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! ;)

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

The current wide-normal zoom choice is the 12-60, f/2.8-4, 4thirds lens from Olympus! That comes up at ~685 grams (including the 43-μ adapter)! 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.

It would appear that I'm a hypocrite, since the 40-150:4 does this very thing.. but the largest digital corrections are most common at wide focal lengths. Nearly all μ43 12-xx zooms struggle with this (especially wide open).

The ZD 12-60mm swm is a premium optic from the dSLR era, despite being introduced in the 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 front-heavy. It even cost less than the Lumix 12-60 when I bought it, and so extra frugal compared to the 12-40 and 12-45mm offerings.

So I shall deal with the extra grams - for now. I may switch to the 12-45 some day, but not this year. I own a 14-42ez and also 10+17+30mm primes, so in many cases the 12-60mm will stay at home.