Micro Four Thirds System - Micro Four Thirds Lenses

Micro Four Thirds Lenses

A promise of the Micro Four Thirds standard is reduced lens size and weight. The reduced flange focal distance of Micro Four Thirds enables most lenses to be made significantly smaller and cheaper than for a traditional DSLR, because the retrofocus optical schemes can be avoided or made less extreme. Of particular interest in illustrating this fact are the Panasonic 7-14mm ultra-wideangle (equivalent to 14–28 mm in the 35mm film format) and the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 9-18mm ultra wide-angle lens (equivalent to an 18–36 mm zoom lens in the 35mm film format). On the telephoto end, the Panasonic 100-300mm and Olympus 75-300mm zooms show how small and light extreme telephotos can be made. The 300 mm focal length in Micro Four Thirds is equivalent to 600 mm focal length in more traditional full frame cameras.

When compared to a full frame camera lens providing a similar angle of view, rather than weighing a few kilograms (several pounds) and generally having an length of over 60 cm (2 ft) end to end, the optically stabilized Panasonic LUMIX G VARIO 100-300mm lens weighs just 520 grams (18.3 oz), is only 126 mm (5.0 in) long, and uses a relatively petite 67 mm filter size. As a point of comparison, the Nikon 600mm f5.6 telephoto weighs 3600 grams (7.9 lb), is 516.5 mm (20.3 in) in length and uses a custom 122 mm filter.

Further, both Panasonic and Olympus manufacture an adapter to enable use of any Four Thirds lenses on Micro Four Thirds cameras. While many Four Thirds lenses accept firmware updates to enable contrast autofocusing, some are slow to autofocus, and some others are manual-focus-only.

Image Stabilization - Different approaches

Olympus and Panasonic approach image stabilization (IS) differently. Olympus uses sensor-shift image stabilization, which it calls IBIS (In-Body Image Stabilization). IBIS stabilizes the image by shifting of the entire sensor. Panasonic uses lens-based stabilization, which it calls MEGA OIS. MEGA OIS stabilizes the image by shifting a small optical block within the lens.

Panasonic claims that OIS is more accurate because the stabilization system can be designed for the particular optical characteristics of each lens. A disadvantage of this approach is that the OIS motor and shift mechanism must be built into each lens, making each lens physically larger, heavier and more expensive than a comparable non-OIS lens. As of mid-2011, of the available and announced Panasonic lenses, the 8 mm fisheye, 7–14 mm wide angle zoom, 14 mm prime, and 20 mm prime are not image stabilized.

Whilst none of the Olympus lenses have built-in IS, all Olympus Micro Four Thirds cameras have in-camera IS, and therefore all Olympus M.Zuiko Digital lenses benefit from the camera's stabilization system. The advantage with Olympus' in-body IS is that Olympus lenses are smaller and lighter than comparable Panasonic lenses, and even vintage manual focus lenses can make use of the in-body stabilization when used with an appropriate mount adapter. This latter fact has added to interest in Micro Four Thirds cameras by many hobbyists, especially amongst users of traditional Leica or Voigtlander rangefinder cameras.

Lens compactness and mount adaptability

Since most Micro-Four-Thirds lenses have neither a mechanical focussing ring nor an aperture ring, adapting these lenses for use with other camera mounts will be impossible or compromised. A variety of companies manufacture adapters to use lenses from nearly any legacy lens mount (such lenses, of course, support no automatic functions.) For the Four Third lenses that can be mounted on MFT bodies, see Four Thirds system lenses. For the Four Third lenses that support AF, see. For those that support fast AF (Imager AF), see.

As of June 2012, the following Micro Four Thirds system lenses, which can be used by all MFT camera bodies, except as noted, have been released or announced with availability within 3 months of announcement: