept it because I found it tricky to use. There was a kind of field curvature I didn't understand, or maybe my sample was decentered even if my decentering tests seemed okay.
My thought is it could be a great lens but not very useful if you already own a zoom, unless the size is the most important for you. I suspect some sample variation as it seems to be quite common with micro 4/3 lenses. If you find a good one, then it can be a great tool especially for low light photography on a stabilized body. -
Compact, Lightweight, Beautiful look and feel, Excellent build quality, Fast maximum aperture, Fast autofocus, Silent operation, Focus clutch, common 46mm filter size.
This Olympus 12mm was one of the first prime lenses I bought for my Micro Four Thirds camera several years ago. I still own it today. Its a beautifully made compact and lightweight wide angle lens that delivers great image quality. Everything about this lens just screams quality and its a joy to use.
reviewed December 1st, 2017 (purchased for $550)
To me, this lens embodies what the Micro Four Thirds system is all about; high quality compact cameras and lenses. The perfect balance between size, weight and image quality. There are faster wide angle lenses, but these lenses are much bigger, heavier and often very expensive. It can't be compared to a big zoom like the 12-40mm which serves a different purpose.
The 12mm f/2 has good sharpness and contrast, even wide open. Center sharpness is high, but heres a little softness at the edges wide open. Thats to be expected, most fast primes exhibit this behavior. This is not a problem for me, because if I need absolutely everything to be in sharp focus, I stop down anyway. Stopping down one or two stops results in a sharp image from corner to corner.
There is some chromatic aberration and vignetting , but that can be easily fixed in post processing. The color rendering of this lens is warm. Warmer than most Panasonic lenses. Color temperature can also be adjusted in post processing. Autofocus is silent, fast and deadly accurate.
There isnt much more I can say. If you want a fast wide angle prime lens and if you like it to be small, lightweight and beautifully made, this is it! -
Reasonably compact for a fast-ish lens of this focal length, great manual focus clutch mechanism.Feels like a metal clad plastic bodied lens, buy the Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 instead.
I liked the 12mm f/2 Olympus a lot when I got it along with my Olympus Pen E-P3 but no longer use it now that I have the Olympus 12-40mm lens.
reviewed March 19th, 2017
Image quality is good, flare resistance is very good for this focal length, distortion is low as is vignetting but I actually expected more from this lens. The standout is the clutch manual focus which despite being fly-by wire provides a great feel and the Olympus system is fantastic implementation of manual focus this type of lens.
I don't particularly like the build quality which initially seems impressive but the more you handle this lightweight lens, the more it feels like a gilded lily, a metal clad plastic lens body.
It is a pretty expensive lens for what you get and I would think paying a small bit extra for the 12-40mm is a no brainer unless you want this lens as a compact walkabout lens. You have to choose between recommend this lens or not - I would put it as "depends". -
Very good optics, excellent IQNone.
Some say they prefer the 12-40 at 12mm, but not me. I am in particular impressed by its near-Leica rendering (in B&W). The wide aperture is very useful for creative close-ups.
reviewed June 16th, 2015
Good behaviour at night; as a matter of fact it is my favourite for night cityscapes (on a par with the Zeiss 35/2 on full-format cameras).
Need I say more ? ah yes, only the 75/1.8 might be even better, but that's another FL... -
light/ sharp/ good built Qnone
I don't use it that often, but when I use it ... it keeps on impressing me !
reviewed December 25th, 2012 -
Fantastic build quality, super fast AF, snap focus ring, low distortionExpensive, no lens hood or pouch included. Kind of pointless wide aperture.
I'm a wide angle snob but I must say this lens does meet my expectations. Low distortion, and fantastic image quality out of this lens. One of my favourite shots out of this lens is this one:
reviewed September 30th, 2011 (purchased for $749)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kinematic/6174448530/in/photostream
Superb build quality and although I am a wide angle snob, this lens does perform really well in low distortion, great corner to corner sharpness, and excellent control over CA overall. It is an expensive lens for this category of camera, but it does put the Pen into a professional level with this and the 45mm F/1.8. I've already begun using this lens professionally in my work and very satisfied with the results.
My only beef is the lack of lens hood or pouch. For the price you pay for this lens, it should have definitely included the pouch.
I did mention the pointless wide aperture. One of the things that I was attracted to this lens was the wide aperture. It is beneficial in using it in low light photography, but if you were hoping to use this as an environmental portrait lens, the F/2 just doesn't really cut it. You need to get very close to the subject to really isolate the background much, and by that point, you may as well just give your subject a kiss while you're at it. However that said, it is still possible to get a nice background blur when you plan it out, for the most part, I wouldn't use it in this way much.
The snap focus is my favourite thing about this lens. I think Olympus needs to include this feature in all of its lens designs from this day forward. For street photography this makes it a joy to use, and zone focusing with this lens and the Pen is that much easier to do. -
Manual focus easy with stops at both endsHave to buy expensive shade
Light and comfortable, the 12mm Zuiko is a dream. Feels even better than old fashioned lenses. Sharp from lowest to highest aperture and smooth operation. Very high recommend.
reviewed September 6th, 2011 (purchased for $799) -
Best image
reviewed August 11th, 2011
Best detail
Execellent design
