Little Big Zooms for Olympus Pen Cameras - NYTimes.com

I didn't expect to see an article about new Micro Four Thirds lenses in the New York Times Gadgetwise section of their site. I'll have to check there more often. I'm seriously thinking about getting the new M. ED 40-150mm F4.0-5.6 lens for the E-P1, more so when I read this:

"The Zuiko ED 40-150mm f4.0-5.6 lens (that’s a 35mm equivalent of 80mm to 300mm) weighs only 6.7 ounces and has a minimum length of 3.1 inches."

The thing is that the lens looks smaller than the Four Thirds ED 40-150mm f4.0-5.6 for my E-510 - and you'd think it would be - but it's not. This new PEN lens is very slightly slimmer (2mm) but slightly longer (11mm) and 30 grams lighter. It takes a lot of optical alchemy to make a zoom lens this big this small. This article points out how much bigger similar lenses are. Does the similarity in size to my current 40-150mm put me off? Not a bit. I seriously thought about getting the Four Thirds to Micro Four Thirds adapter for my ED 40-150mm. I like that focal range. For a bit more than an adapter I can get a whole other lens, even if it does duplicate one I already have.

Say what you want about Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds but sometimes less is more. I'm more likely to carry either of my Olympus cameras than something bigger and heavier. Olympus has always been the master of compact, high quality cameras. The PEN series (even the E's) carry this tradition forward.

Thanks to Rik Fairlie and The New York Times for a nice article. I've read the others out there but this is the first one to compare the sizes of similar lenses.

Little Big Zooms for Olympus Pen Cameras - NYTimes.com