Hi Darren, a few years back I did a bike round island trip in Taiwan. This lens and the EM1 MII was my one camera one lens solution for the trip. I shoot it under extreme hot afternoon, pouring monsoon type rain, dark country side astrophotography conditions, and pretty much everything in between. Once you try it, you would appreciate the convenience and versatility it brings to you, knowing that this combo would not hamper the image quality a bit. Taking cityscape night scene with 4 seconds with 200 ISO handheld creates some of the best photos I got from this trip, especially in the city of Taipei and Kaohsiung.

I have been using this lens Darren for 6 months and it does everything great, it really does. I use it for Fashion and Portraiture at F4 in the studio and it produces amazing sharp images. Who needs Blurred backgrounds all the time, often an excuse for bad composition.! as ever great Vid..

Gucci meets Porsche is good definition for this lens!

In our beautiful german language, we have a word for this lens: Eierlegende Wollmilchsau. (rough translation: the perfect animal that gives you eggs, milk, cotton and meat). That's how I see this lens for travel photography and videopraphy, it does everything sufficiently well. My sister owns this lens, and I treid it a few times. So far I haven't pulled the trigger, but I like using it a lot. It doesn't beat out my 25mm f1.2 though, that one has a very special look to it :) Great Review! Greetings from currently not so beautiful, rainy, southwest Germany.

I love this lens for travel Darren. I pair it with one of those tiny 1.8 primes, (the 17 or 25) for when the light gets low, although they seldom get mounted. I'm happy with my EM1ii and this lens for travelling. I also have a full-frame camera, but to get the same functionality out of it, I would need to carry at least twice the weight and bulk in lenses. This lens is the single biggest reason I hang on to my EM1. Of all the lenses I've owned, I think this is my favorite. But then I'm not shooting portraits or shooting much in low light. I also recall walking around NYC with this thing mounted on a Pen-F and having a great time. I really dislike carrying a lot of equipment around, especially when I'm flying. It is a master when it comes to that.

This lens is used in 90% of my photos and I think that the result is superb. After buying this lens, 12-40mm f2.8 is staying in the drawer. Even for portraits in good light at 90-100mm f4 you can get nice subject seperation and the bokeh seems better than my 12-40mm. When i started investing in m43, 12-100mm was not available. If I would start now building a m43 system this would be the first lens to buy complemented by a 25mm f1.2 for low light and portraits.

Hi Darren, thanks for the review. As a fan and long time viewer of your channel, I would like to voice a little criticism regarding your latest reviews (not just m43 gear). I have noticed recently that you are also falling in the trap that most reviewers fall into, and it is that you are more and more reviewing the lens/camera you wish you had, instead of the one you have in your hand at the moment. Case in point, you are bringing up portrait or UWA photography in the review of a super-zoom lens. You mention that it is master of none, but it actually is master of not having to carry two lenses and swapping them in the field, while being sharp, weather resistant (a strong point for a travel lens), having insane IS, and stylish. On newer OM-D bodies, you can consistently hit sharp 1 sec exposures, which means in museums and other tourist/adventure use cases, it allows you to shoot at the base ISO pretty much at any time of the day and get better photos than your FF camera (none of which can go under 1/15 sec consistently). Of course it wouldn't allow for sports shooting in dim light with its f/4 aperture, but nobody ever claimed it could. This approach just led you to give a lukewarm recommendation to the best performing super-zoom made to date, especially since it also has the 12mm.

This is THE lens that got me into the MFT system. I used FF Lumix S1R, which I still have and love, but I wanted a good universal lens. New Pana S 28-200 for me is BOTH too narrow on wide lens and too wide on longer lens, so I skipped it. So I went MFT with 12-100/4. It is AWESOME for anything while you're on a family trip. Brilliant landscapes, fantastic flowers, OK (yes, just ok) portraits without changing the lens - it's just GREAT! I love it!

Thank you for continuing to review the mft and Olympus equipment. It is my favorite lens for travel and hiking. Together with the Panasonic 8-18 wide-angle lens, I am equipped with two lenses with a focal length range of 16-200 mm. Cool!

Glad to see you posting a new video, even better a m43 video, but easy on those jump cuts, buddy.

Hi Darren! Check out Derek Forss use of the 12-100mm here on KZfaq! He's a master.

Hi Darren, I bought this lens two years ago, and it is on my G9 most of the time; about 35000 images later I can confirm what you said: it is an excellent allrounder, and it hardly ever failed me.... My main subject is landscape photography, I am not too much into portraits, so these flaws you see do not matter very much to me. Anyway, a very fair and balanced review, thumbs up from me! BR Erwin.

Best lens purchase ever. Superb quality. Fantastic for travel. Not into portraits and I don't do lots of low light work so I'm a perfect use case.

Great video Darren! Good to watch your Reviews! This lens is a Master among Travel lenses. Just compare with the mft options: Tamron 14-150; Lumix 14-140; Oly 12-200; Oly 14-150. The price is really high, but the quality is impressive. In what other travel lens do you get this image quality and this Macro capability? The Bokeh issue is relative, as Bokeh is not always desired. The ideal is always to have a small Leica 15 f1.7 or Oly 25 f1.8 hidden in the Pocket for low light situations or when Bokeh is desired.

I own this lens and you nailed the review, spot on.

Thanks for the review. I do a lot of documentation type photography as part of my job. I’ve been considering this lens so I don’t have to switch back and forth between the 12-40 and the 40-150. That said, the jury is still out on MFT, overall. I love the size, weight and ergonomics of Olympus. But I’ve found myself disappointed with some image I know my D850! would have nailed. Thanks again for the review.

I know photographers who switched to mFT/Olympus because of this lens. Combine it with a camera like the E-M1 Mark III for example and you've got an extremely capable and versatile kit for hiking, landscape photography, travelling etc. By far the best IBIS in the whole camera business means you won't need a tripod in 90% of the the cases. And it's as robust as a system can be, you can literally take a shower with it and it won't brake.

Who needs Netflix!! I subscribe to Darren Miles. 😊

Some minimal focus hunting is always to be expected when mounting an Olympus lens on the G9, because that has no pd af and doesn’t support depth from defocus for third party lenses. A comparison with the Panasonic Leica 12-60 would be interesting. Not as long, but still long enough for most subjects, being less heavy and less expensive.

I like your channel, and thanks to this video I have decided to save and buy this 12-100mm Olympus lens. I’m on disability cause I have seizures and that stops me from doing a lot of hobbies but I love photography and all I have is a good kit lens but want a good pro lens, thanks for helping me make my mind up Thanks, Dennis

When walking out the house, this lens on my EM1X is my way to go. Mostly landscapes, with the 12-100 on the "X", it provides 7.5 stops!

Holy jumpcuts batman

Excellent review!

Well presented video, good appraisal of the lens. Thank you. I have one and use it most of the time. For what I use it for I think it is an all round walk around masterpiece for the Olympus M4/3 bodies.

master of range holy crap

Video slightly dark Darren. Around the world some of us like to see that south west Florida sunshine😉. I use this lens for handheld (10 images focus stacked in EM1mk2 body) of flowers where I can get so close that bokeh is still very apparent. It's also great for more general usage and is the most versatile lens in my bag which also has a Sony A7r3 body and Sony lenses. And, age 70 with a shaky body, I can get reliable one second handheld exposures on my EM1mk2 because of the incredible IS which increases to 7.5 stops with an EM1X. So lowlight and f4 is no problem. Try doing that with your Sony. Great video though.

It's hard to say if I would get that lens because I find the more versatile the lens is, the less creative I become. I also find that once I have a lens on my body I don't usually switch lens a bunch of times. Just this past weekend I took a four hour hike. Into the woods I kept my 75-300mm lens on but noted things that would work good with my macro lens. So on the way back out I used only the 60mm macro.

As a wedding shooter, the versatility is incredible for everything except the indoors component. I don't have second camera shooters or assistants, or the extended time big budget weddings usually have, and changing lenses or chasing better bokeh uses time that isn't available. Did you try long handheld exposures? It's easy to get 100% sharp results at 1 sec at 12mm, and about a 50% hit rate at 4 secs! That claws back some IQ via lower ISO if a tripod is not being used.

Great review Darren as always. I'm in search of the perfect travel setup. I have a ton of Canon gear, APS-C and FF. I bought my first m43 in Nov. I got the EM5III. Really like it alot. However, I keep coming back to something like the EM1iii with the 12-100 for travel. I don't think there is a 24-200 setup on the market that would be as good as this lens. How about a travel video on what you would carry for overseas vacation travel. Alaska, Pyramids, Europe, Australia, etc. I know you have a ton of cameras and have a good perspective. As for weather sealing on Olympus lenses, what happens in the rain and the lens is extended, doesn't water get in? I haven't been so bold to try this with my EM5iii and 12-40.

Nice video. Yes, this lens might perform at its best at f4, because anything higher than that - diffraction kicks in. F4 on MFT is in terms of DoF an f8 on full frame, so more than enough depth of field in most situations. So for the very best image quality I would recommend to stick to f4 with this lens and stop down only if the depth of field must be deeper.

a darren miles Olympus review in 2020! :)

My best MFT lens investment! Perfect for vacation and travel where you're limited on amount of equipment.

I have EOS R/EF system and M43.... 12-100 is my default lens. you can't fail with it. always take a small prime for low light and I'm covered. None in the RF/EF world meets similar animal like the 12-100.

I’ll have to agree with everything in this review. It really is a lovely lens but it did not fit into my shooting style and I sold it. I can’t really criticise it except for being an F4.

Recovering after Ian?

This video makes you check your phone for messages.

1/11/2022 thank you for sharing this information Bokeh as a requirement is not valid especially when the aperture is above 3. One can also apply bokeh in post very successful using affordable software in the realm of 300.00

Awesome review! I have used it a few times but I was not impressed with the lens. Like you have said, it is simply boring. 40-150/2.8 is my fav followed by 25.4.

Totally agree. Unless you only shoot deep DOF stuff in the daylight such as tourist snaps, or studio work stopped down, I have no idea what you’d use this lens for.

Great ENG lens, or 'don't know what I'm going to encounter' allrounder. But yeah, for me, if I don't know what I'll be shooting, I won't even bother bringing anything but my smartphone. And when do have the intention of shooting stuff, I usually have a good idea of what and get the right tool for the right job. But it's great to have choice. And what else has such a range for flexibility?

Master of none is a strange label to put on a 47,5/50 lens. I'd say it is a master lens. It serves me well in any circumstance I don't need a lot of bokeh or very low light situations, which is actually most of the time. I used a 12-40 before, which I found equally sharp. But this lens sometimes has a micro contrast and picture quality which I only know from sometimes with some Zeiss full frame lenses. That makes it of an outstanding value for m43, imho.

Hi Darren Regarding your comment on the build quality of Olympus professional lenses vs. Sony lenses, so I think Sony's GM lenses have a very high build quality and the same goes for Sony's G lenses, so I don't quite understand your comment. A former Canon user and now Sony user I know says that Sony's GM is on par with Canon's L series. Fortunately, Sony's lenses are not only made of metal but that hold the weight down a bit, and besides, it does not mean that an Olympus lens better can handle a fall on the floor than e.g. a Sony GM lens ..... Cheers Jess

I think your audio has some issues, I can hear tons of noise. Maybe something is wrong with the microphone

is there anyone using 12-100 for real estate commercial photography? experiences to share?

Sony has it similar on the 90mm f2.8 macro....

Hey, while zooming would you say this lens is parfocal or not? I know most MFT lenses aren’t really but is this even close?

Is there a lens above 40mm wo going to 40 to 150 pro?

Unless you're a Bokeh Queen, this is all the lens you may ever need on the move. Don't think of it as the only lens you will want/need but the best single lens to grab and go and at £1300 it is cheap. Oh and I have seen some incredible portrait shots with this lens, that look as your eye would see them, i.e. not surreal obliterated backgrounds, hey sometimes you want that background in!

You are simply criticizing a pig not being able to climb trees and despising a human not able to fly. All these “shortcomings” are not what the lens designed for.

Do you recommend this over the 14 -150

It looks like a kit lens built with pro quality. Travel lenses always compromise on IQ - I wonder if many people will accept these compromises at this price point. Still, travel lenses probably will not get any better than this.

Great Olympus Lens, but and the End of the Day i decided to get the 12-40Pro because of the 2.8. Thank you for this Video

Remember, you are using lumix 😉 that's your problem

To be honest, when I see a lens like that, I would further by a RX100 VI or VII before I buy something like the Olympus. It is one of those glases that show, why mFT is getting obsolete for people, who wants a bigger sensor and a walk around lens. It’s a boring lens, that you can easily replace by a 1“ sensor in tiny camera body, so you don’t have to carry a lot of stuff with you.