Why do I prefer zoom lenses over primes on M43?

Last year I started buying used M43 gear again to complement my Fuji-X gear. I enjoyed M43 around 10 years ago and I missed my E-M1 12-40mm pro combo. I never found something like it in the Fuji lineup.

So far I collected some nice old Olympus cameras and added several lenses,. I'm starting to notice that for me personally the zoom lenses make the difference in this system.







-14-42 EZ as a great super compact combo with my silver E-M10 II.

-12-45mm f/4 PRO as a nice balanced higher quality setup with my black E-M10 II.

-12-40mm f/2.8 PRO as a larger, WR 'do it all' Swiss army knife combo with my E-M1 III.

My shooting style is travel, street and family. No landscape or wildlife.

I noticed lately that my Olympus prime lenses (17mm, 20mm, 25mm and 45mm) don't get a lot of use. All very nice lenses with fine image quality. But not as engaging to use like my Fuji's with prime lenses.

Probably because the less shallow DOF on the M43 sensor compared to the APS-C sensor of my Fuji's. The Olympus F/1.2 lenses are too big for my personal taste.

My personal conclusion is that I really enjoy M43 for daylight all purpose photography, but I still keep my Fuji's for the prime lens magic feeling.

Right now I'm considering selling my Olympus prime lenses, but I really would like to see some opinions about this. M43 is all about compactness and I personally see more advantages in the zoom lenses than with prime lenses.

I’m the same apart from a macro, a fisheye, the 300/4 and a few primes where size is the key factor - 10/2, 20/1.7 and 25/1.4. The 25/1.4 has enough subject isolation to meet my needs. Also the rendering on the Zuiko 50/2 and my copy of the PL 25/1.4 appeals to me. Otherwise it’s zooms.

With my FF gear, I have a lot of primes for some combination of small size, character, subject isolation and rendering, also a T-S and a macro. I have 10 primes and 4 zooms. As a landscape shooter, the zooms are still my core kit.

Andrew

Me, I use zooms and primes.

jeffharris said:

Me, I use zooms and primes.

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Me too. I don't see an either/or situation here, just the right tool for the job.

Zoom lenses are useful for framing an image when you are limited in taking the right position - which is often the case. I also prefer zooms in conditions where changing lenses is risky (rain/sand).

Primes are smaller and often faster and cheaper while offering good IQ.

Both have their strenghts, and depending on situation I use one or the other.

At the budget end 14-140mk1 picked up this may 25th, and 45/1.8 picked up this january 7th are my most utilised.

They could be my desert island lenses.

The answer is in your title itself: you prefer it. It isn't that zooms do the 'same thing' as primes, but they meet your needs.

smarter said:

-14-42 EZ as a great super compact combo with my silver E-M10 II.

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Agree. Same for the 12-32mm.

smarter said:

-12-45mm f/4 PRO as a nice balanced higher quality setup with my black E-M10 II.

-12-40mm f/2.8 PRO as a larger, WR 'do it all' Swiss army knife combo with my E-M1 III.

My shooting style is travel, street and family. No landscape or wildlife.

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Neither of these require shallow DOF that prime lenses can offer. On M43, shallow DOF is difficult to achieve at wider focal lengths which are appropriate for your preferred genre.

smarter said:

Probably because the less shallow DOF on the M43 sensor compared to the APS-C sensor of my Fuji's. The Olympus F/1.2 lenses are too big for my personal taste.

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Like I said it's more to do with what you shoot.

I shoot my pets a lot and find my Sigma 56mm f1.4 indispensable for it.

The subject separation and detail from that lens is sublime. Not a lens you'd use for indoor group shots or street or architecture.

The Panasonic 20mm or Olympus 20mm are excellent primes but at a cursory look, the results won't look all that different from what you can get with the 12-40mm at the long end.

smarter said:

My personal conclusion is that I really enjoy M43 for daylight all purpose photography, but I still keep my Fuji's for the prime lens magic feeling.

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Depends on the lens.

smarter said:

Right now I'm considering selling my Olympus prime lenses, but I really would like to see some opinions about this. M43 is all about compactness and I personally see more advantages in the zoom lenses than with prime lenses.

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It's all about compactness for you. Everyone has different needs and preferences.

But as far as compactness goes, it's hard to do any better than the Lumix 20mm or 14mm. Or Laowa 7.5mm or 10mm. All terrific lenses if you are able to adjust your composition to a specific focal length.

smarter said:

Last year I started buying used M43 gear again to complement my Fuji-X gear. I enjoyed M43 around 10 years ago and I missed my E-M1 12-40mm pro combo. I never found something like it in the Fuji lineup.

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Interesting. I'm guessing that means you're not at all attracted to Fuji's latest 16-50mm f2.8-4.8? Or Sigma's 18-50 f2.8?

If I were a Fuji user, since I'm a zoom-first, prime-second kind of guy, I'd probably have one or the other of those two. They seem to do a fairly similar job to the Oly 12-40mm f2.8 and Pana/Leica 12-35mm f2.8 lenses in m43.

My eyes are also drawn to Fuji's 18-120mm f4 (as someone who shoots quite a bit of video), 18-135mm f3.5-5.6 (as someone who really likes the Pana 14-140mm f3.5-5.6 in m43), or (cover your eyes and ears, gentle enthusiasts, you're going to wince at the following) perhaps even a Tamron 18-300mm f3.5-6.3 (those corners are terrible in the samples I've seen ... but I might try to grin and suffer through it anyway for that kind of range...).
I do like all my primes: PL 9mm f1.7, PL 15mm f1.7, Sigma 30mm f1.4, Pana 42.5mm f1.7. The PL's and P 42.5mm especially. But at the end of the day...

1. I'm not that image quality driven, nor that driven to achieve super shallow DoF most of the time. I'm a humble hobbyist, and most of what I shoot is garbage. If I had medium format, my work would just be garbage with more megapixels. And if I want that look, I can now more or less fake it thanks to AI.

2. I'm always running and gunning and can't always "zoom with my feet".

3. I'm outdoors constantly and lens swaps cost time, allow me to fumble and drop gear, get dust and grime into my bodies, and therefore they are the enemy. Zooms deliver speed and convenience, and that's my kind of value proposition for 90%+ of what I do.

For me, m43 delivers nicely pretty nicely in terms of lightweight (but slow-ish), versatile/flexible travel zooms. My two mains are P14-140mm f3.5-5.6 and PL 12-60mm f2.8-4. There are a lot of choices of zooms in other systems, but these two give me almost all of what I need for 95% of what I shoot (with the P12-35mm f2.8 filling in most of the remaining 5%).

[…]

smarter said:

Right now I'm considering selling my Olympus prime lenses, but I really would like to see some opinions about this. M43 is all about compactness and I personally see more advantages in the zoom lenses than with prime lenses.

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I don’t like the idea of doing general (city, street, people, landscape) photography with just one lens focal length at my disposal and If I was using primes I’d want one or two in my bag in addition to the one on my camera and (worse) I’d be changing lenses in the street. So for me the ‘light and compact’ concept would be lost with primes

I’d rather go out with one general purpose zoom on my camera and my choice was the O 12-100 f/4

jj

SeeingSomeThingsMissingMany said:

At the budget end 14-140mk1 picked up this may 25th, and 45/1.8 picked up this january 7th are my most utilised.

They could be my desert island lenses.

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You’re going to need solar charging, and a satellite internet connection for cloud storage plus a phone or PC to get the images out of your camera.

A good cleaning kit will also be needed to get the sand and salt off your gear.

I’d also be thinking about an extended warranty.

Oh, and a photographic assistant (of your preferred age and gender) a hardware and pharmaceutical supply, fishing gear, seeds and farming equipment and of course a water desalination plant . . . :-D

jj

I'll probably pick up the Pana 9 f1.7 (mountains and night time astro) and the Sigma 56 F1.4 (portraiture) to compliment my existing optics and fill out the system, but I have to concur I tend to shoot with my 12-40 f2.8 the most and when I go to primes I invariably hit my Takumars because I am looking for a particular image that modern glass doesn't really offer.

...

That said, I usually pop the 9mm BCL in the pack anyway, Likely still will even when I get the Pana 9 for the mountains, because of it's unique qualities. The Oly 45 f1.8 is a remarkable Art copy lens, and I use that at F4 for studio work to document my partners Artwork.

...

Every lens has it's character and use... Oly zooms are superb though.

jjbinx said:

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Member said:

Right now I'm considering selling my Olympus prime lenses, but I really would like to see some opinions about this. M43 is all about compactness and I personally see more advantages in the zoom lenses than with prime lenses.

Click to expand...

I don’t like the idea of doing general (city, street, people, landscape) photography with just one lens focal length at my disposal and If I was using primes I’d want one or two in my bag in addition to the one on my camera and (worse) I’d be changing lenses in the street. So for me the ‘light and compact’ concept would be lost with primes

I’d rather go out with one general purpose zoom on my camera and my choice was the O 12-100 f/4

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Going out with one prime can be fun. It’s really a great exercise to train your eye, too. I tend to take better shots with primes, because I’m forced to concentrate on composition more.


All my primes are manual (EGAD! ) but I have a few favorites that I’ll do that with.

jjbinx said:

SeeingSomeThingsMissingMany said:

At the budget end 14-140mk1 picked up this may 25th, and 45/1.8 picked up this january 7th are my most utilised.

They could be my desert island lenses.

Click to expand...

You’re going to need solar charging, and a satellite internet connection for cloud storage plus a phone or PC to get the images out of your camera.

A good cleaning kit will also be needed to get the sand and salt off your gear.

I’d also be thinking about an extended warranty.

Oh, and a photographic assistant (of your preferred age and gender) a hardware and pharmaceutical supply, fishing gear, seeds and farming equipment and of course a water desalination plant . . . :-D

jj

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Oh I wouldn't photograph with them.

A glamorous photographic assistant sure sounds nice.

--
Photography after all is interplay of light alongside perspective.

Back in the film days most zoom lenses were pretty poor and I only used prime. But when I switched to digital zoom lenses had improved greatly. Now my only prime lens is my 60mm macro, all the others are zoom and they produce better images than my old primes ever did. The versatility and quality of current zoom lenses means I'll never buy another prime lens.

Every system has its strengths, and what subjects you like shooting are going to affect the lenses you prefer with each.

I like the flexibility of zooms. For both my M43 and FF, I have mostly zooms, as I am usually doing a variety of shooting when I am out and about with the cameras, and zooms are more versatile for that. (If I did portrait work, I am sure I would have more primes, for both systems. But I don't, so I don't. )

One could argue that primes are actually more essential for M43, as faster max apertures are particularly useful in this format for enabling DOF flexibility...and, conversely, zooms would be more useful in FF, as even relatively slow ones will have shallow DOF ability, if desired. But, again, it entirely depends on what you are shooting with either system.

I do have primes for my macro work, for both systems; OM 30mm macro, and 90mm macro, and FF 100mm. Also I do have the M43 12mm f2.0, the 42.5 f1.7; the rest are zooms. And...I rarely use the primes (other than the macros), in M43, even though, theoretically, as I said above, they are a more versatile choice for DOF control.

For the FF, I have had the 45mm f2.8, 50mm f1.8, 85mm f1.8...and sold them all. None of them had a close enough minimum focus distance for how I prefer to shoot, and I don't do portraits, so none were really useful for me. Instead, I have the 100mm f2.8 macro lens, which does everything I need in a prime for that system, and is a focal length I like. I am going to be getting the 24-60mm f2.8 when it's available, as that will give me the zoom flexibility plus the DOF flexibility on the FF, for that system, and that will be my main in-town walk around lens for that system. In M43, my 12-35mm f2.8 is as close as I can get to that, and that's a great lens in the M43 realm, for me.

So, for you, your M43 is your small, walk-around camera for a variety of shooting situations. Zooms are perfect for that use. And, M43 has the advantage of having small and competent zooms...what's the worry? It's all good.

-J

on your M1-X? Thinking about one for my OM-5. Thanks for any advice.

Don Karner said:

on your M1-X? Thinking about one for my OM-5. Thanks for any advice.

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My Panny zooms work just fine on my EM1X. Oly applies all the in-lens firmware based corrections, and SOOC JPEGs look great (as do videos ... which look as good as they do when shot with Oly or 3rd party lenses). I use them all the time - I only have one Olympus lens, in fact (the 40-150 f2.8 Pro).

The main thing is to remember to turn off lens stabilization in favor of the EM1X's awesome IBIS. There's a menu option to do this automatically so you don't have to remember to slide any switches on the lens body (and some Panny stabilized lenses don't have a switch, so you need to menu dive): "Lens I.S. Priority" should be set to Off.

Now, worrywarts/wise-owls/warranty nannies will scold you not to trust the weather sealing when mixing and matching one OEM's body with another OEM's gear. You may feel free to heed them or disregard them and do your own thing, as you see fit, and at your own peril. Me? I choose to live slightly dangerously... Although I'll confess I'm not traveling with my EM1X these days as I take my twin G9s instead. So my EM1X is a bit of a homebody/garage queen/local outings only. It sees dusty trails but not a lot of wet stuff. That's all I've got for disclaimers.

Biggest bother IMO is if you have several zooms with zoom rings that work in opposite directions... In general, I'd recommend avoiding that as much as possible. Unless you like swearing.

I must admit I have I have been known to sometimes swear while making photos. ;-)

Perfect timing, since I was just turning my GAS toward those 1.2 PRO primes, so I've been thinking about this a bit. Specifically I'm thinking a benefit of a prime is it's simpler and easier to do one handed. It reduces options for framing, which can lead to faster and often better or more creative shots. Specifically I'm imagining this hybrid genre: family/street. Basically capturing daily life with the family, but also similar fast moving situations.

I've decided to stick with only m43 cameras for now. I don't need the image quality that FF offers, and I don't NEED super shallow DOF. But sometimes it would be nice to maximize what I can get with m43. That's where those 1.2 primes come in--specifically the 17mm and the 45mm.

In summary, what's compelling to me is firstly the simplicity of operation for a zoom (don't need two hands, more accessible for other family members to grab it and snap a shot), and secondly maximizing image quality/light gathering/background blur in fast-moving kids/family life situations. But I have the 1.8 primes and those are probably good enough.

I'm not big on primes, but they have their place,
I have the 300/4 (usually w MC-14) for birding
The 90 macro is my bug and flower lens
the 75/1.8 is just special, and I'll take that out sometimes for a walk around town at night.
the 17/1.8 doesn't get much use these days, but it got a lot of use for low light shooting w my original E-M5.

My main walkaround lens is the 12-200, but I'll sometimes take the 8-25 when I want a wider point of view.
These days the 14-150 is married to my old E-M5, tossed in the car for just in case, or comes w me into NYC when I want to travel light

I would like a longer zoom, but don't seem to be in a hurry to drop an extra 1-2K