Advice on possible zoom lens purchase

Notes, in terms of lens vs. body stablization all of the recent Olympus cameras have an option that you can control whether the Olympus body uses its sensor shift stabilization or uses the lens stabilization if the lens has it. Typically people feel that lens stabilization is better for telephoto lenses. If you turn to page 90 of the E-m10 mark I manual, it describes the option.

One thing to watch out for when using certain Panasonic lenses on certain Olympus bodies is it increases the chances for purple blobs and fringing. For more information go here:

• http://alanwatsonforster.org/writing/mft-purple.html

Another thing to think about is whether your wife uses the built-in flash. If you put a longer lens on the camera, the lens may cause a shadow in your image, as it blocks part of the light. Your wife may want to keep the 14-42mm lens just for those cases. It may be the lens doesn't block the flash.

There were two models of the Panasonic 14-140mm lens. If you are buying used, you want the second one (f/3.5-5.6 Power O.I.S.) and not the first one (f/4-5.8 Mega O.I.S.).

I use the 14-150mm mark II quite a bit. It is my second most heavily used micro 4/3rds lens at present (the 12-40mm is first). However, I'm probably not as picky as some people are towards image quality.

There are 3 Olympus 14-42mm lenses. The original 14-42mm lens that came with the E-P1, E-P2, and E-PL2 cameras. The 14-42mm II-R that came with later cameras, and the 14-42mm EZ lens which has electronic zoom. I know in some countries the 14-42mm EZ is the kit lens, and in other countries (like the USA) the 14-42mm II-R is the kit lens. I only used the 14-42mm EZ for a little while (it was on the AIR01 that I returned to the store), so I don't have a feel for which is better. But if you have a brick and mortar store that sells Olympus lenses, it might be worthwhile to try out the other lens to see if your wife likes that instead.

Other people mentioned the Olympus 12-50mm. I used that for some time on my E-m5 mark I and liked it. However, there are a group of people that have strong feelings against the lens (a lot of it is a slow lens, but compared to the 14-42mm, it is at most 1/3 stop slower at the long end, and you get more wide angle/telephoto thrown in).