The BEST Micro Four Thirds Zoom lens
This a little love letter to the Olympus 40-150mm f2.8. What a beaut! Here are my thoughts, a video review, and lots of photo examples for you to check out!
The Olympus 40-150mm f2.8 lens has everything you need for a fast, compact, super sharp zoom. I recently took this lens to Kenya (paired with the Lumix G9ii and OM System OM1) and here are my findings.
Olympus 40-150mm f2.8 for wildlife
The thing I value most about this lens is that it’s sharp wide open, pretty much at every focal length. If you’ve tried a number of zoom lenses, you might understand just how rare that is! I reliably shot wide open, even in tricky lighting conditions, and got sharp, beautiful results.
When you compare this 40-150mm to a full frame equivalent, the compact size of the Olympus lens is really very impressive. I didn’t mind carrying it all day on safari, and was more than a little bit smug when I saw others with behemoth lenses, rubbing at their shoulders all day. Plus, the Olympus lens is also full internal focusing, so it doesn’t get any larger the more zoomed in you are.
P.S. if you’d like to see a video version of this blog, you can see it here!
Rugged and Reliable
The Olympus 40-150mm f2.8 is weather sealed, meaning it isn’t just water resistant, but also dust resistant, which is essential in Kenya. I had no problems at all with this lens in that respect. I found that it balanced great on the larger micro four thirds bodies and was generally a treat to use.
One thing that I found quite annoying (and this might be personal preference!) is the manual clutch feature. This is great if you need quick access to manual focusing, but more often than not I found that I engaged it by accident when putting it away, and this led to more than a few moments of panic while I tried to figure out why nothing was working. Luckily, it soon became habit to double check the clutch, and it didn’t cost me any shots.
Perfect Focal Length — Olympus 40-150mm f2.8
Another benefit, especially for safari, is the 40-150mm focal length can also work great for some landscape shots or slightly wider wildlife shots. I really enjoyed adding my animals into the scene to show the scale of the landscape, for example. So this lens is great for more than just animal portriature.
Speaking of portraiture, even if wildlife isn’t your thing, the Olympus 40-150mm is one of the most pleasing lenses for people too. It would be ideal for gig photography and events, and standard portraits. If you’re like me, and you need a new purchase to tick a number of boxes before you can justify it, definitely keep that in mind.
Plenty sharp enough to crop
I think with wildlife, sometimes you can never be too close to the subject. Sometimes that 150mm long end might not cut it. I also took the delightful Lumix Leica 100-400mm mkii with me on this trip, which really helped when animals were further away, but with this Olympus 40-150mm, the lens is so blisteringly sharp, you can really get away with a lot of cropping in editing. Conversely the Lumix 100-400 is that little bit softer, but still usable.
I’m not one to pixel peep too often, but the Olympus 40-150mm really impressed me.
P.S. I edited all these photos with my “Radiating Beauty” and “Chasing Adventure” preset packs, which you can check out here. It really helps keep this blog and my YouTube channel going.
My one complaint with the Olympus 40-150mm f2.8…
This is probably more of an “Olympus” thing than a specific issue with this particular lens, but, MAN, do I wish this lens was stabilised! It’s a PRO labelled lens in the Olympus line-up, and you’d think for the price that it would be stabilised.
The Lumix equivalents — and basically all zoom and super-zooms in the Lumix line-up — are all stabilised. This means you can use them just fine on cheaper and smaller camera bodies that don’t have stabilisation, or you can sync up both body and lens stabilisation to create a buttery smooth shooting experience.
Thankfully, the camera stabilisation within the OM System OM1 was pretty decent, but still. It’s a premium lens. Come on!
Conclusion
Is the Olympus 40-150mm f2.8 for you?
Well, this is a versatile, sharp, stunning lens that really feels premium in your hand. It’s rugged, weather-sealed, and perfect for wildlife, portraits, and even photography.
The 150mm long end might not be enough if your needs are more niche — for instance, I’d much prefer a longer focal length for bird photography — but you would absolutely struggle to find anything else on the micro four thirds system that matches this brilliant lens.
Just beware if your camera body isn’t stabilised.
Alternatives:
Lumix Leica 35-100mm f2.8 — less zoom, but smaller, weather-sealed, and stabilised.
Lumix Leica 200mm f2.8 prime — much less versatile, but wowza, what an impressive piece of glass. Sometimes comes with a teleconverter too, which can make it more versatile.
Lumix Leica 100-400mm f4-5.6 — a little bit softer, much much more zoom for your money, stabilised, weather-sealed. delightful.
You can also check out the Used market here on MPB:-
MPB UK: https://geni.us/ST2V
MPB US: https://geni.us/STZ48b5
MPB EU: https://geni.us/dOkLk0z
