OM SYSTEMOLYMPUS M.Zuiko Digital ED 12mm F2.0 Black For Micro Four Thirds System Camera, Compact Wide Angle lens For Starry Sky and Landscape

Amazing camera lens! Worth every penny, super versatile and takes great pictures. I love this thing.

I am a little surprised that I haven't rated this lens already. It is my go-to of go-to lenses. I use it very extensively for video, and it is perfect. The lens is relatively small which makes it a snap to balance on my Ronin Gimbal. It is fast, I have no problem opening this thing up when needed... I certainly have no issues at f2.8 and smaller. The lens has great color saturation and sharpness... it really is just about perfect.So I have had this little guy for about 4 years and during that time it has been on my main camera about 75% of the time. Occasionally, I will film on a tripod so I'll grab its cousin the Oly 12-40mm f2.8 (also a fantastic lens).. but that is about it. While there are some MFT lenses I prefer for photos nothing beats the Oly Zuiko 12mm for video on a gimbal (I have used it on the Osmo Pro and my Ronin with both a GH4 and Gh5).Final verdict- If you shooting video on a MFT camera and using a gimbal the Oly Zuiko 12mm is an absolute must .5 Stars

First of all; for full disclosure, I am NOT a professional photographer. I will not claim to be a wealth of knowledge and experience as it relates to camera lenses of any sort. But my observations may help guide your decision making process.I'm formost a fast-prime kind of gut as it relates to lenses. Sure, switching lenses for different scenes is a pain (as opposed to changing focal length with a zoom), but I prefer the brighter apertures of primes, in no small part due to not having the best shooting form/technique and the steadiest of hands. So (with primes) I can keep the shutter speed fast and thereby not have missed shots due to a shaky exposure. Better night tine photography is also a plus. (I'm also pretty budget conscious).I got the 45mm f1.8 and the 25mm f1.8 and then had to choose between the 17mm f1.8 or tge 12mm f2.0. I chose the 12mm. And now it turns out that the 17mm is actually my personal sweet spot.The 12mm f2.0 produces GOOD images. It will not; however, impress you nearly as much (for images) as the 45mm or the 25mm. If there are any distortions due to the wide focal length I can't see them. The 12mm has remarkable build quality in all metal. Rings are nicely dampened, markings are engraved and filled with paint (the other 2 are plastic). I also LOVE the manual focus clutch and it makesbthis one the most fun to use.But to be honest, it's the least sharp of the 3 (maybebbecausebof the wide focal length) and the images can look flat alot of the time in a way the other 2 don't. But they're still high quality images. I don't know if it's rhe difficulty of making a 12mm lens or old coatings.I'm sometimes sorry I didn't get the 17mm because the focal length because it just feels more natural for me. I often end up cropping the 12mm pics (which isn't great for 16MP images). Id definitely suggest stopping down a bit for a bit more sharpness even though you don't have to for the other 2).BUT there are times when only the 12mm will fit THAT scene, capture THAT building from that angle and it's great for capturing an entire room from a corner. So I crop the others. Real estate people will love this lens.And it's a rare focal length to find for an affordable price, especially in all metal with the MF clutch, people will be wise to this soon enough and i wont be able to find a copy i can buy... I have no regrets. I'll save up for my first weathersealed lens and it will capture 17mm, zoom or not. (Color is good too BTW, even if it doesn't pop as much as the 45mm)

Finally, a fast wide angle lens is here for the Micro Four Thirds system. The other two lens that can shoot at 12mm are the Olympus 9-18mm and Panasonic 7-14mm, both start at f/4.Build quality for this lens is excellent. It is full metal with a smooth finished surface. It weighs 130g, just slightly twice that of the Panasonic 14mm f/2.5 lens. It's also twice as tall but still smaller than the kit zoom lens. As wide angle lens go, this is as small as it can get - the beauty of the Micro Four Thirds system.The lens doesn't come with a lens hood which you have to pay (heavily) for.There's a 46mm filter thread, similar to the Panasonic 14mm and 20mm. I have a 2-stop ND filter that I can re-use here. Nice.Autofocus speed is snappy and operates silently.The focusing ring is great. It can be pulled back to go into manual focus mode instantly, and push back to go back to auto-focus - no need for menus if you're using a touchscreen camera. When it's at the back, it reveals a distance indicator. This lens can focus from 0.2m to infinity. So you can either manual focus with the distance indicator (fast), or manual focus the focus-by-wire way (slow), I prefer the former.The optical performance is remarkable. At wide open, it's sharp at centre and corner. It's sharpest at f/2.8 though, but the difference between this and f/2 is possibly visible only at 100 per cent view. Chromatic aberration and vignetting are not really noticeable. Distortion is controlled really well, even for faces near the edge of the photo.I'm using this lens more for landscape (typically buildings) and street shooting. The f/2 is a huge advantage when shooting inside buildings (tight spaces) where lighting is low most of the time. f/2 can give you some depth of field but only when your subject is very close, in-your-face close. In typical usage, the depth of field is minimal.Composition with this lens is challenging, but you can always crop, which will be most often the case if you don't get close enough. If you don't like shooting so close to people, you might want to use a lens closer to 35mm or the 50mm equivalent.I find that a zoom at wide angle is more flexible, for me anyway, but sometimes the low light just hinders the chances at getting shots. I was once in a bar with the 7-14mm and I had to put the camera on the table to get non-hand-shaken shots at high ISO, at least now, I can get two stops of advantage with this 12mm lens and not shoot off a table, or tripod.Yes this lens is pricey, but it's worth it. If you need the low light wide angle lens, you have that option now.At a glance+ Excellent build quality+ Small, light & portable, relative to DSLR equivalent+ Very good sharp image quality+ f/2 aperture is great for low light shooting+ Fast and silent focus+ Focusing snap ring can be used to get into manual focus instantly+ Accepts 46mm filters+ Worldwide warranty- No lens hood included- No lens pouch included- Pricey but worth itUpdate 2 Jan 2012: I've put links to videos I shot with the lens in the comment section below.

This is a great fast wide-angle lens for Micro Four Thirds cameras at a good price. It's tack-sharp in the center of the frame with decent corners wide open, and the corners improve steadily as you stop down. It has moderate chromatic aberration and a bit of barrel distortion, but both are easy to correct for in Photoshop. Overall, a great little lens, I highly recommend it.