Despite its pending legal problems, Olympus makes some of the best Micro Four Thirds shooters out there. This brand new lens has a motorised zoom for video shooters and middle ground specs that combine a wide f3.5 aperture with 4.2x zoom.
Micro Four Thirds cameras are little, which is great, but it also means they’re tough to stabilise while shooting video. The new Olympus M.Zuiko 12-55mm f3.5-6.3 motorised zoom lens should help eliminate the clunkiness and camera shake of manual zoom. It also has three zoom speeds. Wonderful, if video is your thing, and manual zoom bugs you.
Under that motorised gloss is an all purpose lens. The 12-55mm f3.5-6.3 lens hits a nice compromise between zoom and wide angle. Not an earth-shattering development, but one that some lens shoppers are sure to appreciate. The kicker is that at a maximum f6.3 aperture means you’re limited to a fairly shallow depth of field no matter what. You can’t have it all. The lens will be available in January for $US499. [Olympus]
Leo
Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 8:26 AMDude, you really need to learn how to read photography specs. As with EVERY LENS DESCRIPTION, “f/3.5-6.3″ refers to the MAXIMUM aperture throughout its zoom range of 12-55mm. Its MINIMUM aperture, at all focal lengths, is 22mm. http://olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1582&page=specs
Leo
Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 8:26 AMEr… I mean, f/22. XD
Leo
Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 10:14 AMAlso, f/6.3 isn’t going to give you a “fairly shallow depth of field” – that is *not* a wide aperture, and therefore not suitable for shooting with shallow depth of field. To do that well, you’re really going to want an aperture of f/4 or wider. :p
Me
Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 3:41 PMArent M4/3rds cameras generally generally equipped with vibration reduction on the sensor itself?? which would make the lens VC a bit redundant….
Also, f/3.5 (Wideest) to f/6.3 is actually not very “fast” at all. I really don’t understand why mirrorless camera makers can’t make faster lenses as there is much less glass involved in the lens than with 35mm.
Isaac
Friday, December 16, 2011 at 12:15 AMIf you want fast glass on MFT get an m mount adapter and buy some secondhand m mount lenses.