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The Enlightenment


The enlightenment
Wuji Tianyuan Temple, Taipei. Taiwan
Google Map
ISO-200, f4, 1/1250s, 14mm
Olympus Pro lens 12-40mm f2.8 


I’m in my 40s—a bit early midlife, but not exactly into old age. I have a good career, I have a great family, and I’m still reasonably healthy. So, life satisfaction should be mine for the plucking. But it’s not. I’m no happier than most people I know, and in many cases less so. However, photography saved my life by helping me overcome depression and midlife crisis. You could check up my previous post: https://bit.ly/2AplT8p How I started my journey as an amateur photographer and struggling with the midlife crisis at the same time.

I started photography with my EM5 kit lens, Olympus 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 EZ M.Zuiko Digital ED. It is the Olympus' "higher end" kit lens at that time. Beyond extending the focal length range into a truly wide-angle and a decent telephoto, this lens has video cred: a zoom ring is a fly-by-wire option that produces no noise during zooming. It is the best kit lens that I know in the Olympus lens flagship. 

After a year of the kit lens, I decided to upgrade my only lens into a pro lens. As beginners, I generally don’t know what particular style of photography I am going to end up falling in love with. I am craving for a little more sharpness and crispness to my photos. No matter how good that kit lens is performing with my EM5, I still feel I want to take the next step upward and that usually means upgrading my kit lens. 

I am not sure what style of photography I am into, I decided to keep my focal length 12-50mm. My first lens has the same focal length which can cover many situations in photography. I bought my 1st pro lens 2 years ago. Olympus M.Zuiko ED 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO lens. 12-40mm is a standard zoom for me as an amateur photographer.

Olympus M.Zuiko ED 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO lens delivers outstanding sharpness through much of the zoom range at maximum aperture and sports a robust, dust and splash-proof build, all while remaining compact and lightweight. I decided to give a try. I was amazed by the photos the lens produced. It is a very sharp lens, even wide open and throughout the entire zoom range. But I prefer to shoot at f4, "sweet spot" of apertures for critical sharpness of the lens. I was impressed with sharpness, corner to corner, the lens displays fantastically sharp images in this range of apertures. The lens built quality is amazing. Olympus 12-40mm ƒ/2.8 Zuiko PRO is built as such, with an all-metal construction that's splash-proof, dust-proof, and freeze-proof.  

I love the compactibility and more portable (380 grams)  in comparison to large DSRL lenses. I took the above photo during the morning visit to a nearby temple with a friend. The photo hardly any distortion at 12mm. The only negative is the speed: f2.8 might seem fast, but on the micro four-thirds format it is indeed a  limiting factor, as it forces me to raise my ISO quickly as the light gets dimmer in the evening. Nevertheless, I would give this lens a 10 out of 10 as an amateur photographer.

Please feel free to leave your comments and suggestions and to share your love by liking this video and subscribing to my blog. Thank you for reading.

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