Thom Hogan: “Short opinions about the current m4/3 lenses”

Our friend and 43rumors reader Thom Hogan posted an article sharing his “Short opinions about the current m4/3 lenses“.

Lenses that are highly recommended:
[shoplink 14822]Panasonic 7-14mm f/4[/shoplink] -> “Expensive. But it performs quite well in almost every situation I’ve used it in.”
[shoplink 14792]Panasonic 45-200mm f/4-5.6[/shoplink] -> “This lens was the biggest surprise of the bunch for me. Optically it delivers very good performance for a low-cost telephoto.”

Lenses that are recommended:
[shoplink 14818]Olympus 9-18mm f4/-5.6[/shoplink] -> “As it turns out, the 9-18mm spends a lot of time on my m4/3 bodies.”
[shoplink 14816]Olympus 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6[/shoplink] -> “Optically very good, and a good match for most users.”
[shoplink 14796]Panasonic 20mm f/1.7[/shoplink] -> “Thus, this lens really starts to shine when you’re shooting in low light, as it slows you from bumping the ISO on the body too much.”

Lenses that are qualified recommended:
[shoplink 14814]Panasonic 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6[/shoplink] -> “it’s a modestly specified lens.”
[shoplink 14802]Panasonic 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6[/shoplink] -> “The lens’ mediocre aperture specs do hurt low light use of the m4/3 bodies.”

Lenses that are not recommended:
[shoplink 14798]Olympus 17mm f/2.8[/shoplink] -> “All you get is a smaller, less flexible lens over the kit lens, and it doesn’t really seem like that’s worth the money.”
[shoplink 14794]Panasonic-Leica 45mm f/2.8 macro[/shoplink] -> “The question becomes one of price versus expected performance, and I think this current iteration fails.”

Read the full opinions at http://bythom.com/m43lenses.htm