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Advice on possible zoom lens purchase

Started Aug 1, 2017 | Discussions thread
Jackson Bart Regular Member • Posts: 232
12-40 is in a higher league, but do you really need it?

traveler_101 wrote:

I am looking for a lens for wife's birthday. I don't use zoom lenses with my E-P5 and am not that familiar with the options. She has a E-M10 and started with the kit zoom (14-42 R) which is no longer acceptable to her critical eye. She has been using the 40-150/4.0-5.6 which she likes, but it leaves her without a normal range lens.

I suppose the best solution would be the 12-40 PRO but it's a little too costly. I am in Norway right now so I have to deal with prices here. Anything mail ordered from abroad will be taxed at 25% in addition to other fees.

What about a 14-150 II? Is that an improvement on the 14-42 and as good as the 40-150 in their respective ranges?

If you can think of another solution please let me know.

I have several cheap zoom lenses (although not the 12-32 some have mentioned), and I recently acquired the 12-40 PRO, and I can attest that it's in a league above all of the cheaper zooms.

I think the 14-42 Olympus kit lens has acceptable sharpness for most purposes if you stop it down to the right aperture. I think it's in the same league as the other lesser zooms, so I don't think there's much benefit to buying another similar zoom.

Does it really matter if it's not that sharp? Henri Cartier-Bresson said that sharpness is a bourgeois concept.

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