M.Zuiko Digital 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 EZ ED

Great value standard, weather sealed lens This lens is often derided as just a "kit lens" and for being slow due to it's relatively restrictive maximum aperture at its 50mm end. Optically, it is as sharp as you will need -at all lengths. It is light but well made and weather sealed. So, on an Olympus OM-D model with sealing (EM-1 or EM-5) you have a fully outdoors proof camera set. The 12mm angle is very handy and a bit wider than the usual 14-42 kit lenses. The 50mm reach rounds out a very useful, and unique optical range (if you think in old legacy numbers that's 24-100mm on a legacy 35mm film [24x36mm] image sensor). I got one of these for use on a "news outfit" set of an E-M5 body. This gave me a low price, yet water resistant camera set to take into risky places. It goes everywhere with me and has endured a few water cannon, sea spray and other events without problems. Great added features are its electric zoom, function button and macro options. The electric zoom is great for smooth zooming with video. The macro function gives you close up ability for most needs. The lens function button allows you to add a quick recall, custom function from the wide array of settings in the camera menu - just like you get on the more costly PRO lenses. A very useful option which I use constantly. There are two downsides that kill a 5 star rating. First, the somewhat slow max aperture at 50mm can be an issue for low light work at night. In good lighting, however, you will not notice it. Second, no lens hood is supplied as standard. Otherwise, at it's current prices, this is a lens to consider if you want a low cost, weather sealed all day, every day lens to let you use all the functionality of your OM-D without paying for its more expensive Function button equipped brethren.Read full review

Great lens for photo and video. Lens is sharp, has a good wide angle and usable zoom. I use it on my pen-8 and bmpcc4k with excellent results. Nice wide angle, ok in low light, good in bmpcc4k, nice bokeh. The features are nice, the macro function is good for close up static work, I used my 40-150 for bug photos and was very happy, used this 12-55 for static photos and was impressed by the sharpness and focal length. At a reasonable price this is a good lens.

New to M-Zuiko Lenses After coming from Canon DSLR equipment to M4/3 I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of their "non pro" lenses, including this one. Fast and quiet focusing, function button and three types of zooming make this lens a great value. It is not "L" glass but it is not priced to be. The electronic powered zoom is quiet and a very useful. A well designed lens.