The Zuiko Digital 14-42mm 1:3.5-5.6 ED is the standard kit lens which Olympus supply with their lower-tier DSLRs, including the E-420 and E-510. Announced in September 2006 to accompany the launch of the E-400, it shares that camera's defining characteristic, being remarkably compact in size. Indeed it takes advantage of the relatively small size of the Four Thirds sensor to be comfortably the smallest and lightest DSLR zoom lens currently available, great for those users who wish their camera systems to be as portable as possible.

Olympus M.Zuiko 14‑42mm f/3.5‑5.6 EZ review

I found the lens excellent in sharpness, beating the 1st gen. ED L lens with aperture f/6.3 --> f/11 at all focal lengths I tested (14, 18, 24, 35, 42mm). At 24mm with f/6.3 and 35mm with f/6.3 and f/7.1 the ED L lens was sharper--but only in the corners. It captures very respectable images, and very much comes into its own as a video lens, since the fully motorized zoom can smoothly and near-silently push in and out of your scene to record more dynamic footage. That electronic zoom also means that you can fully control the focal length from your phone when shooting remotely! The new M.Zuiko 14-42mm II lens features an updated optical design with improved autofocus drive and smaller dimensions. It uses a smaller Micro Four Thirds sensor than rival mirrorless cameras and DSLRs, which might put some people off, but this sensor is still way bigger than those in regular compact digital cameras and smartphones, so the quality difference between the little E-M10 and a DSLR is really not that big.

It is very nice and sharp lens. Sure it isn't 12-40mm PRO but it is not bad at all. Nothing from that many like to say that kit lenses are terrible or unsharp or soft from the corners etc.

Olympus M.ZUIKO Digital ED 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 EZ Review

Zooming to 26mm results in a reduction in sharpness at maximum aperture, although good levels of sharpness are achieved in the centre of the frame. Clarity raises to very good levels in the centre and good sharpness towards the edges of the frame, with the aperture stopped down to f/5.6. Manual focusing is done in a “focus-by-wire” fashion, as the very thin focus ring is not mechanically coupled to the moving lens elements. The lens does not feature a distance scale. Focusing is fully internal and the 37mm filter thread does not rotate on focus. Chromatic Aberrations At 14mm sharpness peaks at maximum aperture, producing very good clarity across the frame. Stopping down doesn't yield any increase in quality, as is often the case with MFT lenses that have a slow maximum aperture. Sample photos are available of two laboratory test targets to help in our readers' evaluation of the lenses we test. The VFA target should give you a good idea of sharpness in the center and corners, as well as some idea of the extent of barrel or pincushion distortion and chromatic aberration, while the Still Life subject may help in judging contrast and color. We shoot both images using the default JPEG settings and manual white balance of our test bodies, so the images should be quite consistent from lens to lens.Sell the kit you’re not using to MPB. Trade in for the kit you need to create. Buy used, spend less and get more. Buy. Sell. Trade. Create. Also typical of wide angles is a hefty barrel distortion in the wide range. The 14-42mm lens does show some barrel distortion, seen most significantly at 14mm; however, it is well-controlled, showing only a maximum distortion (in the corners) of 1%. As the focal length increases, the distortion decreases quite linearly, until it becomes negligible by 35mm. However, if you are planning on shooting handheld in low light, you will be better served with a fast prime such as the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 II. The quality of the build is much better than that of the ED L. I also took few videos with it and found it whisper quiet when zooming--great for video!

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 III EZ Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 III EZ

And you get a lot for your money. It might be the base model in Olympus’s OM-D range, but really it has the features and controls of a mid-range mirrorless camera or DSLR, or even some advanced models.The rear screen tilts up and down, which is really useful, but it doesn’t have a fully-articulating hinge. So, while it works perfectly for horizontal shots, it’s less effective when you hold the camera vertically. The blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges. Averaging them out gives the red weighted column. You must try before discarding this almost free kitlens. Way, way better then almost all kitlenses around. That versatile focal range means that you really can slap this one single lens on the front of your camera and be covered for almost any shooting situation –making it a perfect choice for street shooting, travel photography, or just everyday walkabout use. In fact, it's so slim that you can leave it on your camera in place of a body cap, so that you can always grab your camera and shoot without faffing for a lens. I will eventually get the 12-40Pro and one or two primes, but for the moment I'm happy with what I have - it's my favourite kit for travel.

Olympus 14-42mm lens review Just posted! Olympus 14-42mm lens review

It does have some distortion and vignetting, but, again, it's small and light. All things considered, they're well controlled. This lens has some great plusses. Very good image quality in most situations, very compact when not in use and excellent close focus distance - you get 0.25m at the 42mm end of the zoom. That said, we've never once missed a shot because the lens took too long to reach shooting mode from the off position, or because the mechanism took too long to zoom to where we wanted it. At the far left of the top plate is a big on/off switch which might look odd on a camera of this size, but is a really nice echo of the classic Olympus OM SLR cameras. On the right side is a big metal mode dial and two (yes, two) metal control dials. Most entry-level cameras offer just one dial, but the E-M10 III is not your ordinary entry-level camera.If you are purchasing your first micro four-thirds camera and looking at an Olympus that comes with this lens, you might as well get it! Especially if you are a novice photographer that will get much use out of a standard zoom.