A few thoughts about Olympus vs Panasonic for wedding photography

@007peter - the gap in AF speed may be smaller with the fast focusing lenses but the slow ones a brought up to life on the Panasonic. There have been many occasions where in open shade I was shooting with the E-M1 and 45mm f1.8 people walking towards me as they perform a traditional Bulgarian dance that we see on every wedding and I was struggling with no more than 50% keepers. I tried the slower 42.5 f1.2 and the GX7 in a similar way and my keeper rate went up to about 95% with zero effort.

I will check out the GH4 although I like the small cameras more and even more the lack of the common dSLR look.

@Bob Meyer - about the organization of the menus - it's kind of funny that what you say about the Oly menus I would say about the Panasonic's - what a randomly spread mess! Indeed it may be a case of getting used to one thing first. It's like when I was shooting Nikon and my colleagues had Canons we tried exchanging our cameras and it took us a Looong time to figure out how to change the AF point or other trivial settings. After a few minutes we said in one voice "arrrrrrrrrgh, give me my camera back!"

About comparing two different cameras - perhaps I've failed to convey that I'm comparing the GX7 not only to my E-M1 but also to my E-PM2 and E-PL5. Even my smallest Oly sounds rigid and like a small brick when I knock it with my finger. The Panasonic sounds hollow.

@SidSnot - sure, the option to return to the same menu after you exit it is very nice on the Panasonic!

@Guy Parsons - indeed it's a blessing that the 12-40 is so reliable in the dark. I quickly fond that when I started shooting in difficult lighting. It and the 25mm f1.4 were my go-to lenses for such occasions. Not anymore.

@Jeanadriane - I'd like to thank you for stimulating me to dig deeper to find the flash exposure compensation. I did find it and set it as on one of the on-screen Fn buttons. So I take back my statement on that note as well.

@MayaTlab0 - TBH, no, I did not try that. I will check it out while I still have one OM-D left after selling the other. Thanks!

@wansai - there's a lot of sense in your comment. Indeed I want the Olympus to be the best m43 option in every aspect. I love the handling and the attention to the small details when working with the cameras - whether it's the E-M1 or the E-PM2. I have the feeling that I will not regret getting my first Panasonic because it made a big wish of mine a reality - to be able to shoot portraits of couples dancing in dim light with my portrait lenses with even more confidence. The Panasonic is leaps and bounds ahead in this area.

@b0k3h - I concur that in the situation you describe the 12-40 and E-M1 are a serious competitor to the dSLR cousins. I can always rely on it. But still, the E-M1 limits the use of some of my lenses.

I thought about that - what do I need more often - a splash/freeze/shock proof body or the fastest AF I could get? It's the AF 99.9% of the time. Even more so the way I use to change AF points on my E-M1 is most often by repeatedly pumping the joystick until I reach the desired point out of 81. Sometimes I use the front and back dial to speed things up but that still requires me to push the joystick once to activate AF point selection. Now with the Panasonic I just touch the screen with my thumb as I'm looking through the viewfinder and adjusting the AF point is a blast. I'm having so much fun with it.

@bluelemmy - thanks for your input! It intrigues me and is exactly what I was thinking during the wedding a few days ago - the 42.5 f1.2 is so fast on the GX7 that I couldn't imagine needing anything faster. Still... would I refuse faster AF? - Absolutely not!