10 Best Micro Four Thirds Lenses

To help you in your search, we’ve compiled a list of the 10 Best Micro Four Thirds Lenses, combined with features and price.

Both Panasonic and Olympus cameras can use Micro Four Thirds lenses, so you can use the Olympus Micro Four Thirds (sometimes shortened to MFT or M43) lenses on Panasonic cameras, and vice versa. There are plenty of Micro Four Thirds lenses available on the market, made by Panasonic, Olympus, Sigma, Samyang, Voigtlander, Leica and many others, and all Micro Four Thirds lenses are fully compatible with either brand of camera. Keep in mind that Micro Four Thirds cameras have a 2x crop factor, meaning that a 25mm lens will behave like a 50mm lens on a 35mm camera.

Here are the top recommended Micro Four Thirds lenses for Olympus and Panasonic cameras, including leading prime and zoom options from wide-angle to telephoto. You can choose the one you need.

10 Best Micro Four Thirds Lenses

1. Panasonic Lumix G X Vario 12-35mm f2.8 II Asph Power OIS

The Panasonic Lumix G X Vario 12-35mm f2.8 II Asph Power OIS is really a standard zoom Micro Four Thirds zoom lens that provides the same sort of efficiency and versatility as a pro-quality 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom lens on a full-frame digital camera entire body – but, typically for an MFT zoom lens, it comes in a more compact, light-weight package. Indeed, at 305g, it’s no more than a 3rd of the pounds of a similar full-frame optic.

Even so, the lens is not lightweight in terms of build quality, with robust and weather-sealed construction. Centre-sharpness is excellent throughout the zoom range, even when shooting wide-open at f/2.8, and corner-sharpness also becomes impressive at f/4 and narrower apertures. It’s the best Micro Four Thirds lens for everyday shooting, with the bonus of effective optical stabilization.

2. Panasonic Leica DG Nocticron 42.5mm f1.2 Asph Power OIS

The Leica Nocticron legend is reborn for the MFT format in this metal-bodied beauty of a lens. It has a well-damped, smooth-action focus ring and a useful aperture ring, both of which raise the overall handling features. The 2x crop aspect gives the lens a highly effective focal amount of 85mm which is ideal for portrait pictures. The flip side can be that, because the depth of industry is linked more carefully to ‘actual’ instead of ‘effective’ focal duration, the MFT program struggles to give an extremely tight depth of industry, compared with full-frame and also APS-C systems.

This zoom lens fights back with a super-fast f/1.2 aperture ranking, which helps to decrease the depth of field and present soft, creamy background blur in portraiture, along with enabling quick shutter speeds even under boring light. And for when you wish to utilize narrower apertures, there’s furthermore optical stabilization, which is almost unusual in f/1.2 lenses. The image quality is completely sumptuous. For portraiture on MFT digital cameras, this is actually the best lens on the market. It’s seriously costly but, on the other hand, Canon’s 85mm f/1.2 full-frame ‘portrait’ lens is getting on for twice the price.

3. Panasonic Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm f2.8 II Power OIS

The perfect supplement to Panasonic’s 12-35mm f/2.8 lens (at number one), the Panasonic Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm f2.8 II Power OIS is equivalent to that other stalwart full-frame zoom for pro photographers: the 70-200mm f/2.8 telephoto. Again, the popular ‘effective’ zoom range of this lens is delivered from a high-grade, weather-sealed construction that’s rugged and robust, yet only about a third of the weight of equivalent full-frame optics.

As with the Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8, you need to stop down to f/4 before corner sharpness really gets into its stride, but overall levels of sharpness and other image quality attributes are outstanding.

4. Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-140mm f3.5-5.6 ASPH Power OIS

Superzoom lenses are often favored for travel picture taking, as you get from pretty generous wide-position coverage to lengthy telephoto reach, with no need to transport multiple lenses. Superzooms may also be useful if you want to react rapidly to different capturing scenarios, or if you don’t desire to swap lenses on your own camera in dusty situations.

The Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6 II ASPH Power OIS includes a powerful 10x zoom vary and a highly effective 28-280mm focal duration. Unlike comparable lenses for full-frame digital cameras, it’s wonderfully small and lightweight, however, retains optical picture stabilization that’s commonly within superzooms. Better still, some superzooms compromise image high quality and only a big zoom aspect, the Panasonic delivers quite good sharpness and comparison throughout its whole zoom range, even though shooting wide-open.

5. Panasonic DG Vario-Elmar 100-400mm f4-6.3 Asph Strength OIS

A zoom selection of 100-400mm gives powerful telephoto get to on a full-body camera but, in MFT terms, you obtain an impressive ‘effective’ maximum focal length of 800mm. As we’ve come to expect from Panasonic’s up-market lenses, the Panasonic DG Vario-Elmar 100-400mm f4-6.3 Asph Power OIS is sturdy, robust, and meticulously engineered. Highlights include a fasten for the zoom ring and an autofocus range limiter switch. The effective optical image stabilizer is very worthwhile, given the huge effective focal lengths on tap.

Even though the lens weighs nearly a kilogram, it’s still sufficiently lightweight for prolonged periods of handheld shooting. For added comfort and ease and stability, the lens comes complete with a mounting foot for well-balanced use on a tripod or monopod. Image quality will be superb, with great sharpness right around the utmost 400mm zoom placing. The f/6.3 aperture rating at the long end of the zoom vary is relatively ‘gradual’ but quite typical because of this class of super-telephoto zoom lens.

6. Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 7‑14mm 1:2.8 PRO

As the crop factor of MFT format cameras improves the telephoto abilities of lenses, it creates the look of ultra-wide optics even more of a challenge. The Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 7‑14mm 1:2.8 Professional is really a remarkable wide contact lens with the very least focal amount of just 7mm, providing an astonishing 114-education viewing angle, much like using a 14mm zoom lens on full-frame cameras.

Like various other lenses in the M.ZUIKO Professional line-up, it’s immaculately proven, with fabulous construction. Comparison and sharpness are excellent, while color fringing and distortions are usually negligible. Much like many ultra-wide lenses, nevertheless, the hood will be built-in therefore there’s no filtration system attachment thread.

7. Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 25mm 1:1.8

Measuring only 58x42mm and tipping the scales at just 137g, this diminutive lens feels right at home on even the most compact MFT format body. Like the Olympus 17mm that we favor for street digital photography, this one is obtainable in either a silver or black finish, and the hood is sold separately. Naturally, the 2x crop factor of MFT cameras gives this lens an effective 50mm focal length, delivering a classic ‘standard’ viewing angle with a fairly fast f/1.8 aperture rating.

Image quality is impressive in all respects. Considering the prices of Canon and Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lenses for full-frame cameras, the Olympus doesn’t look terrific value. However, its performance fully justifies the high cost.

8. Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 60mm 1:2.8 MACRO

A focal amount of around 100mm is frequently preferred for severe close-up ‘macro’ photography. For this reason lens’s shorter focal duration, the minimum focus length drops from about 30cm to 20cm. Nevertheless, those distances are usually measured from the focal plane, which corresponds to the positioning of the picture sensor guiding the digital camera. With the smaller-sized build of MFT digital cameras and lenses, the specific working distance between your front of the zoom lens and the topic remains completely usable, at about 10cm.

Another bonus is without a doubt that the 2x crop aspect of the MFT format effectively improves the maximum magnification aspect from 1:one to two 2:1 or dual life-size. The excellent high quality of the weather-sealed design is a credit score to Olympus’s line-up of ‘Superior’ lenses, and the sensible focus length/magnification indicator is really a bonus. Image high quality is great in general, and the electronically coupled ‘fly-by-wire’ focus band operates with smooth accuracy. It’s ideal for macro focusing, where you’ll often want to focus manually. All things considered, this is unquestionably the best macro lens in the marketplace for the MFT program.

9. Olympus 75mm f1.8 M.ZUIKO

This lens is really a couple of years old now, but it’s still accessible and contains garnered a reputation to be among the best lenses around for Micro Four Thirds. Sufficient reason for good reason! The Olympus 75mm f1.8 M.ZUIKO is really a solid prime zoom lens with a good focal length (equal to about 150mm), also it really offers premium handling expertise because of its all-metal design and smooth focusing band. Olympus included a few of its greatest coatings in the design of the lens, ensuring smooth pictures clear of reflection and stray lighting, while that f/1.8 maximum aperture provides users incredible leeway in reduced light while also getting useful for portraits. It is a little less costly than it had been on discharge but can be quite pricey, therefore do make sure to shop around.

10. Olympus 12-200mm f3.5-6.3 M.Zuiko

Fed up with changing lenses? With an all-in-one alternative? Olympus reckon they’ve cracked it with this particular amazing 16x optic, covering everything from a broad 12mm (24mm equivalent) viewpoint to a telephoto 200mm (400mm comparative). And, more often than not, they’ve accomplished it! The lens is excellent to use, delivering impressive results from a body that’s not only lightweight and easy to carry but is also weather-sealed and hardy. It’s not perfect of course, with a narrow-ish maximum aperture and a few sharpness issues (all but unavoidable with a lens of this type), but it’s a hugely impressive achievement of optical engineering and one that any Micro Four Thirds user will get a great deal of value out of.