How good is tge olympus 14-42?

Well, I've been looking online and b&h has a new epl6 with 14-42 kit zoom for $300

At keh there was a 14mm Panasonic f2.5 for $175

At KEH there was an epl1 for $78

At Adorama there was an epk1 for $60.

Looking at it all, there really doesn't seem much difference in price between the new epl6/14-42 @$300, the epl1/14 @$253-$235.

The question is - how good is the 14-42 wide open?

If anybody in a good dark sky area could do a 30second 14mm f3.5 sky exposure, that'd probably make my mind up about that setup.

I have both the 14mmf2.5 and 14-42mm (on an EM10)

I used the 14-42mm for about a month while shopping for other prime's.

The 14-42mm wide open is pretty good but is not as good as the 14mm @f3.5.  But you won't notice the difference unless you have both lenses.  IOW, the 14-42mm stands on its own strength.

I hardly use the 14-42mm these days as my prime lenses collection grew..

addlightness wrote:

I have both the 14mmf2.5 and 14-42mm (on an EM10)

I used the 14-42mm for about a month while shopping for other prime's.

The 14-42mm wide open is pretty good but is not as good as the 14mm @f3.5. But you won't notice the difference unless you have both lenses. IOW, the 14-42mm stands on its own strength.

I hardly use the 14-42mm these days as my prime lenses collection grew..

Will it, wide open produce images sharper than this dreadful Tamron 17-35 did?

Guy Parsons wrote:

Pantyhose Bandit wrote:

Will it, wide open produce images sharper than this dreadful Tamron 17-35 did?

Probably would, see for yourself at http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/index.php and display the interactive graphs for the lenses that are marked as '(Tested)'.

The 17-35 Tamron wide open looks tragic, but stop down a bit and is much better. The 14-42mm looks OK wide open.

Regards...... Guy

Hence my desire for a new system. The only lenses that wi

L let my XT or 30D take great night shots are $350+

Changing cameras is $450+. Changing systems is way cheaper.

Plus I get ludicrous ISO availability now!

A few months ago I took a series of test board shots wide open with all the kit lenses I had.  The Oly 14-42 was the best of the bunch although by a slim margin.  Other kit lenses I was comparing it to were the Nikon 18-55 VR, Canon 18-55 STM, Pentax 18-55 and Sony E-mount 16-50.   The Nikon, Canon and Pentax were pretty tightly grouped.  The Sony 16-50 was the worst.

Sorry, I live in a city. No chance to try out the 14-42 with dark skies.