2605 - Think About It

2013-12-04

Remember, I recently bought the Olympus OM-D E-M1 camera with its kit lens, the new 12-40/2.8 PRO, a lens that costs 990€ separately. As part of the kit it cost me 700€, thus I could easily sell it on, maybe even with a profit. Should I?

I admit, I think about it. Not for the profit, but more so because it is big and heavy (compared to my primes), overlaps with three of my lenses, the 12/2.0, 17/1.8 and at least partially with the 9-18/4, and although it is an excellent lens, it is not better than any of these primes.

It also overlaps with the Panasonic Leica 25/1.4. Yes, I’ve had that lens and sold it, but guess what, I miss the Panaleica and consider buying it again.

It is weather-sealed. OK, I didn’t miss that in my primes.

It focuses very near, nearer than any of my primes. I like that and I may miss it.

It is extremely well built, definitely the most solid lens that I’ve ever had.

It is beautiful.

The Song of the Day is “Think About It”, an outtake from the 1977 Fleetwood Mac album “Rumours”. Hear it on YouTube.

There are 7 comments

Andrew   (2013-12-04)

Hi Andreas, it's really amusing to watch you rolling the same thoughts about this lens than me, I've to admit 😉 You'll see - it's really hard to let it go again! Yesterday I've tried to step back to my PanaLeica 25/1.4 - just for one shooting - but after an hour, I changed back to the 12-40 Oly-lens because I was missing the possibility to zoom so much. I bet - you won't sell it anymore 😉 Best regards, Andrew >:o)

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John Linn   (2013-12-04)

Keep it. Great versatile lens. However if you want to send it to me that would be OK. 🙂

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Art Photon   (2013-12-04)

it looks like a keeper. Great lens & great shot.

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Franz   (2013-12-05)

I have made an - expensive - mistake. First I have bought the E-M1, not even thinking about the new zoom lens. Two months later I could try one directly from Olympus. And I have bought it a week later. And I am very satisfied , even when I own more ore less the same primes like you. Instead of the 17mm 1.8 - which I have sold a year ago already - I have kept the Panalux 25mm, which I like very much. Another thing, what I didn't expect, that I will ever buy an extra battery pack for a camera. But I did now. The E-M1 + battery pack + 12-40 mm in a small bag is not to heavy but the handling is better (for me of course). And another small bag contains the primes and the camera without battery pack for another day.

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andreas   (2013-12-07)

I've bought the HLD-6 for the OM-D E-M5, but only for the horizontal part and only for the better grip. I've never used the vertical part, the part containing the battery itself. On the E-M1 the grip is part of the camera and I love it as it is.

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Cedric Canard   (2013-12-07)

I haven't played with the E-M1 but it looks better to hold than its predecessor and the kit lens, while seemingly bulky, actually looks like a rather nice lens and seem to deliver where it counts. I can't tell you what you should do but I can tell you that I like this photo. The foreground textures and muted colours are beautiful and the scene almost looks surreal, like a composite of two images.

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andreas   (2013-12-07)

Well, I had to apply some gradients with various adjustments plus a healthy vignette, before the image looked like it does. It's not a composite, but it certainly is heavily processed. Sometimes unprocessed images look just so faked 🙂

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