Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-150mm

The Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-150mm f/4.0-5.6 is the kind of lens you take when you don't want to spend the day swapping lenses.

Designed for Micro Four Thirds cameras, its 14-150mm zoom range gives you the equivalent of 28-300mm on a 35mm camera, covering everything from wider everyday scenes and landscapes through to portraits and distant subjects.

Despite that huge 10.7x zoom range, the original 14-150mm weighs only around 280g, making it a particularly handy option for travel, day trips or keeping your camera setup relatively light.

It also uses Olympus's MSC autofocus system, designed for fast, quiet focusing for both still photography and video.

For someone putting together a compact Micro Four Thirds kit and wanting one lens that can handle most everyday situations, this is a very useful range without carrying several separate lenses.

Best for

• Travel
• Everyday photography
• Walkaround shooting
• Holidays
• Landscapes
• Street photography
• Portraits
• Family photography
• Distant subjects
• Day trips
• Anyone wanting one versatile Micro Four Thirds lens

What to expect

The biggest advantage of this lens is its range.

At 14mm, you have a 28mm-equivalent field of view that's useful for landscapes, interiors, travel and everyday photography. Zoom all the way to 150mm and you're at a 300mm-equivalent field of view, giving you considerably more reach for distant subjects.

The aperture changes as you zoom, starting at f/4 at the wide end and reaching f/5.6 at 150mm. So this isn't really a low-light specialist. Its strength is flexibility and portability rather than a particularly bright aperture.

It focuses as close as 0.5m, has a 58mm filter thread and supports both autofocus and manual focus.

One thing worth noting is that the lens itself doesn't contain optical image stabilisation. Stabilisation therefore depends on the camera body it's paired with.