what's the best micro four-thirds lens I've reviewed over the past 12 months? Well, welcome to Redlands award 2023. [Music] Hi, this is Jimmy Chang, and welcome to Red 35. In this video, I'm going to name the best lens currently available on the micro four-thirds platform based on what I currently own, used, and reviewed through the course of 2022. But before I continue, I need to clarify a few things first. This video is in no way sponsored by anyone. I need to be as unbiased as I can. And second, I can't possibly include every brand and lens that were released in 2022 or before, but I do hope that by starting my annual award, more brands will come on board and eventually expand this healthy competition, so for all your photographers and filmmakers out there, get better and more affordable lenses as a result, so it will be a benefit for everyone. Third, you can also play a part in this by first liking this video and by subscribing to my channel, so not only you can stay tuned for all my future reviews.

but also be part of our red 35 Community, where we have all sorts of discussions on Michael Forfeit lenses, cameras, and anything photography and filmmaking. So, I welcome everyone, not just Michael Forfeit users. So, let's get started. As this is a YouTube channel, instead of making a two-hour event, I have shortlisted the 2-5 nominations. So, if you want to see an individual review on any of these five lenses I'm about to discuss, I will have the links in the video description below. Okay, with little things out of the way, let's talk about my top five lenses in 2022, and at the end of this video, I will crown the lens that wins my first red lens Awards 2023. [Music] So, to kickstart my top five nominations, first up is OM Systems MG Core 20 millimeters F 1.4 Pro. I reviewed this lens at the beginning of last year and said it is one of the most essential fast prime lenses that OM/Olympus has ever produced. And why is the 20

millimeters 1.4 Pro important for om well first this is the first compact 1.4 Pro grade prime lenses that om system has ever produced. Its size is significantly smaller and much lighter than let's say its 1.2 cousins. While many, and I mean many, of you have been asking Olympus and slash omnow to upgrade their 1.8 premium lenses for a while, the 20 millimeter seems to be the first step for the new company, and what a start it is. I personally like the 20 millimeters 1.4 Pro while I was testing it, and I know the fact that many of you have already bought one. It's like the perfect compact Travel Planners that you can take anywhere. The 20 millimeters focal length may seem a little odd at first, but being slightly tighter than the 17 millimeters and wider than 25 millimeters, it somehow strikes the balance for being an easy-to-use lens for all kinds of Photography genre, from environmental portraits to

Street snaps to medium landscape to detailed documentary photography. So probate Optics Pro build quality with full IPX 53 weather seal all tuck into a compact body. Well, you simply can't ask for more. [Music] One of the few surprises in 2022 when Panasonic released an ultra-wide prime lens, the nine millimeters panel Leica 1.7 aspherical. But I didn't think anyone was expecting this as it seems that both Panasonic and OM system has forgotten how to make ultra-wide lenses for the past few years. The entire auto-wise scene has been dominated by one company, and that's lower from China. But what a present surprise it was. Panasonic made history by releasing this nine millimeters 1.7 as their first ultra-wide autofocus rectilinear prime lens for micro four. First, it was a dream lens for many landscape, cityscape, and estate photographers, together with documentary filmmakers and vloggers' priority OM system's amazing A2 25 millimeters FL Pro, the widest autofocused ultra.

Wireless was Olympus 7 to 14 millimeters F 2.8 Pro, which was a popular ultra-wide zoom for many photographers. However, the biggest Hercules heel for this lens is the bulging front's design, rendering using any sort of filter system a pain in the butt. The A2 25 minutes is F4 Pro really fixed that problem, though it is slower and not much smaller than its bigger cousin. It's a great lens, don't get me wrong, but it isn't for someone who may want to push the light just a little bit more. Olympus does have an older offering, they're the 9 to 18 millimeters F4 to 5.6, but its performance is nowhere near as good as any of its modern cousins. While Panasonic has the 7 to 14 millimeters F4 and the h18 2.82 F4 zoom, but both suffer the same filter problems as the Olympus 7014 2.8 Pro. So, this is where Panasonic Leica's nine millimeters F 1.7 comes in.

full micro forces air support weather seal and crazy sharp optics that makes it one of the most unique propositions in the microforce as well. No wonder it's sold out as soon as it comes out and remains pretty limited in supply until now. [Music] Speaking of ultra-wide lenses, I was shocked to see lower managed to pull one last punch before the end of 2022. The lower six millimeters F to Zero D is one heck of a lens. For those who don't know who Laura is, well, they've been making premium menu lenses for some time. And interestingly, lower seems to only be interested in specialist areas in both photography and filmmaking, such as Auto y mackerel and fish-eye lenses. And they have made a name in the microfos community by making some of the best auto-wide prime lenses around. And their latest six-millimeter offering is the widest rectal leaning prime lens for micro four-thirds. But to make it to my top five nomination, it has to offer something rather unique than being just

the widest it is supported by Perfect Image quality. It is as sharp as Japanese Katana. It has brilliant Sunstar, beautiful organic rendering, and almost perfect Optical Corrections in Distortion and chromatic aberrations. These are elements that are pretty rare in modern lens manufacturing, as many chose to use software Corrections instead. So lower six millimeters may have a big hole in lens Barrel, but it is indeed a very special lens. foreign [Music] system has another wonderful lens that I totally fall in love with, and that's the 42 150 millimeters F4 Pro. This new F4 Pro SIM is half the size that is tube on a brother, but has the exact same coverage and image quality. So instead of lugging my 2.8, I opted for this lightweight Beast for all my travels in 2022. I will say over 40 of my travel shots was from this lens because it covers such a wide focal length and it's very versatile for many things, from Tiny landscape to portraits.

to occasionally close-up details. I've taken many wonderful shots from this tiny beast, and when I said this thing is small, look. It is not much bigger than the 1.2 prime lens and just a little longer than the 12 to 40 millimeters 2.8. This houses showing my travel setup by quite a bit, saving my shoulders and energy so I can walk longer. Therefore, om system's final act in the F4 Trinity certainly makes the loudest noise in my opinion, and most of you would agree that micro four third lenses should be small and packed with performance, and this m to equal 40 to 150 FL Pro definitely fits in this category. Foreign [Music] now the final lens you would know this if you've been watching my videos in the last few months. So the last candidate to compete in this best lens award is Laos 18 millimeters F 0.95 August. Well, since I reviewed the 25 millimeters F 0.95 August early in 2022, I would

expect the 18 millimeters to be a spectacular lens, but what shocked me wasn't the build quality or the design of the lens, but the optical performance of it. There are only a handful of 0.95 lenses that can have tech-sharp images and wide open without any halo aberrations, even distortion. Optically, this 18-millimeter Argus behaves like a lens that costs 10 times more. Apart from its image quality and wide open F 0.95, I'm also very pleased to see just how organic its draw is. The bokeh is soft and creamy, not clinical like most digital lenses out there in recent time, including some expensive options, resulting in a very artistic and cinematic aesthetic, which I personally really enjoy. Speaking of cinematic, this lens has a switch to change the aperture for click and non-click actions. The latter makes this very video-friendly lens for smooth transition during recording. Overall, I can't really fault this lens, and for the first time, I start to wonder why the likes of Leica or Nikon can charge

thousands of pounds for a f 0.95 lens while lower can make it such a low cost so that's all five lenses competing for my first red lens award 2023 as you can see each and every one of them presents a unique proposition within the micro forces RAM and all of them are great great lenses with a good mix of optical performances features and designs but which one comes out on top okay let me start by saying one thing from each lens that I deduct one point from reaching the top first is om systems 20 millimeters F 1.4 Pro and it would have to be the rather noticeable purple fringing in high contrast scenarios well it's certainly better than its direct rival the Panasonic Leica 25 millimeters F 1.4 but being a pro lens and certainly after using all the Olympus Pro lenses I was expecting a little more second Panasonic Leica 9 millimeters 1.7 I love this lens really it's 1.7

incredibly sharp, has speedy auto focus, and weather seal. Also, its design allows the use of filters too, perfect for videos and landscape photographers. But it is let down in two areas: plastic build and the heavy distortion in raw state without profile corrections. It is almost a perfect micro four-thirds lens, in my opinion, small and light with performance to match. I wouldn't mind paying £50 more to get better build or £100 more for better optical correction. See, if you use this lens and record more video externally, you will see that distortion and need to correct in post, and I really don't like the extra work. So, despite being my favorite vlogging and gimbal lens, it doesn't make the top three lenses to go. And next is my favorite travel Swiss army knife lens, the OM system's brilliant 42-150 millimeters F4 Pro. In fact, I don't have much to say about this lens apart from being a great lens. It is sharp, well-built, compact, exactly what a micro four-thirds lens should be.

but there just isn't an area that really wows me, so this is the sole reason why it doesn't make the top. And I hate to say that, but to make this award, it has to have something to shout about that leaves two lower lenses. So before I announce the first red lens award 2023, I would like to congratulate lower for winning this year's award and thank you for your continuous commitment on this platform, bringing us great and affordable lenses. And I can't wait to see what you are going to do this year. So here we go, the very first red lens award 2023 goes to lowest six millimeters f200d. Man, I didn't really expect lava would pull in another great lens just a couple of weeks before the end of 2022 after the 18 millimeters August, which I prematurely crowned the world. When I revealed it, to be frank, I really had a hard time deciding between the two. Both have spectacular Optical performance, well-executed Optical Corrections, sharpness, vocal rendering control.

aberrations and Rolex-like build quality with premium construction and features that really appeal to both Michael father's photographers and videographers. One has a usable and high-quality 0.95 aperture with switchable click actions, and one has the widest rectilinear coverage with auto electrical connection. But what sets these six millimeter apart from the 18 millimeter is the overall package. It has always been about mobility, versatility, and compactness, and the six millimeter is no doubt designed just to be a great micro faucet lens. Its tiny dimension is also an appeal to many. The auto feature is really the icing on the cake, giving the user the convenience of having many in-camera automation features such as IBIS, peaking, and magnify, together with metadata that you can manage later. Even though it has a big hole in the barrel, something that I can forgive, the six millimeter 0D blends all the ingredients to make the perfect micro four-thirds lens. Yeah, so this is it. I hope you enjoyed this annual event, and I do intend to

continue this yearly by conducting this award. I hope to give all lens designers something to look forward to. The beneficiaries will always be us photographers and videographers because we should expect to see better lenses as this goes forward. Once again, I thank all Michael Faucer Alliance members for their continued support on this format in the camera industry. We need all the support we can to make sure this fabulous platform thrives indefinitely, and there are plenty of users around the world, and all of us need great lenses and cameras to help us get the best shots we can. And for this channel, I would like to personally thank those companies who helped make this event possible by sending me lenses to review. Some of them I bought, of course, so really by no particular order. I would like to thank lower OM systems, UM, Seven Artisan, TT Artisans, Per Gear, Metal Gears, really, really many more apart from Panasonic because I had to buy their lenses anyway. Thank you all for watching this channel and this event, and hope it has been great fun, and hopefully you agree for my

selection as well. If you have any other things that you would like to know more about, don't forget to leave me some comment in the section below. And also, you know, let me know if you have some lenses that you would like me to test. And better still, you can collaborate as well by sending me those lenses. Of course, I'll return it to you, not that I will take it away. And so I can see more lenses um as we go along. And I really truly hope that this annual event is going to expand to include more lenses so we can test them all out. So you know what is the best for the year. Anyway, thank you again for watching, and you know what to do now. Thumb if you like this video and sub if you want to stay in touch with all things photography, filmmaking, and of course Michael for third peace [Music] foreign [Music] wow this is crazy. This is which is cotton Castle, one of the iconic iconic scene that every Travelers dream. Definitely is mine. It's a my bucket list.

and now I ticked it. Yes, awesome. Wow, this is amazing. Seriously, taking lots of photos, lots of videos, a lot to remember in this trip. Amazing.

BEST M43 Lens you can buy - RED35 LENS AWARD 2023

BEST M43 Lens you can buy - RED35 LENS AWARD 2023