harleybill13

I own an Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark III, and am looking at the 14-150 lenses from Olympus and Tamron. Anyone have any experience with these? Debating which one to buy.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Hopefully, I won't be castigated for not answering your question

I have version II of that camera, but I also have a Panasonic G7. The lens I use on the Panasonic is the Lumix G Vario 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH. POWER O.I.S.

I don't know the comparison in size to the two you're asking about, but my lens is about 1/2 the circumference and 1/3 the length of my previous similar zoom, Canon EF-S 18-135.

#1 is heavily cropped:

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FvS Loc: Netherlands

Hi Bill, my wife is photographing with the Olympus E-M10 II and the 14-150mm 1:4-5.6 II ED MSC , the quality is amazingly good , I have the PRO lenses from Olympus I can see the difference when we go shooting together but I must say that that lens is performing really good...
I included a shot she made with that lens last week and She shot it through the double glass of the sliding door towards the garden....
Have a look here for the review:
https://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/olympus_m_zuiko_digital_ed_14_150mm_f_4_56_ii_review

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bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

I use that lens too Linda. Of the three M43 10x "superzooms", the Panasonic has stabilization in the lens and is priced higher. If the stabilization works with an Olympus camera, it might be worthwhile. But, I don't know if it does.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

According to this article, stabilization will work and there's a setting in the Oly to apply. I have experience going the other way with an Oly lens (70-300 mm) on the Panny body, and there is no stabilization.

Great point to bring up. I've also pm'd burkphoto asking him to comment in this thread.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

Unless you need the weather sealing of the Olympus lens, the Tamron saves $100. And, the Tamron is a little faster.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

This is from The Complete Micro 4/3 Lens List:


1. Manual lenses: Samyang, SLR Magic, Tokina and Voigtlander lenses do not have any electronics and so do not communicate with the camera. As a result, they don't support autofocus, the aperture must be set on the lens, and the camera will not record any information about the lens in the EXIF tags.

2. Software correction: All Olympus and Panasonic m4/3 lenses are automatically corrected for distortion on all micro 4/3 camera bodies. Lateral chromatic aberration (CA) is automatically corrected with all lenses on newer Panasonic bodies (G5 and newer) and newer Olympus bodies (E-M1 and newer). Older Panasonic bodies correct lateral CA only for Panasonic lenses, and older Olympus bodies do not correct lateral CA at all.

3. Optical Image Stabilization (OIS): Many Panasonic lenses feature OIS. Panasonic cameras and Olympus cameras announced after June 2012 (E-PL5 and newer) support OIS on all those lenses. Older Olympus bodies (E-M5 and older) support OIS only on lenses with a physical switch for the OIS. Lenses without that switch are labeled in [The Complete Micro 4/3 Lens List]. A few Olympus lenses support OIS, and these work on both Olympus and Panasonic bodies.

4. In-body Image Stabilization (IBIS): All Olympus cameras and recent Panasonic cameras (G9, G85, GH5, GX7, GX8, GX9, GX85) include IBIS. IBIS can be used with any lens. However, OIS and IBIS should only be enabled at the same time on models supporting Dual-IS or they can conflict.

5. Depth-from-Defocus (DFD): Newer Panasonic bodies use DFD to improve autofocus speeds (particularly continuous autofocus) over the standard contrast-detect autofocus (CDAF) provided by all micro 4/3 cameras. DFD is available with any Panasonic lens on Panasonic's newer cameras (G7, G85, G9, GH4, GH5, GX8, GX85 and GX9).

6. Minimum aperture: the minimum aperture on micro 4/3 and 4/3 lenses is f/22, except where otherwise noted in [The Complete Micro 4/3 Lens List].

7. Aperture ring: some Panasonic lenses have an aperture ring (the 15/1.7 for example). It works only on Panasonic bodies. On Olympus bodies, aperture can only be set from the camera.

8. 4/3 lenses: these are not native lenses, but can be used on micro 4/3 cameras with an adapter and have varying degrees of functionality. See the 4/3 addendum to [The Complete Micro 4/3 Lens List].

The Complete Micro 4/3 Lens List is at http://hazeghi.org/mft-lenses.html

wdross Loc: Castle Rock, Colorado

Bill at Burkphoto has given you everything you need to know about 4/3rds interactions. It is a bit to "digest" but should help you with your final decision.

Some thoughts: For the "bang for the buck", both the Olympus 14-150 and Panasonic 14-140 are great. An even better travel camera is the Olympus12-100 Pro and has great "bang for the buck", but it will take a lot more bucks to afford it. It just depends on how far you want to go with the quality. And it is hard to lose value with a 4/3rds lense since it can be sold for or to any 4/3rds lens buyer. It looks like Sharp may join the 4/3rds market (strong video / camera) and there will be buyers for more 4/3rds lenses. It really will be easy to buy something like the 14-150 and sell it when you would like to upgrade to higher quality lenses. Sort of a win / win situation. I would base your purchase more off what you can afford than ultimate quality. Most cheap 4/3rds lenses have more relative quality in them than other format cheap lenses. Very few "losers" in the 4/3rds lense market.

wildweasel

I have both the 14-150 and also the 12-100 pro and I can tell you in my opinion the 12-100 pro is tack sharp and an all around better lens than the 14-150. I shoot an Olympus EM1 Mark ll, and I shoot basically 2 lenses , the 12-100 F/4 pro and the Panasonic/Leica 100-400. I haven't had the 14-150 on my camera in over a year.

harleybill13

Thanks very much for the input, Linda!

harleybill13

thank you for your input, Fons!

harleybill13

thanks for your input!

harleybill13

wow, lots of great input, Bill! Thank you.

harleybill13

great info, thank you!

mizzee Loc: Boston,Ma

Olympus 14-150 II, and make sure it’s the II version, not the cheaper earlier version. I have this lens and am passionate about it! It’s my favorite walk around lens, it’s waterproof, and the image quality is great. I have it paired with the Oly e-m5 Mark II which, like your camera, is also weatherproof. The range it offers means you don’t have to carry a whole lot of other gear and I can hang it around my neck all day with no pain, actually I wear it cross body, same dif. How weatherproof? Niagara Falls Maid of the Mist, Cave of the Winds weatherproof! I went to a Tamron workshop and tried their version and didn’t like it.