But, while many manufacturers will label a lens as weather-sealed but not say exactly how much weather is too much, OM System has added an official IP rating to this lens. With an IP53, the optic is tested to withstand most dust, as well as jets of water up to a 60-degree angle.

Falloff of illumination towards the corners is well controlled for a fast aperture telephoto zoom lens, and shouldn't pose too many issues. At 40mm and f/2.8 the comers are 0.7 stops darker than the centre of the image and at 150mm, the corners are 1.2 stops darker than the image centre. Stopping down to f/5.6 results in visually uniform illumination across the frame throughout the zoom range.Since Olympus digital SLR cameras employ the four-thirds imaging sensor, any lens attached to the body will have an effective focal length (in 35mm terms) of double the listed length. Thus, for this particular lens, it will exhibit an effective focal length of 80-300mm. The lens takes 58mm filters, and comes with a cone-style lens hood. There's a bit of a mixed bag when considering distortion on the 40-150mm. At its widest angle of 40mm, there is some fairly significant barrel distortion evident in the corners of the image. Distortion evens out at 50mm, but after that you start to see some pincushion distortion as you enter the telephoto region of lens (>70mm). The pincushion distortion doesn't get overly severe, however, the maximum distortion barely reaching -0.25%. Interestingly, the average distortion remains in the barrel aspect of distortion, meaning there is some skew in the images taken; if you were to shoot some straight lines and analyze the results with a straight edge, you might see some (slightly) interesting curves. Chromatic aberrations, typically seen as purple or blue fringes along contrasty edges, are not too much of a problem with the OM System M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm F4.0 Pro lens, except in areas of very high contrast. The Olympus Zuiko 40-150mm F4 has a maximum magnification of x.042. Thus subjects can be projected onto your camera’s sensor at 42% of their original size. This impressive result makes the OM System 40-150 F4 Pro an effective lens for semi-macro work. Build Quality

At f/4 with the teleconverter, the sharpness actually decreases a little bit more at the longest focal length (150mm + MC-14 = 210mm) when the lens has to focus on a distant subject. E-M1, 1/400, f/ 4, ISO 200 – 210mm MC-14 Zooming to 70mm results in a reduction in sharpness in the centre at maximum aperture to excellent levels, although performance towards the edges is improved to very good levels of clarity. Peak performance across the frame is achieved at f/5.6 where sharpness is excellent in the centre and falls just short of this towards the edges. From Olympus lens literature) The Olympus 40-150mm f/4-5.6 ED Zuiko Digital is an 80-300mm (35mm equivalent) zoom lens in a short 7.2 cm body with ED lens elements, ensuring both picture quality and portability. OM Systems have paid close attention to this aspect of lens use, employing a 7-segment diaphragm with rounded blades for some pleasing bokeh. It’s superfast on both of the cameras used in the test. Fast focus is essential for me because my subjects are rarely still, and catching the static moments seen in the pictures above took a degree of concentration – animals will sometimes only pause for a split second and I like to grab key moments as they happen. It’s also wonderfully accurate and better than the standard quality tele zooms I’ve been relying on so far. The autofocus slows down slightly in very dim light indoors, but not to the extent where it would bother you. This is quite a feat for a lens of this type.

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The 40-150mm ƒ/4-5.6 offers very good performance, more to the wider range of its focal lengths than the telephoto. Would nevertheless be interested on seeing what the performance is like with the co-released 1.4x converter. Any plans to test that?[/quote]

The lens barrel is constructed from a combination of metal and high quality plastics, with a glossy finish and the bayonet is metal with a rubber gasket to prevent the ingress of dust and moisture into the camera body. Despite the robust build and the telephoto range covered this lens only weighs 760g. As far as size and handling are concerned, this lens is a perfect match Micro Four Thirds cameras with a deep grip, such as the Panasonic Lumix G6, but it can feel a little unwieldy on smaller bodies, such as the Olympus OM-D E-M5 used for testing, when used without the optional grip. I’ve mentioned how well balanced the M.Zuiko 40-150mm f2.8 Pro feels when attached to the OMD EM1, the internal zoom mechanism means the the front of the lens doesn’t extend when you turn the zoom ring, maintaining the same overall length and balance. The front element doesn’t rotate when focusing so you can use a circular polarizer with ease. The lens has a 72mm filter thread. There's some light magenta-blue fringing in areas of high contrast, noticeable most at the wide end (40mm). In the mid-range CA is fairly controlled, and only slightly evident at the telephoto end (150mm).The M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm F4.0 Pro lens is very well built, fully living up to the PRO designation that Olympus have given it. I shot with this lens in the cold and light snow. And then, since I didn’t think the light snow was really up to IP53 standards, I put it under the faucet. The lens continued to function normally, including smooth turns on both rings. I also didn’t detect any debris on the sensor after shooting with this lens. Shooting action, the lens performed well in sequential low burst mode. Photographing a runner heading straight towards the lens, I had only about a ten percent miss rate shooting at 10 fps. The M.Zuiko 40-150mm f2.8 Pro is environmentally sealed with 11 separate seals to keep out dust and moisture making it splash-proof and dust-proof as well as freeze-proof. I used the 40-150mm on the Olympus OMD EM1 – a weather-sealed combination – during steady drizzle without complaint from either. Olympus PEN-F + Olympus M.Zuiko 40-150mm f/4.0-5.6 R (82mm, 1/30 sec, f/7.1, ISO640) (Image credit: James Artaius)

Our sample didn't ship with the LH-61D lens hood, which is a circular-shaped, bayonet mounted model that appears to be able to reverse onto the lens for storage. This lens isn't a ''constant'' lens, in that as you increase the focal length, the widest aperture is restricted (showing a higher f-number). The following table reflects the changes: Focal As with all Olympus M.Zuiko lenses, the 40-150mm F4.0 Pro does not offer image stabilisation. Instead this is provided by the camera body, in this instance the frankly amazing 5-axis system in the OM-1, which provides 7 stops of compensation when paired with this lens.

OM System 40-150mm F4 PRO M.Zuiko Hands-on Review Summary

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