My final test of the Pany 42.5mm F/1.7

…for four reasons.

1) As others have observed, the 14-45 is an excellent lens; unmatched over its range until the Oly 14-42 II came out (and then the Panny 14-42 second edition I believe, although I have not used it) -- I reckon they were about as good. Why bother taking f5.6 pictures with a fast prime to compare with it?

2) You are looking at distant features on a sunny day. Thermals in the atmosphere will degrade detail in the pix so you can forget looking at sharpness in pix taken with either lens.

3) You have auto sharpening set at "Standard" so you are looking at JPEGs which have been sharpened in the camera. To compare the sharpness of the lenses, you need to set auto sharpening at "off".

4) I bought and (still) use the 45 primarily as a portrait lens when I want the best quality portrait file, although I do use it in general shooting too. The reason I bought my Oly f1.8 45 lens several years ago while I was using the 14-45 and later the Oly 14-42 was that those two lenses could not do what it could do -- open up three stops wider at 45 to give me narrower depth of field and more out of focus backgrounds in brightish light and open up three stops wider for pictures in lower light. It also focuses much faster in lower light. Your 42.5 goes a further stop wider. Great.

In use, I also feel that as excellent as the two zooms mentioned are, the f1.8 45mm has an edge on them in sharpness -- maybe higher micro contrast only but I am calling it as I see it.

Note: background added.