Lost in the wide lens jungle !

Hey everyone,

As the title probably implies, I'm looking for a new lens with a max of ~600€ in price. But I'm getting so lost in the possibilities, it's getting scary.

Right now, my go-to lens is the Oly 25 f1/8 which has followed me for the past 2 or 3 years, almost alone with the occasional addition of the Oly 40-150 and very rarely used 14-42 kit lens.

As I'm getting a bit more into video, I swapped my E-M10 for a G80/G85 a few month ago but now I feel REALLY locked in with my lonely 25mm.

I'd like to find a good friend for him though, the uses would be I think mostly landscapes/night photo along with, well, the usual shots you can expect with something wider or smaller than 25mm.

But I'm really wondering what would be the best bet, right now I'm looking at the :

• Olympus 12 - 40 PRO 2.8

• Olympus 12 f2 / Samyang 12 f2 (and basically a lot of prime lenses)

• Panasonic 7 - 14 f4

And a few more wide range lenses that look less interesting than those ones.

It would be awesome if you could give me a hand on this one ! Thanks !

For stationary objects, I find my 9-18 more than adequate for night photography as well as landscape.  I also have a 12-32 which is pretty good but not wide enough for landscape IMO.  I use filters, so both the 7-14 offerings won't do.

As for AF prime, I was eyeing the Oly 12/f2.0 but since I don't really need f2.0, my 9-18 or 12-32 is good enough.  For ultra-wide, I use my Samyang 7.5FE

Hope this helps.

A single fixed-focal-length lens is limiting. The 12-40 is the very best wide zoom lens you can get. You can later decide whether 12mm at the wide end is enough or not, and add an ultra-wide if needed. I find that no matter which lenses I take with me I end up taking pictures almost solely with the 12-40.

Solomai wrote:

Hey everyone,

As the title probably implies, I'm looking for a new lens with a max of ~600€ in price. But I'm getting so lost in the possibilities, it's getting scary.

Right now, my go-to lens is the Oly 25 f1/8 which has followed me for the past 2 or 3 years, almost alone with the occasional addition of the Oly 40-150 and very rarely used 14-42 kit lens.

As I'm getting a bit more into video, I swapped my E-M10 for a G80/G85 a few month ago but now I feel REALLY locked in with my lonely 25mm.

I'd like to find a good friend for him though, the uses would be I think mostly landscapes/night photo along with, well, the usual shots you can expect with something wider or smaller than 25mm.

But I'm really wondering what would be the best bet, right now I'm looking at the :

• Olympus 12 - 40 PRO 2.8

An excellent all-around zoom, main advantage compared to Lumix is the much-closer focusing, plus I really like the manual focus slip-ring.

• Olympus 12 f2 / Samyang 12 f2 (and basically a lot of prime lenses)

• Panasonic 7 - 14 f4

And a few more wide range lenses that look less interesting than those ones.

It would be awesome if you could give me a hand on this one ! Thanks !

However...IMO since you are looking for a companion towards the wide end for your 25mm friend, you should stretch (pun not intended) and seriously consider the PL 8-18mm.  This will give you much more interesting framing and perspective options than 12mm max wide.  The advantages of the 8-18mm vs the 7-14mm f/4 are that a) 18mm is close to a more “normal” viewing angle than 14mm when you need it (without having to change lenses), b) it takes standard round screw-in filters, and c) it is weather sealed, like your camera.

The 8-18mm is also on sale right now in the USA, not sure about where you are from though, so it might be just a bit more than the 12-40mm, if you can manage it.

Since you have the Panasonic body now, other choices - again, depending on pricing in your region, either the Leica 12-60 f/2.8-f/4 or the Lumix kit lens 12-60 f/3.5-5.6 would also be good choices.  On the other hand, the constant-aperture 12-40mm f/2.8 is certainly a fine lens.  These all give you a nice all-purpose wider to mild telephoto range at higher IQ than your old 14-42mm kit lens, and are weather-sealed, if that is of any consideration for you.

You would still have your 25mm f/1.8 for when you need the light gathering.

Paul De Bra wrote:

A single fixed-focal-length lens is limiting. The 12-40 is the very best wide zoom lens you can get. You can later decide whether 12mm at the wide end is enough or not, and add an ultra-wide if needed. I find that no matter which lenses I take with me I end up taking pictures almost solely with the 12-40.

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That's what I would do. I had a kit zoom type thing that I upgraded to the slower 9and cheaper) Panasonic 12-60mm, but I'd love to have that Oly 12-40mm. I'd much prefer the extra wide f-stop over the 20mm at the long end and even though my 12-60mm seems pretty sharp, I know that the 12-40mm is more so.

Primes are great, but a fast, sharp zoom in that medium range that goes down to 12mm for me would be perfect and a lens that I'd use more than anything else, as I do my 12-60mm. I feel like 12mm is plenty wide and though I'd love to play around with something even wider, I seriously doubt that I'd be shooting all that much at focal lengths lower than 12mm... A 12-40mm 2.8 is going to be super versatile... at least for most folks.

Solomai wrote:

As the title probably implies, I'm looking for a new lens with a max of ~600€ in price. But I'm getting so lost in the possibilities, it's getting scary.

Right now, my go-to lens is the Oly 25 f1/8 which has followed me for the past 2 or 3 years, almost alone with the occasional addition of the Oly 40-150 and very rarely used 14-42 kit lens.

As I'm getting a bit more into video, I swapped my E-M10 for a G80/G85 a few month ago but now I feel REALLY locked in with my lonely 25mm.

I'd like to find a good friend for him though, the uses would be I think mostly landscapes/night photo along with, well, the usual shots you can expect with something wider or smaller than 25mm.

But I'm really wondering what would be the best bet, right now I'm looking at the :

• Olympus 12-40mm f2.8

• Panasonic 7-14mm f4

You can't go wrong with either lens. I have both. @ the 600€ mark, look at used lenses.

The 12-40mm is more of an all-around lens.

The 7-14mm a bit more specialized and requires some practice learning to compose with such a wide field of view (114° @ 7mm). It was the first "extra" M4/3 lens I bought and remains one of my most used (mainly for business) and favorites.