Newbie Olympus Lenses

I don't own the 12-100mm f/4 but I do own the 12-40mm f/2.8 and 14-150mm f/4-5.6 mark II. From the pictures and specs, the 12-100mm is a bit long for my tastes as my work horse lens. But every so often, I do find myself changing lenses more than I might like (or switching bodies to switch lenses).

For a travel lens, I like the size of the 14-150mm. The mark II version is weather sealed, so I can use it outdoors where rain is a possibility (and I have shot with both lenses in the rain). Sure it is a stop slower than the 12-100mm and two stops slower than the 40-150mm, but it is easier to carry.

Here is an image size of the E-M1 mark II with 4 different lenses (12-40mm f/2.8 pro, 14-150mm f/4-5.6, 12-100mm f/4, and 40-150mm f/2.8 pro):

camerasize.com E-M1 mark II comparison

While I have been a die hard Olympus fan since 2001, I did just pick up the Panasonic G85, and I do like it a lot (though I must admit, the E-M1 mark I keeps coming back into my hand over the G85). The G85 is weather sealed, and it has IBIS support like Olympus. The G85 is a little less than 1/2 the cost of the E-M1 mark II:

camerasize.com compare E-M1 mark II with G85

For me, the G85 has one feature that neither the E-M1 mark I/II nor the E-M5 mark I/II have: namely an OLED viewfinder instead of TFT LCD. The OLED viewfinder does not have polarization effects when you wear polarized sunglasses and look through the viewfinder. Olympus does offer OLED view finders in their non-weather sealed E-M10 mark II and Pen-F cameras. Unfortunately, I get a lot of migraines and being out in the sun seems to be a trigger -- I find wearing wrap around polarized sunglasses helps reduce the frequency of migraines when I'm outdoors.

On all 4 of the E-M1/E-M5 cameras, parts of the viewfinder are opaque when shooting in landscape orientation with polarized sunglasses. On the E-M5 mark II, the copies I've tried in the store are nearly opaque, while the E-M1 mark I/II and E-M5 mark I have areas that you can't see with glasses on, but enough of the area is viewable that I can frame the shot.

If you shoot tripod or hand held live view on the rear monitor, note that all of the cameras (E-M1/E-M5/G85) use an LCD for the rear monitor, but the orientation is different, in that landscape orientation is ok for polarized sunglasses, but you do see polarization effects when you are shooting in portrait orientation.

If you wanted to look at the GH5, it also uses a TFT LCD viewfinder instead of OLED. I believe one of the reasons is that the refresh rate that TFT displays can do is much faster than OLED, and for the high end cameras, they are selling a fast refresh rate as a feature.

Both Olympus and Panasonic cameras do lose some special features if you use the other manufacturer's lens. I.e. you lose hi-res mode, focusing stacking, and pro capture on the Olympus if you use a Panasonic lens, and you lose the DFD option on Panasonic cameras if you use an Olympus lens on a Panasonic camera. So it depends on whether you need/want to use those features. Panasonic has announced plans to refresh their lenses, so if you go with the G85, you might want to consider these new lenses, depending on when you want the camera.

If you are curious about the G85, I wrote this thread about the differences I saw in using a Panasonic camera after using Olympus for some time:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/58680241