Olympus m.zuiko digital ed 12-200mm f3.5-6.3 mft lens, £799.99

A micro-four-thirds (MFT) sensor has a crop-factor of two. This means that this lens, in 35mm terms, has a zoom range equivalent to an impressively wide 24mm to a really quite long 400mm. Olympus say it’s “the most powerful zoom of all interchangeable lenses for mirrorless systems” (as of January 2019). It also has a quoted working distance of just 10cm at lowest magnification, and 50cm at its highest, and is dust, splash and freezeproof. All of which adds up to a very versatile lens. Its maximum aperture is f3.5 at the wide end and f6.3 at 400mm. If you’re a micro-four-thirds user (which is mostly cameras from Olympus and Panasonic/lumix) this zoom is likely to pique your interest. This lens seems well-made, weighs 473g (with lens caps) and measures approximately 103mm long (wide-angle) and 75mm in front diameter. The grip on the zoom ring is about two fingers wide and it moves anti-clockwise from wide to telephoto. The manual focus ring sits in front of the zoom ring, has about half a finger of grip and moves smoothly and lightly. The zoom ring moves against more resistance. On my review sample its movement was a little lumpy, in one place in particular, but this wasn’t really a problem.

There is no in-lens stabilisation, so you will need in-body stabilisation, a suitably fast shutter speed or extra support. There is no tripod attachment point on the lens but attaching the camera body to a decent tripod provided good stability. The autofocus is fast and, even on my dated Lumix G6, was pretty good at locking on to birds in flight. Working distance was better than quoted – an astonishing centimetre or less from the front of the lens at 24mm and about 43cm at 400mm. And it can produce very good images.