Olympus 14-150II: a great travel lens

Robert Deutsch wrote:

Mark Rosen wrote:

I have the 14-150 I, which is apparently the same lens, sans weather sealing.

I've read that, too, but this does not agree with the specifications given by Olympus on the getolympus.com web site.

The specs provided by Olympus are:

14-150 (I): 13 elements, 10 groups; closest focus .9m

14-150II: 15 elements, 11 groups; closes focus .5m; ZERO coating of lens elements

So it seems the lenses are NOT the same.

In any case, the lens I have is not soft. I compared it with the Pana 14-42PZ and Pana 45-175, and was prepared to return the 14-150II if it did not match these lenses in IQ, but I found that it was as good or better throughout the range, except at 150, where it was still Ok, and improved somewhat at 140. At 45mm (45-175) and 42mm (14-42PZ) it was actually sharper than these lenses. This part of the focal length range is important to me, so I repeated the test, and again found the 14-150 II to be superior. Maybe I have an ubusually good sample...

Bob

i believe the info from GetOlympus.com is incorrect  I dug out the manual for my old 14-150; it says 15 elements in 11 groups. The Four-Thirds.org site also says 15 elements in 11 groups, too, by the way.

The GetOlympus info for the original 14-150 instead matches that of the 40-150 f/4-5.6 (I also dug that manual out):

Sorry for the bad photos; I took the, with my iPad as I was writing this, but I think they get the point across.

so I think the lens construction of the new and old 14-150’s is the same, but that doesn't team they are the same optically, since the Mark II has Olympus' ZERO coatings. Coatings matter a great deal, after all, so it wouldn't surprise me if the Mark II performed better. Just increasing contrast and reducing flare and ghosting (which the ZERO coating promises to do) would result in a sharper end result.