Panasonic vs Olympus 14-42 lens

[Dez]

I am sure this has been discussed to death on this forum by now, but I have not been able to find it, so please forgive me for going over undoubtedly old ground.

i just bought a quite basic, but very handy Panasonic GF3 body on ebay. My main purpose is to use it with LTM lenses using an adaptor that is hopefully arriving in the mail someday. In the meantime, I have a Nikon adaptor, and I have been doing some playing, and find the camera very usable.

I would also like to get a proper 4/3 lens to use some of the camera's cool features, and have found a large number of the basic 14-42mm lenses on ebay, with a really remarkable range of prices for the same lens. I see two vintages of the Olympus one, the newer M. Zuiko one being a bit smaller. The Panasonic lens is generally cheaper, but is larger as well. There is also a really tiny Panasonic one, but I guess it's too new to have cheap demo units on ebay yet, so I figure that is a bit out of my price range.

As I have mentioned a number of times, I am a rather frugal fellow. To be honest, "cheap" is possibly a better word. I have seen the Panasonic lens at $70-$100, and the Olympus ones in the $100-$150 range, So my question is, how do these lenses compare? What is the best trade-off between quality and price?

Thanks for any advice you can provide.

Cheers,
Dez

 

[ampguy]

Only have experience with the Oly 14-42 that came with an EPL1. It's pretty good on bright days, mild distortion at extremes, but 25-35 have very little distortion, f5.6 and smaller are excellent, below is iffy. Small and compact, as this version collapses (manually) when not in use, but still thicker than a pancake. No built in hood, but has 40.5 threads. AF speed is OK with good light with the EPL1, but this was after firmware updates for both the camera body, and the lens.

 

[Dogman]

I only own the 14-42mm that came with the Olympus E-P1 and a 14-45mm that came with the Panasonic G1.

The Olympus is a 3-section "folding" model that is not bad optically for general photography but not confidence-inspiring for build quality. It takes a 40.5mm filter. I think later models were a 2-section folding design. I'm not crazy about the Olympus folding lens concept.

I don't have any experience with the 14-42mm Panasonic lenses but the 14-45mm model I have is pretty good optically and is better built than the Olympus lens--although it is physically larger. It takes a 52mm filter.

Both my samples of these lenses are pretty close in optical performance. I don't test lenses, I just shoot pictures. I've been pleased with photos done with both lenses. Due to the better build quality of the Panasonic lens, I tend to use it more often.

 

[Dez]

Since the GF3 camera body is so tiny, I went against my natural inclination (i.e. cheap) and spent the money on the third generation Panasonic 14-42mm series X lens. It's expensive, but half the size of the previous 14-42 model.
I'm not in love with the power zoom, but there really isn't enough room for a zoom ring on this tiny thing. The ebay seller seems to have a rather liesurely approach to shipping, so I need to be patient a bit longer before I can try it out.

Cheers,
Dez