What lenses do we need?

amtberg wrote:

northcoastgreg wrote:

oeoek wrote:

I can't speak for 'we' but just for me, and as far as I'm concerned M43 already has a pretty complete lens line up. Unless one is into some rather specialised field of photography, the available gear will do well (ok, not for small bats at nightfall, frame filling please...). If you can't pick a good set now, it is not the tools that are the problem.

There may be a lot of m43 lenses available, but there's also a huge amounts of duplicates. Scores of compact consumer grade zooms, and soon there will be two sets of pro quality zooms covering wide angle, standard, and tele. But no mid-level/prosumer zooms. Just about every other brand has them. Nikon has there 24-120 for FF and the 16-85 for APS-C. Canon has a 24-105 for FF and a 15-85 for APS-C. Most of the serious photographers I know who shoot Canon and Nikon own at least one of those four lenses. They hardly constitute specialized lenses but form the very heart and core of their respective system, particularly for the serious hobbyist or semi-pro. Even smaller brands have them. Sony has a 16-70 f4. Fuji has the 18-55 f2.8-4. Pentax has a 16-45 f4 and a 17-70 f4. Yet m43, despite being graced by two companies, has absolutely nothing! And there's even less excuse for m43, because these mid-range zooms would be smaller than the pro f2.8 stuff and therefore more in line with basic philosophy behind the m43 system. Right now, if you want to shoot m43 with a compact zoom lens, you're going to have to settle for consumer grade optics. Why does this have to be the case? Is it too much to ask for a professional quality compact zoom lens? Doesn't that make at least a little sense?

This is nonsense. MFT has not one but two fast, high-quality normal zooms: the Panasonic 12-35/2.8 and the Olympus 12-40/2.8.

Yes, the two high-quality normal f2.8 zooms are great to have available.  I own the Olympus 12-40/f2.8 and love it.  Still there is a gap between the $200 kit lens and the $900+ f2.8 lenses that should be filled for people that don't want a large, expensive pro-level normal zoom.  Like I stated before a three lens mid-level weather-sealed series would be a great option.  Something like a 8-16/f4.0 that will take filters, a 14-60/f4.0 and a 50-200/f4.0.  All weather-sealed and excellent image quality, just a little less expensive, a little smaller and slower at f4.0.  All alternatives to the pro-level 7-14/f2.8, 12-40/f2.8 and the 40-150/f2.8 series.

Dave