I used my 14-42 EZ for about 6 months, a used copy that came with my E-P7. IQ wasn't bad, just nothing inspiring but that is to be expected for its price. Slow aperture didn't bother me much as I also have fast primes, but I found myself using my primes 90% of the time over the EZ.
The electronic zoom feels alright, plenty responsive with the zoom speed setting set to high. It's not as fast as manual zooms obviously, but still fast enough nonetheless for most circumstances.
The greatest attribute of the EZ is just how small it is when retracted, coming to about 2 body caps in terms of thickness. Mounted on a small body like the GM1 or E-P7 and it becomes almost pocketable, a PnS camera that can change lenses if you will. The auto lens cap (JJC copies are cheap but work just fine) adds a lot to its convenience factor.
I do have one major gripe against the EZ however, the internal ribbon cable is fragile and prone to breaking. I mentioned I used my EZ for 6 months, because on my 6th month of ownership my EZ had its cable broken while I was out on a photowalk. Other folks reported successful self-repair efforts after ordering the cable part on eBay, but I never bothered and the EZ sat on my shelf ever since. This isn't to say the EZ in general only lasts for 6 months, but keep in mind the possible wear and tear on the ribbon cable if you are shopping for a used copy.
It's not a bad lens at all for how cheap it can be found on the used market (I can still find used copies for ~100USD). I comfort myself by treating the EZ not as a regular long-lasting lens but rather as a consumable item. If it breaks, it's easy enough to find another copy for cheap.
Don't know for sure - as none of the four I've had (3 kept, one passed to a chum) have ever come apart - but presumably there's a ribbon cable in the little 12-32... and in almost every other lens that expands by more than the slightest amount?
Perhaps faulty or particularly frail components are to blame, or just the use their owners have made of them, but reports of issues with the various Oly 14-42s and their MFT 9-18 zoom do seem to appear more frequently than any others I can immediately think of?
Offhand, I can recall only one such failure among my own gear - which very sadly killed off the tip-up EVF on my 2004 favourite, the Konica Minolta A2 !
Peter
I suspect high ownership rates of the the Oly 14-42mm EZ may have contributed to its rather high reported failure rates. The EZ as a kit lens came bundled with multiple PEN models, as well as the E-M10.3 and E-M10.4. Used copies are everywhere and could be picked up for cheap. Can't be sure if it's an inherent build quality issue, or if it's simply due to a larger sample size.
That being said, the EZ is cheap and plentiful enough for me to treat it as an expensive lens cap that can also take photos.
Adding an inexpensive automatic opening lens cap from JJC makes it convenient to use and you can’t lose it like a standard lens cap.
With so little need for filters these days, those auto-caps are a great accessory!
Your post nudged me into looking back - and the Oly version I bought in August 2019 has gone DOWN in price, but by only a very few pence - to some £34. Here that's available in silver or black.
Soon afterwards, I went on to buy the JJC cap for the 14-42 EZ (for roughly half as much as the one above), after reading that it worked on the 12-32 Lumix BETTER than the one they offered specifically for that zoom - but couldn't put up with the wide-end vignetting it caused.
Here in the UK, Amazon seem to only have stock of the black JJC at about £17 - but possibly the silver one can be had from China via ebay (that's what I had to do recently, for a silver "proper" version of the three petal one that JJC offer for the 12-32).
TBH, both are good on the 14 42 EZ- speeding the startup, and doing away with free-floating lens caps!
Peter
