Here's my story. Main m43 setup at the moment is Olympus E-M5 with 12-50mm kit lens, 9-18mm and 75-300mm, all go nicely into a Domke F2 and still have plenty of room for filters, speedlight, batteries and other stuff. This is an all day package, as you can see, it covers a 35mm FOV of 18mm to 600mm, enough to shoot most if not everything. The reason why I ended up with 2 m43 systems is because of our love-sharing poison snake bro Wonglp :bsmilie: Thanks to his enticing E-M5 travel shots :heart:
Olympus (Native m43)
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M. Zuiko 9-18mm f/4.0-5.6
Wide and distorted esp. at the shortest end, always exaggerates the distance between near and far subjects, but hey, that's what UWA supposed to do isn't it? Love this lens, solid IQ in a diminutive package.
M. Zuiko 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 ED
Most advanced lens in my stable - programmable buttons, power-zoom, weather-sealed and light. Covers a useful range of 24-100mm 35mm eq FOV. Close focus to 20cm and with the help of Raynox DCR250, up to around 5cm. A very versatile lens with good IQ. I get better macro performance from this lens (with DCR250 attached) than from Panny's Leica DG MACRO-ELMARIT 45mm f/2.8. Unfortunately, DCR250 doesn't fit the Leica unless it is stepdown to 46mm.
M. Zuiko 75-300mm ED f/4.8-6.7
Center of image is sharp at all focal lengths, corners are just a little less sharp wide open. With E-M5's 5-axis IBIS, gives a dependable 600mm 35mm eq FOV. Perfectly alright to shoot wide open at longest end. Comparing the results of E-M5 + 75-300mm and GH2 + 100-300mm, my vote goes to the Olympus setup. But, this is not to say the panny setup is no good, I am still able to get stock quality image from it, just more
challenging.
Panasonic (Native m43)
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From my previous GH2 systems now use by my wife when she wants to travel light.
LUMIX G VARIO 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH. MEGA OIS
GH2 kit lens, platic mount, but covers a useful range and IQ is rather impressive for a budget lens.
LUMIX G VARIO 45-200mm f/4.0-5.6 MEGA OIS
A good telephoto lens for working in tighter space when 100-300mm is too long. Sharp IQ but not at all focal lengths.
LUMIX G VARIO 100-300mm f/4.0-5.6 MEGA OIS
Long range workhorse for birding @ 600mm 35mm eq FOV. At 300mm, image is softer wideopen on GH2 then the 75-300mm on E-M5. Still a good lens capable of producing stock quality results.
LUMIX G 20mm f/1.7 ASPH
A tiny pancake lens but really it's more like the size of a cookie! I get very sharp IQ. Great lens for low light shooting in museum esp. with E-M5's 5-axis IBIS.
Leica DG MACRO-ELMARIT 45mm f/2.8 ASPH. MEGA OIS
Fast and sharp, i use it in parties and celebration dinners, etc, when light is a little dim. At f/2.8, bokeh is nice and the light vignetting on the sides helps to trivialize distracting corner elements.
Leica DG Summilux 25mm f1.4 ASPH
My main m43 portrait and evening street shooting lens right into late hours, fast and sharp.
Non-native m43 lenses
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Just introduce a few that I would use on m43 body, I don't normally manual focus on m43 as Ricoh GXR with it's focus-peaking works better for me.
Tamron SP AF180mm F/3.5 Di (F->m43 adaptor)
From my main macro setup on Nikon systems, 1:1 reproduction, very sharp, gives a very comfortable working distance from shy insects and dangerous wildlife such as snakes and scorpions. Also double up as mid-range tele prime, 360mm 35mm eq FOV on m43, it has an aperture ring and works great with E-M5's IBIS. The advantage of using this lens on m43 body for macro work is that it gives greater DOF compared to larger sensors, allows one to use a larger aperture, hence, shoot with lower flash power and avoid possible small aperture diffraction.
Sigma 150-500mm F5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM (F->m43 adaptor with aperture lever)
Bigmos is the longest, heaviest and bulkiest lens in my stable, it kills my mobility! I won't chase wildlife with this lens, however, the range it offers is quite impressive, 1000mm 35mm eq FOV, reaching 2000mm FOV if doubled with in-camera digi teleconvertor. Generally softer at all apertures throughout the range compared to what I see on say Oly 75-300mm or Panny 100-300mm. IQ is acceptable up to 400mm @ f/8-f/11, but 100% crop of a 500mm image looks terrible to my eyes! Due to the lack of aperture ring, this lens requires an adaptor with aperture lever. This is how i would rate the performance of the 3 long range setups in my stable at 600mm 35 eq FOV:
Winner : E-M5 + 75-300mm @ 300mm
Runner-up : GH-2 + 100-300mm @ 300mm
3rd Place : D300s + 150-500m @ 400mm
Samyang 8mm f/3.5 fisheye (F->m43 adaptor)
Borrowed from my Nikon systems, this is one of the best valued and popular fisheye lens around. It is quite big compared to native fisheye m43 lens from Samyang, but not large enough to hurt me!
The above is just what I see through the lenses, you may get differing results and have different opinion
