One of the biggest advantages of the best Micro Four Thirds lenses is their versatility. Whether you shoot with an Olympus / OM System camera, a Panasonic, a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, a Z Cam or any of the other bodies that employ this open source mount, the lenses can be used interchangeably which means you have a huge number to choose from.
The best Micro Four Thirds lenses are small, lightweight and pretty compact compared full-frame and APS-C lenses. Even the biggest super-telephoto lenses are small enough to keep in a rucksack without breaking your back. Whether you're after a budget lens or a pro lens that'll give you the highest quality images there are loads to choose from.
• Looking for the best Micro Four Thirds cameras
All Micro Four Thirds cameras have identical mounts, which means own-brand lenses can be used interchangeably giving users a massive number of lenses to choose from. It also means you can mix and max to create a setup that's perfect for you. It's worth noting that lenses that have features such as lens stabilization will probably work better when paired with a camera of the same brand.
To make this guide easy to digest we've divided it up into three sections: Panasonic lenses, Olympus / OM system lenses and third-party Micro Four Thirds lenses made by manufacturers such as Sigma or Samyang. Different manufacturers excel in certain areas so it's a good idea to decide what you want the lens for and see which would suit you best. We've included a wide range of focal lengths, apertures and lenses to suit a beginner, enthusiast and professional photographer.
One of the advantages of shooting Micro Four Thirds is that the lenses have a 2x crop factor. Don't worry if you have no idea what this means, you just need to remember that if you buy a lens for a Micro Four Thirds camera such as a 12-60mm lens, it will actually look like you are shooting on a 24-120mm lens if you were using a full-frame camera. By effectively doubling the focal length, you can shoot super-telephoto distances without having a lens that is really big and heavy. This is especially appealing to anyone who is travelling or can't/ doesn't want to carry much weight.
Small and sharp, Micro Four Thirds lenses are hugely impressive. They're mostly compact enough to take everywhere, but also incredibly sharp and capable of capturing excellent levels of detail. Most will provide super-fast autofocus performance and many have silent focusing action, which is great for video.
So let's get to the lenses!
Best Micro Four Thirds lenses for Panasonic
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Panasonic lenses
The Panasonic Lumix G X Vario 12-35mm f2.8 II Asph Power OIS is a standard zoom Micro Four Thirds lens that gives the same kind of performance and versatility as a pro-grade 24-70mm f/2.8 lens on a full-frame camera body – but, typically for an MFT lens, it comes in a much more compact, lightweight package. Indeed, at 305g, it’s only about a third of the weight of a comparable full-frame optic.
Even so, the lens is no lightweight in terms of build quality, with a robust and weather-sealed construction. Centre-sharpness is excellent throughout the zoom range, even when shooting wide-open at f/2.8, and corner-sharpness also becomes impressive at f/4 and narrower apertures. It’s the best Micro Four Thirds lens for everyday shooting, with the bonus of effective optical stabilization.
The Leica Nocticron legend is reborn for the MFT format in this metal-bodied beauty of a lens. It has a well-damped, smooth-action focus ring and useful aperture ring, both of which boost the overall handling characteristics. The 2x crop factor gives the lens an effective focal length of 85mm which is perfect for portrait photography. The flip side is that, because depth of field is linked more closely to ‘actual’ rather than ‘effective’ focal length, the MFT system struggles to give a really tight depth of field, compared with full-frame and even APS-C systems.
This lens fights back with a super-fast f/1.2 aperture rating, which helps to reduce the depth of field and give soft, creamy background blur in portraiture, as well as enabling fast shutter speeds even under dull lighting. And for when you want to use narrower apertures, there’s also optical stabilization, which is almost unheard of in f/1.2 lenses. Image quality is absolutely sumptuous. For portraiture on MFT cameras, this is the best lens that money can buy. It’s seriously expensive but, then again, Canon’s 85mm f/1.2 full-frame ‘portrait’ lens is getting on for twice the price.
Read our full Panasonic Leica DG Nocticron 42.5mm f1.2 Asph Power OIS review
This lens is perfect for use alongside our first choice Panasonic lens, the 12-35mm f/2.8. The Panasonic Lumix G Vario 35-100mm f/2.8 II Power OIS is equivalent to the popular 70-200mm lens if you were shooting on a full-frame camera. It's a versatile lens that's great for portraits, landscapes or even wildlife photography. Better still, its robust weather-sealing makes it ideal for use on outdoor adventures and it weighs about the third of a full-frame equivalent so even if you're hiking long distances, it shouldn't slow you down.
You will find to get super sharp images from corner to corner you'll have to stop it down to f/4 but overall it's a brilliant lens offering high-quality images with minimal lens flares, aberrations or color casts.
Read our full Panasonic Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm f2.8 II Power OIS review
Superzoom lenses are often favored for travel photography, as you get everything from pretty generous wide-angle coverage to long telephoto reach, without the need to carry multiple lenses. Superzooms are also useful when you need to react quickly to different shooting scenarios, or you don’t want to swap lenses on your camera in dusty conditions.
The Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6 II ASPH Power OIS has a powerful 10x zoom range and an effective 28-280mm focal length. Unlike similar lenses for full-frame cameras, it’s wonderfully compact and lightweight, yet retains optical image stabilization that’s commonly found in superzooms. Better still, while most superzooms compromise image quality in favor of a big zoom factor, the Panasonic delivers very good sharpness and contrast throughout its entire zoom range, even when shooting wide-open.
Read our full Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-140mm f3.5-5.6 II ASPH Power OIS review
A zoom range of 100-400mm would give a powerful telephoto reach on a full-frame camera but, in MFT terms, you get a whopping ‘effective’ maximum focal length of 800mm. As we’ve come to expect from Panasonic’s up-market lenses, the Panasonic DG Vario-Elmar 100-400mm f4-6.3 Asph Power OIS is sturdy, robust and meticulously engineered. Highlights include a locking mechanism for the zoom ring and an autofocus range limiter switch. The effective optical image stabilizer is very worthwhile, given the enormous effective focal lengths on tap.
Even though the lens weighs nearly a kilogram, it’s still sufficiently lightweight for prolonged periods of handheld shooting. For added comfort and stability, the lens comes complete with a mounting foot for well-balanced use on a tripod or monopod. Image quality is superb, with excellent sharpness right up to the maximum 400mm zoom setting. The f/6.3 aperture rating at the long end of the zoom range is relatively ‘slow’ but quite typical for this class of super-telephoto lens.
Best Micro Four Thirds lenses for Olympus / OM System
Olympus lenses
While the crop factor of MFT format cameras boosts the telephoto abilities of lenses, it makes the design of ultra-wide optics more of a challenge. The Olympus M.Zuiko 7‑14mm 1:2.8 PRO is a remarkable wide zoom lens with a minimum focal length of just 7mm, delivering an astonishing 114-degree viewing angle, similar to using a 14mm lens on full-frame cameras.
Like other lenses in the M.Zuiko Pro line-up, it’s immaculately turned out, with fabulos build quality. Contrast and sharpness are outstanding, while color fringing and distortions are negligible. As with many ultra-wide lenses, however, the hood is built-in so there’s no filter attachment thread.
Read our full Olympus M.Zuiko 7-14mm review
While standard zooms are commonplace, it's rarer to see one that goes as wide as 16mm equivalent. This is a big tick for the Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 8‑25mm F4.0 PRO, as it means that MFT photographers don't have to carry a standard zoom and a wide zoom, and can potentially get by with just this lens. That's enough to forgive a little bulk, which the lens does have, especially when affixed to one of the smaller OM-D cameras. You'll notice it.
But overall we can't complain too much. The sharpness is excellent, the constant aperture is welcome, and the overall performance is just generally very good. Edge to edge sharpness across the frame and right through the zoom range... really it seems churlish to ask for more than that!
Read our full Olympus M.Zuiko 8-25mm f/4.0 Pro review
Measuring a mere 58x42mm and tipping the scales at just 137g, this diminutive lens feels right at home on even the most compact MFT format body. Like the Olympus 17mm that we favor for street photography, this one is available in either a silver or black finish, and the hood is sold separately. Naturally, the 2x crop factor of MFT cameras gives this lens an effective 50mm focal length, delivering a classic ‘standard’ viewing angle with a fairly fast f/1.8 aperture rating.
Image quality is impressive in all respects. Considering the prices of Canon and Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lenses for full-frame cameras, the Olympus doesn’t look terrific value. However, its performance fully justifies the price tag.
Read our full Olympus 25mm 1:1.8 M.Zuiko review
A focal length of around 100mm is often preferred for extreme close-up ‘macro’ photography. Due to this lens’s shorter focal length, the minimum focus distance drops from about 30cm to 20cm. However, those distances are measured from the focal plane, which corresponds to the position of the image sensor at the rear of the camera. With the more compact build of MFT cameras and lenses, the actual working distance between the front of the lens and the subject remains entirely usable, at about 10cm.
Another bonus is that the 2x crop factor of the MFT format effectively boosts the maximum magnification factor from 1:1 to 2:1, or double life-size. The excellent quality of the weather-sealed construction is a credit to Olympus’s line-up of ‘Premium’ lenses, and the smart focus distance/magnification indicator is a bonus. Image quality is great overall, and the electronically coupled ‘fly-by-wire’ focus ring operates with smooth precision. It’s great for macro focusing, where you’ll often want to focus manually. All things considered, this is unquestionably the best macro lens on the market for the MFT system.
Read our full Olympus M.ZUIKO ED 60mm f/2.8 Macro review
This lens is a few years old now, but it's still widely available and has garnered a reputation as being one of the best lenses around for Micro Four Thirds. And with good reason! The Olympus 75mm f1.8 M.ZUIKO is a solid prime lens in a useful focal length (equivalent to about 150mm), and it really provides a premium handling experience thanks to its all-metal construction and smooth focusing ring. Olympus included some of its best coatings in the construction of this lens, ensuring smooth images free from reflection and stray light, while that f/1.8 maximum aperture gives the user tremendous leeway in low light while also being useful for portraits. It's a little less expensive than it was on release but can still be quite pricey, so do be sure to shop around.
Read our full Olympus M.Zuiko 75mm f/1.8 review
Sick of changing lenses? Want an all-in-one solution? Olympus reckon they've cracked it with this impressive 16x optic, covering everything in between a wide 12mm (24mm equivalent) perspective to a telephoto 200mm (400mm equivalent). And, by and large, they've done it! The lens is great to use, delivering impressive results from a body that's not only lightweight and easy to carry, but is also weather-sealed and hardy. It's not perfect of course, with a narrow-ish maximum aperture and a few sharpness issues (all but unavoidable with a lens of this type), but it's a hugely impressive achievement of optical engineering and one that any Micro Four Thirds user will get a great deal of value out of.
Read our full Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-200mm F3.5-6.3 review
The M.Zuiko 100-400mm f/5.0-6.3 IS perfectly illustrates some of the key advantages of the Micro Four Thirds format. Namely a compact and light weight lens that offers an incredible amount of reach for its size. With a focal length equivalent to 800mm at the long end, the M.Zuiko 100-400mm f/5.0-6.3 IS is also compatible with the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 2x Teleconverter MC-20 and 1.4x Teleconverter MC-14 – which means that you can extend the maximum focal length to an enormous 1600mm if you want or need to. The downside is it's not at its sharpest when shooting at its maximum focal length, while you can't expect an f/6.3 lens to achieve the same results as faster and more expensive optics. If you're prepared to make a few sacrifices though, this is a decent lens if you're looking for a portable lens that'll hit 800mm.
Read our full Olympus M.Zuiko 100-400mm f/5.0-6.3 IS review
Third-party
On a Micro Four Thirds sensor, a 30mm lens produces an effective focal length of 60mm, making the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC DN | C a highly effective standard lens for all-purpose shooting. The fact that it has an f/1.4 maximum aperture makes it hugely useful in low light, and arguably more useful than a kit lens with a narrower aperture.
Image quality is really impressive, especially for a lens of this price. There's excellent resistance to ghosting and flare, and most types of aberration and distortion are not present; the only exception is a little axial or ‘longitudinal’ chromatic aberration, also known as bokeh fringing, which shows up as purple or green fringing around high-contrast transitions. This is noticeable on the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC DN | C, though not enough to be a serious issue. It's a highly effective and versatile lens, especially for a prime.
Third-party lenses can be useful for filling a gap in the market that the main manufacturers have neglected. The Laowa 10mm f/2 Zero-D is wider than any native Olympus or Panasonic primes, giving MFT users a handy 20mm effective focal length that's great for landscapes and other expansive shots.
Laowa lenses come with their own quirks well known to those who have used them; there's no autofocus on this lens, for instance, though it does have a chip that can automatically activate the camera's manual focusing aid. It also has an aperture drive motor, meaning the aperture can be controlled from the camera, enabling the use of modes like shutter priority and program.
It's a small, portable lens that's a lot of fun to use, and the images it produces are hugely impressive. "Zero-D" stands for zero distortion, and it does impressively manage that. An inexpensive purchase, the Laowa 10mm f/2 Zero-D is a great way to add another string to your bow as an MFT shooter.
Read our full Laowa 10mm f/2 Zero-D review
How we test lenses
We test lenses using both real world sample images and lab tests. Our lab tests are carried out scientifically in controlled conditions using the Imatest testing suite, which consists of custom charts and analysis software that measures resolution in line widths/picture height, a measurement widely used in lens and camera testing. We find the combination of lab and real-word testing works best, as each reveals different qualities and characteristics.
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