GX85+14-45 vs E-P5+14-42(ii r) comparison

This is just for fun. GX85 with a very old Panasonic 14-45mm kit lens vs E-P5 with the Olympus 14-42mm ii kit lens. I shot both lenses at their wide and long ends, then also tried each lens on the other body to see if there are any impacts on IQ from using a different body. All settings were as standard as I could manage, with sharpness and noise reduction set to zero on both cameras (I think; not completely familiar with Olympus menus), and ISO 100. I focused on the white building in the centre. I tried to make exposure about the same.

First the Olympus E-P5 shots using both lenses:

Then GX85 shots using both lenses:

My conclusion is that the Panasonic 14-45mm is the sharper lens at both ends, although the Olympus 14-42 is not too bad at the wide lens, and that both lenses seem slightly sharper on the Panasonic body (although this is subjective and there is not much in it). And the Olympus colours are slightly nicer.

To turn NR off on the E-P5, I went to the custom menu, then Exp/.../ISO, then Noise Reduction: off. I assume this is the way to do it?

No, it's not ...

In Olympus land, 'noise reduction' refers to dark frame subtraction after long exposures.

You need to adjust 'noise filter' via the same menu as you used - set to 'low' or 'off'.

Boss of Sony wrote:

This is just for fun. GX85 with a very old Panasonic 14-45mm kit lens vs E-P5 with the Olympus 14-42mm ii kit lens. I shot both lenses at their wide and long ends, then also tried each lens on the other body to see if there are any impacts on IQ from using a different body. All settings were as standard as I could manage, with sharpness and noise reduction set to zero on both cameras (I think; not completely familiar with Olympus menus), and ISO 100. I focused on the white building in the centre. I tried to make exposure about the same.

First the Olympus E-P5 shots using both lenses:

sorry, here are the Olympus shots. With the 14-45mm lens:

With the 14-42mm lens:

Then GX85 shots using both lenses:

My conclusion is that the Panasonic 14-45mm is the sharper lens at both ends, although the Olympus 14-42 is not too bad at the wide lens, and that both lenses seem slightly sharper on the Panasonic body (although this is subjective and there is not much in it). And the Olympus colours are slightly nicer.

To turn NR off on the E-P5, I went to the custom menu, then Exp/.../ISO, then Noise Reduction: off. I assume this is the way to do it?

JaKing wrote:

No, it's not ...

In Olympus land, 'noise reduction' refers to dark frame subtraction after long exposures.

You need to adjust 'noise filter' via the same menu as you used - set to 'low' or 'off'.

Thanks, wish I'd known that before I did the test. It was set to standard.

Boss of Sony wrote:

JaKing wrote:

No, it's not ...

In Olympus land, 'noise reduction' refers to dark frame subtraction after long exposures.

You need to adjust 'noise filter' via the same menu as you used - set to 'low' or 'off'.

Thanks, wish I'd known that before I did the test. It was set to standard.

Bugger ... .

Like all JPEG NF/NR, it is too aggressive at the default setting. Can smear detail badly, depending on subject.

If shooting only JPEGs, I would set this to OFF. As I shoot RAW + LSF JPEG, and use the two file types for different purposes, I set mine to NF = Low.

As I am on my phone, can't judge on the result.

However as far as to me, 14~45 is old, but still one of the best standard kit zoom of M43. Its IQ is highly comparable to 12~35 f/2.8, slightly better than my copy of 12~32 and 14~42 PZ.

Sadly it is not DUAL IS compatible which making it harder to compete with its younger siblings on recent Panny DUAL IS compatible bodies.

Regarding the color, Standard mode of GX85 at 0ev exposure is sort of flat and noiser than it should be. Add +1/3~2/3ev when zebra appears will give its SOOC output a totally new look. For SOOC jpg shooter, Vivid is the best for non portrait shooting. All could break away from default of Panny output.

My 2 cents.

Tech Head wrote:

Boss of Sony wrote:

My conclusion is that the Panasonic 14-45mm is the sharper lens at both ends, although the Olympus 14-42 is not too bad at the wide lens, and that both lenses seem slightly sharper on the Panasonic body (although this is subjective and there is not much in it). And the Olympus colours are slightly nicer.

Big difference in the lenses at the long end. Olympus has yet to make a decent, small kit lens.

Please pardon me for disagreeing ...

Hopefully you read the part where he mucked up the noise filter, unfortunately.

alcelc wrote:

...14~45 is old, but still one of the best standard kit zoom of M43. Its IQ is highly comparable to 12~35 f/2.8, slightly better than my copy of 12~32 and 14~42 PZ.

And what about Pana 12-42 II? Could you comment?

JaKing wrote:

Tech Head wrote:

Boss of Sony wrote:

My conclusion is that the Panasonic 14-45mm is the sharper lens at both ends, although the Olympus 14-42 is not too bad at the wide lens, and that both lenses seem slightly sharper on the Panasonic body (although this is subjective and there is not much in it). And the Olympus colours are slightly nicer.

Big difference in the lenses at the long end. Olympus has yet to make a decent, small kit lens.

Please pardon me for disagreeing ...

Hopefully you read the part where he mucked up the noise filter, unfortunately.

What on earth kind of logic is this? Did you see the part where I tried both lenses on both cameras and you can even compare the shots for yourself?

buratino wrote:

alcelc wrote:

...14~45 is old, but still one of the best standard kit zoom of M43. Its IQ is highly comparable to 12~35 f/2.8, slightly better than my copy of 12~32 and 14~42 PZ.

And what about Pana 12-42 II? Could you comment?

Don't have it, I have already too many 12/14~XX zoom lenses.

Read that it is also among the best of its class...

Tech Head wrote:

I would rank the 12-60 (f3.5 to f5.6), the 12-32, and the 14-45 as the best small, slow kit lenses.

I would rank the Pana14-42 II as just slightly behind the top 3.

Then I would rank any other slow kit lens for MFT to be behind the top 4, including all Olympus kit lenses.

Interestingly, in my experience, Pana 12-60mm was unimpressive at all, definitely worse than 12-32mm. At the same time, both copies of 12-32 I had were equally satisfying. Probably, I got a bad copy of 12-60mm.

buratino wrote:

Tech Head wrote:

I would rank the 12-60 (f3.5 to f5.6), the 12-32, and the 14-45 as the best small, slow kit lenses.

I would rank the Pana14-42 II as just slightly behind the top 3.

Then I would rank any other slow kit lens for MFT to be behind the top 4, including all Olympus kit lenses.

Interestingly, in my experience, Pana 12-60mm was unimpressive at all, definitely worse than 12-32mm. At the same time, both copies of 12-32 I had were equally satisfying. Probably, I got a bad copy of 12-60mm.

On contrary to your experience, might be I have a bad 12-32... ?

My copy of 12-32 is quite good (as a kit lens) under reasonable lighting condition. But it behaves weird when lighting condition going bad... Its inconsistent performance leads me to rate 14-45 a better all round player.

Albert, contrary to the opinions expressed by two people, I have found my 4 Olympus kit zooms in this range to be of better than acceptable quality.

Not in the same league as my FTs 11-22 and 14-54 MkII or 12-100, but good enough. Those latter lenses are also 4x to 6x the price, so they flaming well should be better, and are!

Same goes for Panasonic kit lenses.

The fatally flawed comparison done by the OP shows nothing that changes my view either way. There will also always be some sample variation - sometimes so obvious that a lens should be returned. I have never experienced such bad sample variation, however.

I also don't spend my time dissing Panasonic gear on the basis of a single image set taken under unknown conditions.

I DO know that Panasonic make generally excellent products.

Tech Head wrote:

...Because different reviews give markedly (sometimes wildly) different results for these lenses and because sometimes people get bad copies, I looked first at Panasonic's theoretical MTF charts for the lenses. I also looked at the pro reviews and user opinions.

The top 3 lenses I gave are the ones Panasonic actually claims are the sharpest on the long end. I didn't feel the consensus of reviews refuted this ranking. And Panasonic rates the 12-60 (f/3.5 to f.5.6) as their sharpest of the slow kit lenses.

I am "bothered" with strong difference between M and S values in 12-60mm. I wonder if it could be a reason I did not like mine (I doubt it, though). 12-32 looks quite good! I expected better corners at 14mm in both 14-45 and 14-42 lenses.

Oly 12-40mm is below. For comparison, only S20/M20 values are common between the above and below. Oly has a very low difference between S20 and M20. And whatever values are there, I love my 12-40mm.