Choosing one's compromises

 I have a great lens set now, offering the best lenses tuned to the 4:3 sensor. Most people rave about the Olympus 12-40:2.8, 12-45:4 and both 40-150mm f:2.8 and f:4 lenses. Actually, their cheapest 40-150 has a rabid following, too! ;)

Speaking for myself, I prefer lighter lenses over brighter ones, so the 40-150:4 is my ideal choice for telephoto. 

On the other hand..

For me the current wide-normal zoom choice is the 12-60, f/2.8-4, 4thirds lens. That comes up at ~685 grams (including the 43-μ adapter), which is contrary to my weight preference! Does that make sense?

Let's find out!

The 12-60swm is nearly as well regarded as the two m.Zuiko options above, and its 2.8-4 aperture splits the difference between them. It's a high grade lens from the brief Olympus dSLR era, with weather seals and sturdy construction.

More importantly to me though, it's from the days before μ43 - and its inclusion of in-camera compensation for lens distortions. Since these happen before the image is displayed, it is a non-factor to many imagers. These people would probably perform these same tweaks in their computer once they are home .

I seldom do such things. I prefer lenses that are built to perform well without need of stretching the original to fix distortion, or selective brightening to fix corner shading. It's the easy way out, as software is far cheaper than designing great optics that work to the very corners.

Clearly I'm a hypocrite, since the 40-150:4 does this very thing!! However.. the issues are most common at wide focal lengths, and 12mm in a 4x or 5x zoom is where optics struggle the most (especially wide open).

The ZD 12-60mm swm is a premium optic from the old school, despite being introduced inthe 21st century. It received high marks for its handling of distortion, color fringing and vignette. This has value to me, and so, for now at least, the extra 300g is worth carrying. That's 200g more than the 40-150mm! Since it's a 12-60mm it isn't a long lens, so unlike something like the Oly/OM 40-150/2.8 it isn't as front-heavy. 

So I can manage it.. at least for now. At some point I may switch to the 12-45, but not immediately. I own a 14-42ez and also 10+17+30mm primes, so in many cases the 12-60 will stay at home.

By the way: it helped that my copy of the Oly 12-60 swm was less expensive than used Lumix G 12-60 copies, and I already owned a spare 43-μ adapter!