Panasonic 35-100 f2.8 vs Olympus 40-150 f2.8

kuro_neko wrote:

I'm trying to decide between these two lenses. I keep flitting between the two and I'm hoping a little chat might help me make a decision.

There are pros and cons to each of course. IMHO these are:

Panasonic 35-100

Pros: Smaller, lighter and cheaper (£771 Amazon), slightly wider

Cons: Shorter reach, no tele-converter (that I know of)

Olympus 40-150

Pros: Longer reach, more versatility with the tele-converter, better minimum focusing distance

Cons: Larger, heavier and more expensive (£1,099 Amazon - strangely you can get it with the 1.4x tele-converter for just £2 more!!)

You nailed it very accurately. The 35-100/2.8 is the world's tiniest PRO 70-200 2.8 lens It's incredibly small for what it delivers. Image quality is superb. internal focusing. crisp images. One could really NOT ask for more...

However... the 40-150 offers "more" in some areas, but at a cost. The 40-150 is like a 70-200 on a crop camera ;). It's definitely more useful as a TELE lens, however, the cost in size and weight is considerable. It probably wins *marginally* on IQ, and it definitly wins on build quality (not that the 35-100 is bad, but the Oly Pro series is just superb). So at the end of the day, the question is what you use it for...

Essentially I want a lens to use at events (both indoor and outdoor - mainly outdoor). Last year I found my 75-300 was often too long at the short end and my 16-70 (Sony A6000 lens) was often too short at the long end.

See? here is where you answer the question... for "events" - 70-200 is a classic portrait range. you don't need longer than 200 in the vast majority of cases when shooting events, unless you're doing something wrong or the couple arrives in a helicotper and wants to be shot mid air. you would be very hard pressed to find any serious event photographers shooting Canon or Nikon using a lens longer than their 70-200/2.8 on Full Frame.

And as such, you can enjoy the advantages of the small size which would tire you less during an event.

Had you said you shoot wildlife, then the story would be different...

I appreciate that only I can ultimately decide which will suit my needs best, but I figure some of you will have had to make the same choice between these two and I'd be interested to know people's thought processes.

Well  -hope this helped