This is an ingenious lens that features a clever ‘parking' system, making it much more compact when stowed than when in use. Olympus has achieved this by extending the rotation of the zoom ring to retract the middle of the three concentric cylindrical units, thereby reducing the overall length from...

Clever lens ‘parking'

Chromatic aberration

Olympus's wide-angle kit lens for the E-510 and E-410, available separately for $250 (street), this is the smallest and lightest digital Zuiko. It and its tele counterpart, the 40-150mm f/4-5.6 Zuiko, are the first interchangeable lenses from Olympus with plastic mounts.

We put the old Olympus Pen 14-42mm MKI zoom lens against the newer 14-42mm MKII in our ultimate shoot out.

Usually supplied with the company's DSLR cameras, the Olympus Digital 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 ED is a compact standard wide angle zoom lens covering focal lengths equivalent to 28-84mm in 35mm format. This covers all kinds of general photography, including family snapshots, scenery and portraiture.

It's offered with a camera body; As a kit lens, it is a good match in size and performance for Olympus's DSLRs, You want an affordable, general-purpose standard zoom for an entry-level Olympus DSLR body.

The newer model of the 14-42 zoom lens, older models were larger and came with metal mounts, new model, smaller, but with plastic mount. ED stands for extra dispersion, all the Oly lens have that now.

Small, lightweight, great everyday lens

Lightweight; Sharp Focus

You have to take your hat off to Olympus for getting so much right with its first Micro Four Thirds camera. From the stylish, retro design to the top notch image quality this is a camera that, unlike so many we see, pretty much completely lives up to the hype surrounding it.

Excellent resolution; tons of detail in the shots; Appealing; bright and punchy out of camera results and well optimized JPEGs; Very clever collapsible kit lens that's small; but offers decent quality; Unique retro design puts SLR quality into a compact body; Good high ISO performance up to ISO 3200

Slow focus requires a more considered approach to shooting; Some highlight clipping (and poor dynamic range at ISO 100; Low resolution screen that's hard to see in bright light; No viewfinder; No built-in flash (and the optional flash is expensive and pretty basic; Complicated menu system not that

Olympus ED 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 EZ is a Variable aperture Auto Focus (AF) Standard Zoom lens with FourThirds max sensor coverage, and it is designed to be used with MFT cameras. What type of photography is the Olympus ED 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 EZ lens good for?

Autofocus, Power Zoom, Minimum focus distance of, 0.25m / 9.8 inch, Light weight at only, 91g / 3.2 oz, Hood is not supplied, Lens Extends while zooming, Slow Aperture at Tele end, Variable Aperture

Autofocus, Power Zoom, Minimum focus distance of, 0.25m / 9.8 inch, Light weight at only, 91g / 3.2 oz, Hood is not supplied, Lens Extends while zooming, Slow Aperture at Tele end, Variable Aperture