I'm new to 4/3 cameras. I find Olympus lens names confusing.

What difference between Zuiko vs M.Zuiko?

What is difference/quality/purpose of:

M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 II R

vs

M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 II

vs

ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 14-42mm F3.5-5.6

Did I omit any Olympus 14-42 choices?

I want the best lens for my camera. My priority is still photos, though I would like to record video too. Which of those lenses would be best for my M5 Mark II camera?

Are they any Panasonic lenses I should also consider?

Your EM-5 MkII is M4/3 format. Small sensor and body. M.Zuiko lenses are M4/3, Zuiko lenses are the older, larger, FF format.

Gary from Seattle said:

Your EM-5 MkII is M4/3 format. Small sensor and body. M.Zuiko lenses are M4/3, Zuiko lenses are the older, larger, FF format.

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Sensor size is the same. The difference is in the distance from the sensor to the lens. The older Olympus DSLR's required space for the mirror. The new mirrorless are shallower.

To use a 4/3 lens in a M4/3 body, you need an adapter(spacer). The FL remains the same.

Additionally, Olympus has the m4/3rd Pro series.

Some examples:

Olympus M.ZUIKO Digital ED 7-14mm f/2.8 PRO

Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 300mm f/4 IS PRO

In addition to what others have already mentioned, I'll add that the "M4/3" designation (for micro 4/3) is often written with a lower case letter, i.e., m4/3. No difference in meaning, and I don't recall which of these is considered correct by the 4/3 consortium.

Phil

--
http://pirose.zenfolio.com

As to what the "R" stands for, opinions differ.

Cheers,

Rick

Charley123 said:

M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 II R

M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 II

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These two are very similar, the R is a minor upgrade (mostly cosmetic). There are also a couple of converters that you can put in front of the R version for wide-angle, fisheye and macro photography. I owned these for a while until I replaced them with dedicated lenses.

Charley123 said:

I want the best lens for my camera. My priority is still photos, though I would like to record video too. Which of those lenses would be best for my M5 Mark II camera?

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If you want the best "normal zoom" (which is what this zoom range is called) lens for your camera and mean "the best possible image quality", get the 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO. It's quite a bit more expensive though, and larger and heavier. The main difference in terms of image quality is the brighter and constant maximal aperture, giving you more control over depth of field and lower ISO / faster exposure times in low light. It's also a bit sharper (as in, one of the sharpest lenses for the system).

But the "best" lens for you might well be a cheaper and lighter version. Priorities differ, and that's why there are so many different lenses.

--
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/glodjib/
Ello: https://ello.co/haslo

Lots of other answers about lens names. The best lens for your camera is undoubtedly the M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro. It costs more than the kit lenses you mention in your post because it is a top quality lens. I'm afraid it's a bit heavier too.

If you want lenses with different focal lengths, then the other Pro lenses are good too, including the MC14, if you want to extend the range of the 40-150.

Andrew

Arguably the Panasonic 42.5mm f1.2 OIS Nocticron is the best M4/3 lens available.

But a lot would depend on taste as there are quite a few Panasonic lenses of excellent quality. Those lenses that need it have OIS built in. Dual (camera body + lens) image stabilising support seems to be the "new black" of stabilisation fashion and only the very recent 300/4 has image stabilising in the lens as well. However most, if not all, Olympus users will agree that in-lens stabilisation is not (and never will be) necessary on Olympus bodies. But it seems that Olympus has thought differently - at least for the 300mm focal length.

I am not steeped in Olympus lens lore but companies such as Canon simply add a red ring on the barrel and add a "L" to its designation to signify their best lenses. Sigma uses "EX", other companies use coloured barrel rings quite enthusiastically.

I'm going to repeat some previous answers, for obsessiveness:

-lenses called "Zuiko" are for the earlier Four-Thirds ("FT") lens mount, and "m.Zuiko" are for the current micro-Four-Thirds ("mFT") mount. (And adapters are available to use FT lenses on mFT mounts, but it gets more complicated than that because of different focussing algorithms ...)

This guy in an old DPReview thread says that the "R" stands for a "ring" which covers over the bayonet mount for cosmetic purposes.

Charles

Gary from Seattle said:

Your EM-5 MkII is M4/3 format. Small sensor and body. M.Zuiko lenses are M4/3, Zuiko lenses are the older, larger, FF format.

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• M4/3 is the current mount
• 4/3" (or only 4/3) is the sensor/format
• 4/3 is a legacy mount
• Zuiko is legacy 35mm SLR lenses (for OM film cameras)
• Zuiko DIGITAL is legacy 4/3 mount lenses (for Olympus DSLR)
• M.Zuiko DIGITAL is current m4/3 mount lenses (for m4/3 cameras)

So we need to be careful as 4/3 is same as mount and format (sensor), while m4/3 is only the mount (but still same sensor/format).

We can mix 4/3 lenses and m4/3 lenses on m4/3 mount. But we can't do it otherway for 4/3 mount. And both mounts use same 4/3 format/sensor.

Tom Caldwell said:

Arguably the Panasonic 42.5mm f1.2 OIS Nocticron is the best M4/3 lens available.

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Best and best based on what?

If going for purely sharpness, then Voigtländer 25mm and 42.5mm wins it.

If going for purely faster, then again Voigtländer 25mm and 42.5mm wins it (and so do other 17.5mm and 10.5mm)

But combine those two parametrics and Panasonic wins as you need to stop down those Voigtländers to around f/2.8 to get them to peak at their sharpness, while Panasonic wide open will beat them.

Panasonic wins for autofocus.

Voigtländers wins for manual focus.

Voigtländers likely wins for Bokeh (opinion of taste)

And with Olympus bodies Voigtländer wins in stabilization even the dual-IS system, or totally loses when used on panasonic bodies.

Logically Voigtländers loses because no digital information given!

If I want to get a best portrait lens, I get voigtländer 25mm or 42.5mm. As sharpness is not the most critical feature in that, I get to use lens wide open for lower light situation to open up some possibilities, I get nicer bokeh and even narrower DOF for further distance shooting. And MF is not a problem today with a peaking and magnification, but does limit radically in fast situations, but then again trained eye and hand coordination can nail focus very quickly, thanks to narrow DOF.

So sure, it is arguably best lens

Charley123 said:

What difference between Zuiko vs M.Zuiko?

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As explained, Zuiko is for the old outdated Four Thirds DSLR cameras like the E-1, E-300, E-620 and a bunch of others. Adapters exist to use the Zuiko lenses on M4/3 bodies.

M.Zuiko is what interests us now as they are designed for the Micro Four Thirds camera and fit both Olympus and Panasonic (and other) bodies designed for that M4/3 mount.

The official list of M4/3 lenses .... http://www.four-thirds.org/en/microft/lense.html

A useful M4/3 lens list http://hazeghi.org/mft-lenses.html

Another excellent list is at http://hennigarts.com/micro-four-thirds-lenses.html

Charley123 said:

What is difference/quality/purpose of:

M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 II R

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"R" seems to mean "revised" and appears to be cosmetic changes only so is the same optically as.......

Charley123 said:

M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 II

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If a lens has "II" or Mark 2 to its name then that generally means some optical change is made.

Charley123 said:

ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 14-42mm F3.5-5.6

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Now that is the old DSLR lens and needs an adapter, don't bother with it.

Charley123 said:

Did I omit any Olympus 14-42 choices?

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See the lens lists that I linked above, plus of course more links (mostly Olympus) on my messy links page at http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~parsog/olyepl1/03-epl1-links.html

Charley123 said:

I want the best lens for my camera.

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Get the expensive, heavy and large 12-40/2.8 lens. I did, now happy as a pig in brown stuff. The alternative is the slightly smaller and lighter 12-35/2.8 from Panasonic.

In my case the 12-40/2.8 lens made my lust for prime lenses totally evaporate and made life simpler and cheaper.

Naturally you will get caught out with the 12-40/2.8 AF/MF lens clutch, so get used to that "fault" early on if you go with it.

Charley123 said:

My priority is still photos, though I would like to record video too. Which of those lenses would be best for my M5 Mark II camera?

Are they any Panasonic lenses I should also consider?

Click to expand...

All Panasonic can be considered as they all work OK and the zooms and a prime or two have OIS (lens stabilisation), while generally not as good as the 5 axis stabilisation in the E-M5ii body but with extreme tele the OIS seems to be more useful than the IBIS (in body stabilisation).

Regards..... Guy

Guy Parsons said:

...old outdated...

M.Zuiko is what interests us now ...

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Speak for yourself!

--
Thoughts, Musings, Ideas and Images from South Gippsland
http://australianimage.com.au/wordpress/

ctlow said:

I'm going to repeat some previous answers, for obsessiveness:

-lenses called "Zuiko" are for the earlier Four-Thirds ("FT") lens mount, and "m.Zuiko" are for the current micro-Four-Thirds ("mFT") mount. (And adapters are available to use FT lenses on mFT mounts, but it gets more complicated than that because of different focussing algorithms ...)

Click to expand...

Lens called "Zuiko" are for legacy SLR film cameras.

Lens called "Zuiko Digital" are for 4/3, FT, Four-Thirds etc mounts.

Lens called "M.Zuiko Digital" are for m4/3, MFT, Micro-Four-Thirds etc mounts.

ctlow said:

This guy in an old DPReview thread says that the "R" stands for a "ring" which covers over the bayonet mount for cosmetic purposes.

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And Olympus used to say back in the day R standed for "Re-designed".

Sure the "Ring" sounds interesting but many lenses didn't come or get any cosmetic covers like 40-150mm f/4-5.6 R doesn't have one.

And the same 40-150mm 4/3 lens has almost same design.













As you can see, only the last one is marked as "R". And likely it is the one that has optical re-design or focus system re-design made to it (like added MSC).

Guy Parsons said:

Naturally you will get caught out with the 12-40/2.8 AF/MF lens clutch, so get used to that "fault" early on if you go with it.

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Hey, I find that one to be actually useful :-D

OzRay said:

Guy Parsons said:

...old outdated...

M.Zuiko is what interests us now ...

Click to expand...

Speak for yourself!

Click to expand...

We were using "us" in the real sense of the royalty that is us.

Anyway, for a beginner to M4/3 let them delight in the wonders of genuine M4/3 fit lenses before wandering off track. With the E-M1 then maybe the old Zuiko lenses sometimes make sense, not so much for any other Pen or OM-D due to the generally terribly slow AF and the larger size of the lenses plus adapter.

Maybe use them if you have them already, but do not go seeking them seems to be good advice. I, sorry, I mean we, have a bunch of 4/3 lenses at home but not used for years now, the "proper" M4/3 lenses are just so much nicer to use.

Regards........ Guy

haslo said:

Guy Parsons said:

Naturally you will get caught out with the 12-40/2.8 AF/MF lens clutch, so get used to that "fault" early on if you go with it.

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Hey, I find that one to be actually useful :-D

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So do I, that AF/MF ring is extremely useful, needs to be on all lenses.

But maybe one time in 10 when I pull the camera out of the bag it will not AF, darn, the ring got bumped again. In the beginning it caused maybe 30 seconds of confusion, now down to only 1 or 2 seconds of confusion before I slip the ring back to AF.

Regards....... Guy

Guy Parsons said:

OzRay said:

Guy Parsons said:

...old outdated...

M.Zuiko is what interests us now ...

Click to expand...

Speak for yourself!

Click to expand...

We were using "us" in the real sense of the royalty that is us.

Anyway, for a beginner to M4/3 let them delight in the wonders of genuine M4/3 fit lenses before wandering off track. With the E-M1 then maybe the old Zuiko lenses sometimes make sense, not so much for any other Pen or OM-D due to the generally terribly slow AF and the larger size of the lenses plus adapter.

Maybe use them if you have them already, but do not go seeking them seems to be good advice. I, sorry, I mean we, have a bunch of 4/3 lenses at home but not used for years now, the "proper" M4/3 lenses are just so much nicer to use.

Regards........ Guy

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Always wanting shiny new things. :-D

OzRay said:

Always wanting shiny new things. :-D

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Yes, but shiny and new and small and light and functional.

The whole point of M4/3 is to keep things a bit lighter and more compact. If I wanted size and weight I would have stuck with Nikon and kept using some of my bunch of lenses from film days.

As it is I have an E-P5 and usually 4 lenses from 7.5mm to 300mm in a small bag that I can carry all day with no pain. Suits me.

Heck, off the the city today and to be even smaller and lighter I am taking just the Panasonic LX3 (shiny but old now) in a belt pouch. I use whatever works for me on the occasion.

Regards......... Guy