In summary
The M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 III EZ represents a significant upgrade to Olympus’s basic kit lens and has the advantage of being quite a bit shorter and lighter than its predecessors. This makes cameras more easily portable ““ and even pocketable ““ in some cases.
While its optical performance isn’t quite as stunning as other (more expensive) Olympus lenses, it is nevertheless competent, producing images that are sharp, particularly at the longer end of the zoom range. Everyday consumers who begin their journey with the Olympus OM-D or PEN systems can be confident they have chosen well.
The build quality is remarkably high for such an affordable kit zoom lens. Autofocusing is fast and almost silent, which means little or no interference on movie soundtracks. And the price of the lens won’t break the bank.
Full review
Claimed as the most compact ‘pancake’ style zoom lens yet released, the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 III EZ electronic zoom lens is the third generation of the company’s standard kit lenses, which cover a focal length range equivalent to 28-84mm in 35mm format. Only 22.5 mm thick when retracted, it’s about half the length of the previous kit lens and weighs just 93 grams.
The new M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 EZ electronic zoom lens, shown in silver. (Source: Olympus.)
The optical design is moderately complex, with eight elements in seven groups, including three aspherical elements, one Super HR (High Refractive) index lens and one ED (Extra-low Dispersion) element. These exotic elements are shown in colour in the schematic diagram below.
The illustration above shows the positions of the exotic glass elements. (Source: Olympus.)
The closest shooting distance is 20 cm at the wide angle position and 25 cm at telephoto, an improvement on the previous kit lens. The maximum magnification is 0.45x equivalent (35mm conversion).
Designed to suit both OM-D and PEN cameras, this lens features the Olympus MSC autofocus system. It is compatible with the optional LC-37C automatically closing lens cap, which is the first of its type for interchangeable lenses.
It is being offered in black and silver to match the OM-D bodies and comes with front and end caps ““ but neither lens hood nor carrying pouch.
Who’s it For?
Like most kit zooms, this lens covers a focal length range that is suitable for general photography, providing coverage from a moderate wide-angle to short telephoto perspective. Its maximum aperture range of f/3.5-5.6 is typical of kit lenses ““ and not particularly fast.
The small size of this lens, makes it ideal for street photography, particularly on the OM-D bodies, which are relatively inconspicuous. The combination of the electronic zoom and MSC autofocusing provides near-silent operation, making this lens ideal for shooting movies.
Build and Ergonomics
Despite its smaller size and lighter weight, the new lens has superior build quality to the original retracting 14-42mm kit zoom. This impression is at least partly due to its metal mounting plate, which attaches to the camera very securely with not a trace of play.
The mounting plate carries 11 gold-plated contacts for transferring distance information to the camera body and signals from the camera to the lens, allowing focusing controls to be selected from the camera’s menus. Switching the camera on extends the two inner barrels by a total of 24mm.
The focusing ring is a narrow, 5 mm wide band located right at the front of the main outer barrel. It is thinly ridged and turns through a full 360 degrees in both AF and manual focusing modes.
As with other M4/3 lenses, manual focusing is ‘by-wire’, which means turning the focus ring drives the AF motor. Tactile feedback is negligible but the latest Olympus cameras provide manual focusing aids in the form of adjustable magnification and focus peaking (which outlines in-focus areas) to make the system very usable.
Immediately behind the focusing ring and separated by a thin blue band is the zoom ring, which is about 7 mm wide and textured with four narrow bands of fine ridging, which encircle the ring. Rotating this ring to the left zooms in from 14mm to 42mm, while turning it to the right zooms out again.
Indicators in the upper right corner of the camera’s monitor and EVF screens keep track of the focal length adjustments. There’s also a graphical reminder showing which direction to turn the ring for the different focal lengths.
The zooming action is smooth and reasonably controllable, given the very small arc travelled as you make adjustments. The overall length of the lens doesn’t change when zooming, although the outer one of the two inner barrels extends from 9 mm in length at the 14mm position to 14 mm at the 42mm position.
There’s no room for a depth of field scale or a distance indicator and no indicators are provided for infrared focus correction. With image stabilisation built into the camera body, no stabilisation is required in the lens itself.
Photographers who often mislay lens caps will probably be interested in the optional Automatic Opening Lens Cap LC-37C (RRP AU$49), which has been designed specifically for this lens and is a cheap solution to the problem. It’s available in black or silver to match the lens and clips into place like a regular cap. But unlike a regular cap, it can be left in place.
The two colour versions of the LC-37C Automatic Opening Lens Cap; the silver version is shown open. (Source: Olympus.)
The illustration above shows the LC-37C Automatic Opening Lens Cap on a camera in the closed and open positions. (Source: Olympus.)
When the camera is turned on, the cap opens automatically, closing again when power is switched off. Although slightly larger than a regular lens cap, when closed it provides the same protection against scratches, dust, dirt and moisture when the camera isn’t in use. And because you don’t have to remove or attach the cap, you never have to worry about losing it.
Performance
The review lens produced a competent set of resolution figures in our Imatest tests, particularly at wide aperture settings and longer focal lengths. The highest JPEG resolution was measured at the 35mm focal length at f/5.6 and resolution remained relatively high through to f/10, where diffraction began to take effect. The graph below shows the results of our tests at five focal length settings.
Lateral chromatic aberration was negligible at all apertures and focal length settings and we found no evidence of coloured fringing in test shots. In the graph of our Imatest results below, the red line marks the boundary between negligible and low CA.
Slight vignetting could be seen throughout the zoom range. It was more noticeable at the 14mm and 42mm focal lengths than the middle of the range. The darkening is not enough to create problems in regular shots and it’s easily correctable with in-camera settings or post-capture editing.
Distortion was also effectively negligible, with very slight barrel distortion at shorter focal lengths and barely detectable pincushioning at 42mm. Again, both are easily corrected, either in-camera or post-capture.
Even though there are only five diaphragm blades, the lens produced attractive bokeh at 42mm with the f/5.6 maximum aperture. Our-of-focus blurring was pleasingly smooth and although we found a few instances where bright highlights had hard edges, they only occurred when the spot was very bright.
Backlighting was handled competently and, despite the lack of a lens hood, it was difficult to force the lens to flare. With the 14mm focal length and the sun inside the frame, we found a couple of small coloured spots plus a relatively large area of magenta/red veiling. Neither was particularly obvious and only a trace of the veiling could be seen in shots taken at 42mm.
Conclusion
The M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 III EZ represents a significant upgrade to Olympus’s basic kit lens and has the advantage of being quite a bit shorter and lighter than its predecessors. This makes cameras more easily portable ““ and even pocketable ““ in some cases.
While its optical performance isn’t quite as stunning as other (more expensive) Olympus lenses, it is nevertheless competent, producing images that are sharp, particularly at the longer end of the zoom range. Everyday consumers who begin their journey with the Olympus OM-D or PEN systems can be confident they have chosen well.
The build quality is remarkably high for such an affordable kit zoom lens. Autofocusing is fast and almost silent, which means little or no interference on movie soundtracks. And the price of the lens won’t break the bank.
SPECS
Picture angle: 75 degrees to 19 degrees
Minimum aperture: f/22
Lens construction: 8 elements in 7 groups (including three aspherical elements, one Super HR lens and one ED lens)
Lens mounts: Micro Four Thirds
Diaphragm Blades: 5 (circular aperture)
Focus drive: Stepping motor
Stabilisation: In camera body
Minimum focus: 20 cm at 14mm; 25 cm at 42mm
Maximum magnification: 0.225x
Filter size: 37 mm
Dimensions (Diameter x L): 60.6 x 22.5 mm
Weight: 93 grams
TESTS
Based on JPEG files taken with the OM-D E-M10 camera.
SAMPLES
Vignetting at 14mm.
Vignetting at 24mm.
Vignetting at 42mm.
Rectilinear distortion at 14mm.
Rectilinear distortion at 24mm.
Rectilinear distortion at 42mm.
14mm focal length, ISO 3200, 1/50 second at f/11.
42mm focal length, ISO 3200, 1/80 second at f/11.
Close-up at 14mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/2000 second at f/3.5.
Close-up at 42mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/1000 second at f/5.6.
Moderate backlighting; 24mm focal length, ISO 200, 1/20 second at f/8.
Flare at 14mm, ISO 100, 1/200 second at f/8.
Flare at 42mm, ISO 100, 1/2500 second at f/8.
14mm focal length, ISO 200, 1/60 second at f/8.
14mm focal length, ISO 400, 1/40 second at f/5.6.
28mm focal length, ISO 400, 1/10 second at f/6.3.
14mm focal length, ISO 640, 1/40 second at f/7.1.
Additional image samples can be found with our review of the Olympus OM-D E-M10.
Rating
RRP: AU$499
- Build: 9.0
- Handling: 8.5
- Image quality: 8.5
- Versatility: 8.8
