Panasonic OIS compatibility on Olympus bodies?

Guy Parsons wrote:

Motorazr wrote:

Thank you for your response, Guy.

I’m amused (not really) at the number of Google hits directing me to web pages making the simplistic claim that all Micro Four-Thirds lenses are “100% cross-compatible”.

The reviewers usually get it wrong.

The OIS/IBIS thing still has issues, such as Olympus cannot make dual IBIS+OIS work with Panasonic lenses as they have stated that they use different algorithms.

The Panasonic 12-32mm cannot MF on Olympus bodies. Panasonic lenses that have aperture rings are useless ornaments on Olympus bodies, Olympus only works with body control of apertures (I'm definitely OK with that one).

So, life is easier if sticking to same brand lenses as the body, but there are always some benefits at times in certain cases. Like the Panasonic 45-150mm using OIS on the appropriate Olympus bodies does give a stabilised live view without needing to use half press option. That is really nice on those earlier bodies like the E-PL5/6, but not so good on my E-P5 as the IBIS is so much better than the OIS that I put up with a wobbly live view (I don't use half press IBIS).

The issue is that a lot of times, you don't actually need stabilization for the shot but you want it for looking in the EVF (without half pressing). For me, that's most of the time on long lenses. A lot of times at long FL's, your shutter speed is so fast for freezing motion that stabilization isn't needed, but it's annoying looking at a screen or EVF that's not stabilized. Thus OIS.

Also, at longer focal lengths, power OIS is better than IBIS. The 45-150, with mega OIS, is dubious at 150mm as to if it's better or IBIS is better. But, as I mentioned before, the 45-175 is better than IBIS. So, they've taken something away from that lens IMO. And it's one of my favorite lenses.

For the longer, highly stabilized lenses like the 100-300 II and 100-400, Panasonic uses a switch, so Olympus may be able to get away with it. If Panasonic weren't using a switch for those lenses, Olympus could never get away with this without massive complaints.

And let's not forget that Panasonic COULD add very long, highly stabilized lenses without switches in the future, and that would make the E-M10 III a highly crippled camera in the future if that happened.

Now I also have the 35-100/2.8 on E-P5 but use the IBIS anyway, the switch is always there to change to OIS if I think that may give a clearer live view.

So M4/3 has a common mount but there are many little issues, but that does not stop people from buying cross brand lenses just to get the focal lengths or apertures needed.

It’s just fantastic that older Olympus bodies without credible in-body image stabilization can’t use OIS unless the lens has its own switch to turn on stabilization (while IBIS is turned off).

I started with the E-PL1 and along the way added Panasonic 14-45mm (with switch) and 45-150mm (no switch) and got along OK. but it got way better when I bought the E-PL5 where I could use both lenses properly as needed. Made sense to use OIS with the early Olys as their IBIS is a bit tragic, it adds some blur most times.

Sadly the M4/3 companies don't seem to publish charts of all the problems, or at best make it hard to find possible problems.

As I said long ago and it's still true, we are all beta testers for the digital camera industry.

Regards.... Guy