Panasonic 14-50mm f/2.8-3.5 Vario-Elmarit Aspherical MEGA O.I.S.

I shoot with the Panasonic 14-50mm f2.8-3.5 Vario-Elmarit on micro four thirds Olympus cameras.

Originally I had the lens adapted to the PEN EPL2 via the Fotodiox Pro adapter. The adapter fit was a little sloppy which was annoying with such a heavy lens, but there was no light leakage whatsoever. As mentioned in several references around the web, the lens is somewhat slow to focus especially in low light/contrast environments when adapted to MFT. Plus the bulkiness of the lens-plus-adapter is, shall we say, ergonomically incorrect on the EPL2.

Recently I moved over to shooting with the OMD EM10 (including the additional Olympus grip) and switched to the Olympus MMF-1 all-metal adapter for the Panasonic lens. This has rectified the tolerance issue of adapter to lens. The Olympus adapter is a perfect snug fit on the lens and the OMD EM10. For me the ergonomic issue of the lens size is also resolved with the EM10. The thumb support on the back of the camera and the additional dimension of the supplemental grip make a fairly heavy lens, metal adapter, and camera assembly very comfortable in my longish-fingered hands. I can even shoot one handed, though I rarely do. The Panasonic lens also focuses more quickly on the OMD EM10 versus the EPL-2, though noticeably slower than the Olympus four thirds lenses. This is not a function of the adapter change as I have tried both the Fotodiox and the Olympus adapters with the lens on the EM10 and the focus time is consistent.

On both cameras my experience is that the lens is extremely sharp - my primary criteria for a lens as I can fix almost anything else in post-processing. I have evaluated somewhat formally against the four thirds Olympus 14-42 f3.5-5.6 and Olympus 40-150mm f4-5.6, and compared it for sharpness with my Konica Hexanon lens collection including the 40mm f1.8, the 50mm f1.4 and the 50mm f1.7 (the sharpest of the three) also adapted to fit MFT. At equivalent focal lengths, dialing down to f5.6 on each lens, and manually focusing with the camera's digital zoom assist, the Panasonic/Lumix/Leica beast is just as sharp as the Hexanon 50mm f1.7 prime lens even when pixel-peeping, and sharper than the other lenses mentioned above.

I loved this lens when I was using an Olympus four thirds DSLR. This lens is the reason I went with micro-four thirds, so that I could continue to utilize it even as the original four thirds format went obsolete. I don't always want to carry the bulk/weight, but for serious shooting the OMD EM10 and the Panasonic 14-50mm f/2.8-3.5 D Vario-Elmarit is my go-to set-up. And the results are spectacular IMHO.