Olympus 12-200mm non-smooth zooming

[zotynimon]

I have a question for 12-200mm owners. I bought a new one last year and the zoom of mine is not smooth. When zooming from 12 to 200mm there is like a bump in the movement and there is more resistance:

~24mm to ~28mm

~120mm to ~150mm

And when zooming from 200mm to 12mm:

~130mm all the way to ~24mm

Is this true of all copies or only mine?

It sort of feels like the splash resistant seals or something are sticking/binding a bit.

I hate this aspect of the lens. It is the binding when zooming from 200mm to 12mm that is especially annoying for me. I have several other Olympus non-pro zooms and they zoom smoothly all the way through the range, including my 14-150mm. I have a couple of Panasonic non-pro zooms and they all zoom smoothly also.

Please share how about your 12-200mm zoom action. Thank you.

 

[Skeeterbytes]

Don't own the lens but will guess with the huge range, there is more than one zoom group, operated via cams that engage in just part of the range. Could be normal. Can you view the elements in motion while you zoom?

Hopefully other owners can chime in.

Rick

 

[Art_P]

Never noticed in regular use, but just tried mine and there is a bit of resistance around 150mm on zooming out, don't notice any zooming from 200 to 12.

 

[zotynimon]

Never noticed in regular use, but just tried mine and there is a bit of resistance around 150mm on zooming out, don't notice any zooming from 200 to 12.

Thank you for your reply.

From your report and another person in a different thread it is clear mine is particularly bad. :-(

Over the years I have owned 35mm SLR zooms from various companies, APS-C DSLR zooms from various companies, and APS-C mirrorless zooms and all were smooth. I do recall one Tamron 28-200mm zoom I had back in the 1990s that did have one similar small bump like this lens does when zooming in the 12mm to 200mm, but it was not particularly troublesome (as this one isn't zooming in that direction). That 1990s zoom though didn't have the bigger issue that this one does throughout much of the range zooming in the other direction from 200mm to 12mm.

I could try to buy a different copy, but I am not near a place where I could check the new one out before buying it so I would have to order online. That is why I was wondering if this is the normal behavior for this lens or if I just got a particularly bad one.

 

[Jeff Wahaus]

I've owned one and yes there is a secondary group of elements that gets moved at high magnification and you feel it when you're zooming.

 

[zotynimon]

I've owned one and yes there is a secondary group of elements that gets moved at high magnification and you feel it when you're zooming.

From all the replies it appears my copy is really bad. Everyone else seems to have one with just a small bump or stiffness in a small area. Mine is a lot worse than anyone here has described.

 

[pietroroman]

I have a question for 12-200mm owners. I bought a new one last year and the zoom of mine is not smooth. When zooming from 12 to 200mm there is like a bump in the movement and there is more resistance:

~24mm to ~28mm

~120mm to ~150mm

And when zooming from 200mm to 12mm:

~130mm all the way to ~24mm

Is this true of all copies or only mine?

It sort of feels like the splash resistant seals or something are sticking/binding a bit.

I hate this aspect of the lens. It is the binding when zooming from 200mm to 12mm that is especially annoying for me. I have several other Olympus non-pro zooms and they zoom smoothly all the way through the range, including my 14-150mm. I have a couple of Panasonic non-pro zooms and they all zoom smoothly also.

Please share how about your 12-200mm zoom action. Thank you.

that's was my experience too with a copy of this lens I owned in the past. Not smooth at all -

 

[Sarunas Burdulis]

I don't have the 12–200 anymore, but I don't remember zooming motion having any issues. Maybe it felt a bit “dry.”

One issue with this lens was that, while zooming, it was sucking in some particles, which would settle between the very front and the next element. Had to remove the front element (3 screws) to clear them out.

 

[zotynimon]

I have a question for 12-200mm owners. I bought a new one last year and the zoom of mine is not smooth. When zooming from 12 to 200mm there is like a bump in the movement and there is more resistance:

~24mm to ~28mm

~120mm to ~150mm

And when zooming from 200mm to 12mm:

~130mm all the way to ~24mm

Is this true of all copies or only mine?

It sort of feels like the splash resistant seals or something are sticking/binding a bit.

I hate this aspect of the lens. It is the binding when zooming from 200mm to 12mm that is especially annoying for me. I have several other Olympus non-pro zooms and they zoom smoothly all the way through the range, including my 14-150mm. I have a couple of Panasonic non-pro zooms and they all zoom smoothly also.

Please share how about your 12-200mm zoom action. Thank you.

that's was my experience too with a copy of this lens I owned in the past. Not smooth at all -

It seems both of us got particularly bad ones. Other people here report much better ones.

I could buy a different copy, but I am not near a place where I could check the new one out before buying it so I would have to order online. That is why I was wondering if this is the normal behavior for this lens or if I just got a particularly bad one.

 

[zotynimon]

I have a question for 12-200mm owners. I bought a new one last year and the zoom of mine is not smooth. When zooming from 12 to 200mm there is like a bump in the movement and there is more resistance:

~24mm to ~28mm

~120mm to ~150mm

And when zooming from 200mm to 12mm:

~130mm all the way to ~24mm

Is this true of all copies or only mine?

It sort of feels like the splash resistant seals or something are sticking/binding a bit.

I hate this aspect of the lens. It is the binding when zooming from 200mm to 12mm that is especially annoying for me. I have several other Olympus non-pro zooms and they zoom smoothly all the way through the range, including my 14-150mm. I have a couple of Panasonic non-pro zooms and they all zoom smoothly also.

Please share how about your 12-200mm zoom action. Thank you.

I was in a bigger city for a few days and I stopped at a shop that had a new OM System 12-200mm. I was able to handle it and it looked the same as my Olympus version.

Unfortunately, the one at the shop had an even worse zoom action than my copy. From 12mm to 200mm it was slightly better with less of a feeling of a small bind like mine, but from 200mm to 12mm the longer range from 190mm to 20mm had a worse binding feeling than mine (which is from 130mm to 24mm).

Clearly there is tremendous copy variation for this lens. I would definitely never buy one without first handling it. That is unlike all my dozen or so other Olympus and Panasonic lenses which are all fine.

And, of course, we all know that even if I found one that had a better zoom action I might discover later that optically it was worse than my current copy. My 12-200mm is better optically than I expected when I bought it. For the types of photos I take when I use this lens I have been satisfied.

I guess for now it is better to stick with the devil I know.

 

[ttbirds]

With my copy, decent zooming action from 12mm to about 120mm. Then you reach a resistance bump after which it quickly goes to 200mm.