Panasonic PZ 45-175mm f/4-5.6 Power OIS

£350/$450

Good for stills, great for movies

Pairing well with Panasonic’s Micro Four Thirds cameras, this lens is ideally suited to both stills and video capture. Making the most of the MFT system’s 2x crop factor, it delivers an ‘effective’ 90-350mm zoom range in a small and light package. Even without a retracting design, the lens is only 90mm in physical length and, more remarkably, retains a constant length throughout the zoom and focus ranges. At 210g, it’s the lightest lens in this test group, despite having a metal mounting plate.

A bonus for movie capture is the lens’s powered zoom mechanism. You can operate it either by twisting the zoom ring or via the W/T (Wide/Tele) switch towards the rear of the barrel. Both zoom control options, as well as the focus ring, are electronically rather than mechanically coupled.

Performance

The optical stabiliser is worth three stops, but outright sharpness is disappointing. There’s practically zero fringing or distortion, thanks to MFT in-camera corrections, and nano-structure coatings help to keep ghosting and flare at bay.