Panasonic 20mm 1.7 vs Panasonic 14-42 ii

tald1 wrote:

Hi, My name is Tal and i am new to this forum and this is
my first writing here. (but i read a lot...).

A months ago i bought EPL5 to replace my EPL2 . After a shot session with the
new camera i was very disappointed. the photo looks just bad like something is
wrong about them. The photos from my epl2 looks much better. Since i saw many
great photos before i bought the camera i started searching what is the problem.
The lens on my EPL2 was Olympus 14-42 ii and with the EPL5 Olympus
14-42 ii r. After some reading i understand the the r version is not so good
and i bought Panasonic 14-42 ii ,that i found for 100$, and that make me
very happy with great photos. (maybe i got a bad copy of the oly 14-42 ii r).

Now i am thinking of buying the first version of the Panasonic 20mm 1.7 that
i can get for 260$ but i can not find any comparison between it and
the Panasonic 14-42 ii. will the photos from it will be much
better from the Panasonic 14-42 ii ?

The short answer is yes - the 20/1.7 is expected to be sharper at any comparable aperture. However, once you stop down the zoom lens, the difference is expected to be minor (assuming that both are good copies). The P 14-42 ii has received some very good reviews and it looks like a good zoom. The main reason to add the 20/1.7 is its wider aperture - f1.7. This will allow you to lower the ISO in low light situations and to get more subject isolation. Carrying a good zoom and 1-2 fast primes is a good idea in general.

Thanks.