My final test of the Pany 42.5mm F/1.7

Betarover wrote:

WARNING: THESE FULL SIZE IMAGES MAY LOAD SLOWLY

For landscapes I wanted to know if my new Panasonic 42.5mm F1.7 lens is noticeably sharper than my 3 year old Panasonic 14-45mm 3.5-5.6 ASPH lens at 43mm. I tested the new Pany at F2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, and 8. F5.6 was the sharpest. I used my Oly E-PL5 camera, ISO 200, tripod, and 2 second delay with anti-shock. These full size images have no sharpening, just auto contrast adjustment, and both are at F5.6. They are posted full size for the few of you who do landscape prints and might be interested in this lens.

Here is my method of testing. I first focus on the center of the image, then lock the focus. I then take a strip of landscape across the very top edge, then rotate the camera up a bit to take a second image with the same landscape strip across the center, then rotate it up a bit more to take a third image with the strip across the bottom edge. In Photoshop I then cut and paste the strips to one image. This method reveals the corner, edge, and center sharpness in one combined image. This method also assures that everything is at infinity.

For my 30"x20" prints I do not think the slight, but definite sharpness and contrast improvement is sufficient to be noticed by viewer, but you may have a different conclusion.

Panasonic 42.5mm F1.7 lens at F5.6

Panasonic 14-45mm 3.5-5.6 ASPH lens at F5.6

Are these OOC Jpegs? They look totally oversharpened which makes any difference in lense performance hardly visible. I would never print something like these with that kind of exaggerated sharpening.