I will be traveling to an environment where I will not have clean conditions to change lenses, or even wash my hands decently on a multi-day hike.
I am looking for a “travel zoom” for my micro 4/3 camera. I do not need anything wider than 14mm (28mm equiv). Similarly, while longer reach is always nice, in practice 60mm (120mm) is a good starting point. Still, if I can get more tele, that is nice too.
This lens is for daytime, I will be shooting between f/4 and f/6.3. No need for a “pro” f/2.8 lens or similar, I will be taking a 25mm f/1.7 prime for low light.
Similarly, weather sealing and image stabilization are nice, if I can get them in a small package, but not a must. Pricewise… should not be too expensive. I may get knocked around, stolen, etc.
Yes, I know that “travel zoom” is not a well-defined term. I am looking at the Panasonic 14-140mm and similar, but there are so many zooms out there. This is not for wildlife or bird photography, if the odd critter comes close enough, fine, otherwise I will not be chasing them.
For travel with kids with micro 4/3, I use LEICA DG 12-60/F2.8-4.0. It’s small, good image quality and long enough (120mm equiv). With travel, it is always a compromise.
I did a trip to Iceland with the kids in July and only used that lens.
My Oly 12-100/4 which is weather resistant and has terriffic image quality, seldom leaves my camera and suits most purposes on travels. Weighing 561 grams it’s not the lightest of zoom lenses, though.
The first two proposals are really good.
I own the oly 12-100: weather resistant, impressive double stabilization (with Olympus body), excellent image quality, quite expensive (mine bought second-hand). Some kind of superlative swiss knife but … expensive and heavy and bulky.
I also own the oly 14-150 II: weather resistant, body stabilization only, very decent IQ and … lighter and smaller.
As for the Pana 14-140, the quality seems OK (maybe even slightly better than the oly 14-150) … but be careful to choose a weather resistant version (only the latter, I think).
And a question: what’s your camera? Depending on the body, the Oly 12-100 could be … strange and above all unbalanced, and therefore uncomfortable.
According to your request I will say Oly 14-150 or Pana 14-140 : good iq and not too expensive -regarding risks (stolen, knocked and so on ).
I’ve never understood that thing about lenses being “unbalanced”. Any lens put in front of the camera will put weight to one side if one holds the camera body. More important though, if one support the camera and lens combo primarily by the left hand underneath the lens (left thumb to the left), one will anyhow hold the camera-lens combo close to its average weight point. (I use 12-100 on both EM1.3 and Em10.2, and have occasionally also tried it on an EP-7. Supporting the camera as above, I cannot feel any difference in “balance”.
By the way, I’ve also heard others say that the 14-150 ii performs better than the regard normally given it between Oly/OMS phtographers.
Someone mentioned one of these before, though I guess you could also just wear a regular strap in an unorthodox fashion so that the top plate of the camera is against your body.
There’s the Olympus f/4 constant 12-45mm pro, which probably doesn’t meet any of your needs other than weather sealing. For reference, MPB has one in U.K. for £340 and there’s cheaper ones (£230-270) here on ebay, fwiw.
EDIT: The Olympus 12-50mm is less than half the price, weather sealed, has kinda-macro abilities. Good enough sharpness, according to various opinions on web. There’s also the non-Leica Panasonic 12-60.
I do this when carrying the fuji 150-600 and it’s very comfy. Although instead of that strap I use the Black Rapid Cross Shot strap.
It’s a bit worrying having a single point of failure so I also attach a bonus link between the lens and the strap itself, so if the screw on the camera fails, it’s still attached to the lens
I prefer a universal zoom lens when photodocumenting while travelling. The first µ4/3 travel zoom was Olympus M.Zuiko 14-150 (after 14-52, 18-180 and Leica 14-140 for 4/3 cameras). Not sure if it was a lucky chance with the particular copy of the lens, but the optical quality was very good. Small and light lens, compared. When M.Zuiko 12-200 appeared it was an obvious choice (I like to make sweeping wide angle images and 14 to 12 mm makes a big difference). Bigger and heavier, OK image quality, but the problem was that it kept on vacuuming-in, while zooming in/out, dust particles, which settled on the back surface of the front element. These would show up when at small apertures. I thought it was a bad copy, but the same happened with the repacement one. It is not hard to clean, the front element is held by three screws and the dust can be cleaned. It however reappears quickly. Seems like a design fault. Next is the M.Zuiko 12-100. Quite heavy for travel, especially in combination with OM-1. Switching to OM-5 makes it bearable. Image quality is impecable though. With today’s technology 12-100 can be made smaller an lighter, however there doesn’t seem to be much happening at Olympus/OMDS anymore, sadly…
Except for starting at 12mm instead of 14mm and the price, the oly 14-150 II seems to me a better choice than the 12-50 for travel.
It is not bulkier and image quality is pretty equivalent (12-50 is my first oly lens)
But with a panasonic Gx9, a better choice will be the latest version of Panasonic 14-140 ( H-FSA14140 ) : weather sealed and dual-is on Gx9
I had a chance to try the Panasonic 14-140, and decided not to buy it. Mainly because my cheap Panasonic 35-100 f/4-5.6 gives me much better image quality in a smaller package, and I can live without that extra 40% zoom for now. I will just risk changing lenses if necessary.
