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Olympus 40-150 vs. Panasonic 45-150 test

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Thomas Niemann

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Yesterday I received both the Olympus 40-150mm and Panasonic 45-150mm lenses. As usual, it's rainy in Portland. So I set up in my living room, camera on a tripod, about 25 feet (8 meters) from the target. Configured with a 2-second delay, 1/8 second anti-shock, IBIS off. Here's a shot at approx 75mm.

OlyImage.jpg


The following are 100% crops taken at approx 75mm, stopped down by one f-stop.

Olympus 40-150mm, center crop

Olympus 40-150mm, center crop

Panasonic 45-150mm, center crop

Panasonic 45-150mm, center crop

Olympus 40-150mm, right crop

Olympus 40-150mm, right crop

Panasonic 45-150mm, right crop

Panasonic 45-150mm, right crop

These images get downsized by dpr. Be sure to click on the Original image.

The center crop results are about the same. Same held the left side of the frame. But the right side indicates optics are not properly aligned for the Panasonic.

Since the build quality for the Panasonic is superior I had high hopes. But, in the end, optics win. The Panasonic has been returned. Frankly I was surprised at how well the Olympus rendered detail.
 
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I'm surprised, not that the Zuiko did well but that the Panny is a noticable step behind. Having both the µ4/3 and 4/3 versions of the 40-150, I consider them excellent examples of what kit lenses should be.

Cheers,

Rick
 
The m.Zuiko is very cheap and very good!

The build quality is a shame.
 
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Just curious, did you compare them at 150? Both my Oly 40-150 and 75-300 are sharp until the far tele end, where both noticeably fall off. I've read that is a common situation with these types of tele lenses, although I don't remember seeing it with my 4/3 lenses (not even 4/3 version of 40-150). So I'm curious whether the Panasonic is more consistent at the long end?




--

Roberto M.
 
At 150mm the Panasonic showed no signs of optical misalignment. But this steadily increased as I zoomed to wider focal lengths. While I no longer have images taken at this focal length, I noted that the Panasonic was slightly sharper. The change was insignificant and it wasn't until I zoomed down to wider focal lengths that I made a decision.
 
thanks for the test very helpful. i had high hopes too for the pany as i have a pany body and wanted image stabilisation, but seems it is lacking in sharpness vs the oly.
 
Thomas Niemann said:
Thomas Niemann wrote:

Yesterday I received both the Olympus 40-150mm and Panasonic 45-150mm lenses. As usual, it's rainy in Portland. So I set up in my living room, camera on a tripod, about 25 feet (8 meters) from the target. Configured with a 2-second delay, 1/8 second anti-shock, IBIS off. Here's a shot at approx 75mm.

The following are 100% crops taken at approx 75mm, stopped down by one f-stop.

These images get downsized by dpr. Be sure to click on the Original image.

The center crop results are about the same. Same held the left side of the frame. But the right side indicates optics are not properly aligned for the Panasonic.

Since the build quality for the Panasonic is superior I had high hopes. But, in the end, optics win. The Panasonic has been returned. Frankly I was surprised at how well the Olympus rendered detail.
Click to expand...
Not that the results would be different, but imo 2 second delay is not enough, especially at telephoto focal lengths.

Thanks for the test.
 
For the Panasonic the right side of the image was blurred, while the center was much sharper. If camera movement was the problem we would expect the entire image would be degraded.

This pattern, right edge fuzzy, center sharp, repeated for 45, 75, and 100mm for the Panasonic. The Olympus was sharp on all accounts.
 
Thomas Niemann said:
Thomas Niemann wrote:

For the Panasonic the right side of the image was blurred, while the center was much sharper. If camera movement was the problem we would expect the entire image would be degraded.

This pattern, right edge fuzzy, center sharp, repeated for 45, 75, and 100mm for the Panasonic. The Olympus was sharp on all accounts.
Click to expand...
Yes I can see that (as I said); what I meant was in general - usually 2 s is not enough.

But honestly, your (and not only your) results came as a disappointment - I was hoping to finally ditch that awful plastic 40-150.
 
Thanks for a decent test Thomas.

Were the wide-open results the same?

...

and will you be doing it again when you can't resist the Lumix 45-175 and that arrives?
 
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