Rather than design an all-new lens, OM System has opted to simply rebadge the long-running Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm F2.8 Pro, a lens that satisfies the needs of photographers who want a bright telezoom with a focal range that's ideal for capturing portraits, indoor sports, and larger animals in the wild. It proves to be a fine choice, as the lens performs nearly as well as the fresh M.Zuiko Digital ED 50-200mm F2.8 IS Pro ($3,699.99), and while the 40-150mm F2.8 has increased to $1,799.99 from its $1,499.99 debut price due to government tariffs, it remains an excellent value among its peers. I don't think it's as much of a standout as it was upon initial release, but it's still the best telezoom for shutterbugs using Micro Four Thirds gear in its price range, and our Editors' Choice.

Design: Weather-Sealed With Internal Zoom

The original Olympus 40-150mm F2.8 qualified as a standout, ahead-of-its-time lens when it debuted back in 2014 due to its relatively light carry weight (1.9 pounds), small size (6.3 by 3.1 inches HD), blistering fast autofocus, and excellent optical performance. It's held up well over the years, and while it's been undercut in price by the also-excellent OM 40-150mm F4.0 Pro ($1,099.99) and isn't quite the optical marvel as the expensive OM 50-200mm F2.8 IS Pro, it's still a goldilocks lens for enthusiasts using Micro Four Thirds camera gear. The 40-150mm F2.8 isn't too big or expensive, has a desirable F2.8 aperture, and is compatible with rear teleconverters. It's got all the hallmarks of a professional zoom, and lives up to its moniker and reputation.

(Credit: OM System)

As mentioned, apart from changing the brand logo from Olympus to OM System, this new edition of the 40-150mm F2.8 is the exact same lens inside and out. It's well-built with a metal exterior and is fully weather-sealed, though it does not have an IP rating. I've used the 40-150mm F2.8 in the rain on many occasions, including at a muddy dirt bike track, without worry or incident. On the downside, the front element does not include the fluorine protection that OM puts on the 40-150mm F4.0 and 50-200mm F2.8. This means you'll need to take care and use a wet wipe to remove watermarks and smudges from fingerprints, whereas you can clean fluorine-coated lenses with a microfiber cloth.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

The 40-150mm F2.8 Pro sits right in between the 40-150mm F4.0 Pro and 50-200mm F2.8 IS Pro in pricing, even after a recent increase. The lens sold for around $1,499.99 for what felt like an eternity, but went up to $1,799.99 in October 2025. I asked OM System about the price change, and a representative said that "due to recent changes in tariff rates, we can no longer absorb the increased costs, and we regrettably have no other choice than to implement an increase to select products in our lineup." It's disheartening to see prices rise, but this reflects a broader trend in the camera industry. Granted, tariffs haven't moved prices on everything so dramatically; the similar Panasonic Lumix Leica DG 35-100mm F2.8 is $1,199.99 at the time of this publication, a modest $50 increase versus what it cost when it first went on sale in 2023.

The 40-150mm F2.8 is pretty light and decently short for a telezoom, but it is still front-heavy when paired with a tripod. The lens includes a removable tripod collar and foot so you can mount it at its center of gravity. The foot is a little small and omits dovetail cuts, so it can't mount directly into an Arca-Swiss tripod head, signs of the age of the original design. Many newer lenses, including the OM 50-200mm, put more space between the lens barrel and foot so you can carry the lens comfortably by the foot, and include dovetail cuts so you don't have to add a quick-release plate to use with a compatible tripod.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

The bundled lens hood has an uncommon retracting design that makes it a little finicky to use in practice. The hood ratchets onto the front bayonet, like a typical lens, and includes a control ring that allows you to extend or retract it with a counterclockwise twist, after which you either pull out the hood to lock it into position for photography, or push it in for storage or to get at the 72mm filter thread. I like the concept, but found myself twisting the ring in the wrong direction on more than one occasion, and worry about how well it will hold up over time. I had one of these hoods fall apart when I used the lens along with the Olympus E-M1X, though I can't attest to how much abuse it went through before it made its way to my hands.

(Credit: OM System)

The 40-150mm F2.8's bright aperture makes it a good choice for use in dimmer light, and a good lens if you want to capture images with a shallow plane of focus and soft, defocused backgrounds. It also makes it a good choice to use with teleconverters, an accessory that narrows the angle of view to bring small and distant subjects into closer view. Photographers who want to take photos of skittish wildlife and birds often add one to expand the versatility of a zoom lens, and since teleconverters reduce light transmission, they work better with bright lenses than dim zooms like the OM 100-400mm F5.0-6.3 IS II.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

The M.Zuiko 40-150mm F2.8 works with both the 1.4x MC-14 extender (which turns it into a 56-196mm F4.0 zoom) and the 2.0x MC-20 (80-300mm F5.6), though with either, you should expect a drop in picture quality. I used the lens with the 2.0x extender for bird and wildlife photography and noticed that pictures with the extender show softer details versus using the lens without it. The teleconverter takes away some texture from the plumage of songbirds and fur of animals, whereas the pricey 50-200mm F2.8 captures details that are impeccably sharp when matched with the MC-20. If you plan on using a teleconverter, it's worth it to stretch your budget and get the 50-200mm, assuming you can stomach its $3,699.99 price.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

There is no optical stabilization in the 40-150mm F2.8, which is a feature that's included in other OM zooms like the 50-200mm F2.8, 300mm F4 Pro, and 100-400mm II. OM cameras include in-body stabilization, however, so it's not as much of a drawback as you might expect. I noticed some shake in the viewfinder when taking images at maximum zoom with an OM-1 II body—this happens because the camera's stabilization only kicks in when you're taking a photo. I also noticed a change in my intended framing, again, because the sensor moves as you take a photo, which can affect your composition. Still, the stabilization is effective in practice. I am able to get sharp 1/2-second exposures at 150mm consistently, and stretched the shutter to 1 second with a decent success rate.

Controls and Focus: Manual Focus Clutch Sets It Apart From the Crowd

The OM 40-150mm F2.8 doesn't have as many onboard toggles and buttons as the more recent 50-200mm F2.8, but it includes one feature missing from the newer lens: a focus clutch. This means that you simply pull the focus ring back toward the body to switch to manual control, and push it forward to switch to autofocus.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

The clutch is convenient, though is a little too easy to move by accident, especially when you pull the lens out of a bag or if it hangs by your side from a strap. You can disable its function and use the camera body to swap focus modes if it proves problematic. Still, I prefer the clutch for manual focus as it offers some resistance, and this tactile feedback makes it feel like a mechanical focus system, plus it's very quick to use. It's sometimes hard for camera autofocus systems to punch through foreground obstructions like branches and brush to find an animal in the wild, or to ignore netting or fencing when photographing field sports.

The clutch clicks loudly enough to startle wildlife, however, which can be a problem if you're taking photos in a quiet environment. You may choose to assign the configurable L-Fn button to switch between focus modes in that case. The number of functions assignable to L-Fn varies from camera to camera; the OM-1 II supports 48 different options.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

The 40-150mm F2.8 was a standout for focus speed at the time of its initial introduction, and it keeps up with the latest and greatest today. It uses dual linear voice coil motors to snap from distance to close subjects (or vice versa) in an instant. It's one of the fastest focusing lenses I've used for any system, and runs circles around the $240 40-150mm F4.0-5.6 R for speed and accuracy.

The lens focuses close enough for macro photos, too. It locks on to subjects as near as 2.3 feet (0.7m) from the image sensor, so it's capable of capturing objects at 1:4.8 life-size when zoomed all the way in and focused as close as possible. Macro specialists will still want to reach for the OM 90mm F3.5 Macro IS Pro to get close-up details of insects and truly tiny subjects, as it supports larger-than-life 2:1 reproduction, but the 40-150mm F2.8 is a fine option for flowers and jewelry.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

Image Quality: Stands the Test of Time

When I previously reviewed this lens, a 16MP image sensor was considered state-of-the-art in Micro Four Thirds. Today's cameras have more pixels: The OM-1 II that I used for the review has a 20MP Stacked CMOS chip, and the Panasonic Lumix G9 II uses a 25MP chip, so I was curious to see how the 40-150mm F2.8's optics pair with newer cameras. I didn't have the opportunity to try the lens with the G9 II, but it aced an Imatest SFRplus test, delivering outstanding contrast (2,600-2,900 lines) across the frame at three tested focal lengths (40mm, 100mm, 150mm) from f/2.8-11.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

I couldn't spot any distortion or false color in photos, but noticed quite a bit of lens flare in some scenes. On a positive note, I had good luck photographing subjects with the sun directly behind them and peeking out through leaves, but saw excessive flare and a stark drop in contrast when light hits the lens from a steep angle. It's something you can avoid with a slight shift in angle—it just took a minor adjustment to eliminate any sign of flare, but it's something you'll need to be cognizant of when setting up your shots.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

It's easy to get soft, defocused backgrounds with the lens thanks to its relatively wide F2.8 aperture and telephoto optics; they work together to capture images with a thin depth of field, so subjects pop out against a defocused background. The look of the blur, often referred to as bokeh, is quite nice, too. If you catch a scene with bright highlights behind a subject, you'll see that they show soft, feathered edges and avoid ugly onion ring texture, two factors that lend themselves to pleasingly blurry backdrops.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

As mentioned, the 40-150mm F2.8 loses some detail when paired with a teleconverter. If you are eying the lens as a lightweight option for birding and wildlife photography, and plan to use a rear extender, it's of concern. In my experience, the M.Zuiko 300mm F4 prime and OM System 50-200mm F2.8 IS Pro zoom lens hold up to close scrutiny when used with either the MC-14 or MC-20 extender and are worthwhile splurges if you plan on making large prints or heavily cropping photos in the editing room. On the other hand, if you're sharing your photos on social media, you'll be hard-pressed to notice that the feathers on your bird photo aren't perfectly crisp.