Travel with 2 small bodies, lens recommendation help

Pad-Thai-101 wrote:

Hello all,

I am thinking about moving from Sony FE system to m4/3 and plan to have 2 small bodies and small lenses for Traveling. Since I don’t like to switch lenses and want to travel light.

1. I plan to have an Olympus Pen-F, but it’s hard to find a used one on eBay and/or the E-P7 which I don’t think they sell in the USA. So I am thinking about an Olympus E-PL9 and an Panasonic GX9. Is it too confusing to have 2 different brands? I thought I lease I have the flip screen from E-PL9 and EVF from GX9.
2. One body might be paired with a Wide angle lens, still not sure what to get between Olympus 9-18mm or the preorder the Panasonic 9mm 1.7
3. Second body I'd like to Pair with Panasonic 20mm 1.7 which I like its small form factor. Hopefully I can detach the body and lens and put in different pants pockets if I want to.
4. This is my headache, what is a decent travel Telephoto lens. Thinking about Panasonic 45-200mm or 40-150mm (Pana/Oly) or any recommendation? I don't mind if it's slow, but prefer it small, light and sharp enough.

Get another GX9. The EVF is good to have.

Ultra-Wide. The 9mm f1.7 sounds GREAT! When shooting ultra-wide with the 7-14mm f4 the vast majority of my shots are at 7mm.

Telephoto. Forget the 45-200mm. It’s mediocre, much bigger and heavier that the 45-150mm.

The 45-150mm is good, cheap and small. However, if you’re getting something like that, take a look at the Panasonic 14-140mm. It’s the same size, but slightly fatter (58mm vs. 52mm filters). It’s a perfect daylight walkabout lens. AND minimal lens swaps! I love mine!

There's also the tiny 35-100 f4-5.6. People seem to love it.

How about 2 GX9. 14x140mm, 9mm and 20mm? Maybe spring for a 42.5mm f1.7 paired with the 20mm for interiors and nighttime?

I have 2 small body Olympus kits for travel.

The smallest kit is an E-M10 IV with the 14-42 EZ pancake, and the ultra light (and ultra cheap) 40-150 f/4-5.6. The whole lot fits in a small bag, image below.

The second kit consists of the E-M5 III with the 12-45 f/4 and the 75-300.

I usually take one or the other, but both use the same batteries and both do usb charging so if I were to consider a two kit trip, I would chose these two bodies and then select lenses  that would provide a good mix. I notice you have a Samyang. They make a dandy 7.5mm FE for the Olympus (I had the Rokinon), but if money is not a problem, the Olympus 8mm FE is small and can be in-camera defished to 5.5, 7 and 9mm with the E-M5 III. Either works well for an ultra wide. The new 40-150 f/4 is a super match with the 5.3, along with the 12-45 f/4. And… The 10.4 is a nice jacket pocket go any where when paired with the 14-42 EZ. Add an auto opening lens cap and the 10.4 is a super charged point and shoot.

I also have a Pen F, but that doesn’t seem to fit into the mix, IMO, maybe because of the different battery.

My super light E-M10 IV kit with 14-42 EZ and 40-150 f/4-5.6. Fits INTO my personal under airplane seat bag.

Pad-Thai-101 wrote:

1. This is my headache, what is a decent travel Telephoto lens. Thinking about Panasonic 45-200mm or 40-150mm (Pana/Oly) or any recommendation? I don't mind if it's slow, but prefer it small, light and sharp enough.

I can't speak to other telephoto zooms in the system, but I've been quite impressed with the Panny 45-150 that came with my GX85 kit.  I was kinda shocked to find that it was very sharp across the range and even the corners look good.  Yes it's slow, but for the price, size and weight it was better than I expected it to be. I was expecting to write it off as another mediocre kit lens that would sit on the shelf but color me "pleasantly surprised" by this one.

I'm sure copy variation is all over the map on kit lenses like this one and plenty of shooters will get less-than-stellar samples of it, but if you get a good one I think you'd be happy with it.

jeffharris wrote:

Come on, Panny, update those "HD" lenses to 4K already.

timo wrote:

Pad-Thai-101 wrote:

Hello all,

I am thinking about moving from Sony FE system to m4/3 and plan to have 2 small bodies and small lenses for Traveling. Since I don’t like to switch lenses and want to travel light.

1. I plan to have an Olympus Pen-F, but it’s hard to find a used one on eBay and/or the E-P7 which I don’t think they sell in the USA. So I am thinking about an Olympus E-PL9 and an Panasonic GX9. Is it too confusing to have 2 different brands? I thought I lease I have the flip screen from E-PL9 and EVF from GX9.
2. One body might be paired with a Wide angle lens, still not sure what to get between Olympus 9-18mm or the preorder the Panasonic 9mm 1.7
3. Second body I'd like to Pair with Panasonic 20mm 1.7 which I like its small form factor. Hopefully I can detach the body and lens and put in different pants pockets if I want to.
4. This is my headache, what is a decent travel Telephoto lens. Thinking about Panasonic 45-200mm or 40-150mm (Pana/Oly) or any recommendation? I don't mind if it's slow, but prefer it small, light and sharp enough.
5. from no.5, should I even go with the Olympus macro 60mm or 75mm to cover the semi-telephoto range.

Sorry for my poor English and Thank you in advance

Pad-Thai

For me lightness and compactness are musts when travelling. Therefore:

Lumix 12-32/3.5-5.6

Lumix 35-100/4-5.6

Both very light, compact, and very competent.

I sometimes travel with the Lumix 12-60/3.5-5.6, which is a very good performer but bulkier and heavier.

Lumix 20/1.7 a good backup to put in the suitcase or for night shots.

Camera body: Olympus OMD 5iii, with a Fuji X30 as a backup. If I wanted an M43 second body, my Lumix GX7 would be ideal (or one of its successors). My GX8 is fantastic, but quite a bit heavier.

Yeah, I shot with an extensive MFT kit for 7 years, but now that I've added 35mm format for my event work, I'm scaling back the MFT kit to a GX9 with the tiny 12-32 and 35-100 and a 14-140 for ultralight-but-better-than-iPhone walkabout shooting in decent light. Those three lenses are better than they have a right to be, given their price, size and weight.

bluevellet wrote:

jeffharris wrote:

Come on, Panny, update those "HD" lenses to 4K already.

Speechless...

I assume you aware that Panasonic rolled out 4K video model (GH4) first time in 2014.

The above lenses were older released before 4K arrived Panasonic land:

• 45-150 f/4-5.6 was released in 2012
• 14-140 f/3.5-5.6 was released in 2013
• 14-42 f/3.5-5.6 mk-II was released in 2013

In fact from 2009, there were a few other lenses has the HD label. HD could be a selling point/fashion(?) at that period of time.

After the arrival of 4K, Panasonic had updated its lens design and no more HD printed on the lens. 14-140 f/4-5.6 mk-II, which was released in 2019, no longer has the "HD" label...

jeffharris wrote:

Pad-Thai-101 wrote:

Hello all,

I am thinking about moving from Sony FE system to m4/3 and plan to have 2 small bodies and small lenses for Traveling. Since I don’t like to switch lenses and want to travel light.

1. I plan to have an Olympus Pen-F, but it’s hard to find a used one on eBay and/or the E-P7 which I don’t think they sell in the USA. So I am thinking about an Olympus E-PL9 and an Panasonic GX9. Is it too confusing to have 2 different brands? I thought I lease I have the flip screen from E-PL9 and EVF from GX9.
2. One body might be paired with a Wide angle lens, still not sure what to get between Olympus 9-18mm or the preorder the Panasonic 9mm 1.7
3. Second body I'd like to Pair with Panasonic 20mm 1.7 which I like its small form factor. Hopefully I can detach the body and lens and put in different pants pockets if I want to.
4. This is my headache, what is a decent travel Telephoto lens. Thinking about Panasonic 45-200mm or 40-150mm (Pana/Oly) or any recommendation? I don't mind if it's slow, but prefer it small, light and sharp enough.

Get another GX9. The EVF is good to have.

Ultra-Wide. The 9mm f1.7 sounds GREAT! When shooting ultra-wide with the 7-14mm f4 the vast majority of my shots are at 7mm.

Telephoto. Forget the 45-200mm. It’s mediocre, much bigger and heavier that the 45-150mm.

The 45-150mm is good, cheap and small. However, if you’re getting something like that, take a look at the Panasonic 14-140mm. It’s the same size, but slightly fatter (58mm vs. 52mm filters). It’s a perfect daylight walkabout lens. AND minimal lens swaps! I love mine!

Same here. I used to carry the 12-35/2.8 and 35-100/2.8 on long walks and day hikes, but got sick of lens swapping. The 14-140 is probably one of the best 10x zooms one can buy in terms of sharpness wide-open and consistency across the frame and across the focal range. A real standout. My full-bore travel kit is thus GX9 & GX8 with 14-140, 7-14, 20 and 45. It all fits easily in a tiny shoulder bag I can carry without fatigue over 8 hours of wandering on foot.

P.S.: Given my finding below, I may replace the 14-140 with 12-32 and 35-100 in my two-body kit, mounting one on each body to avoid lens swapping. For a one-body kit, I dunno, might stick with 14-140, as I sure do hate lens swapping.

There's also the tiny 35-100 f4-5.6. People seem to love it.

I do. Here are shots from the f4-5.6 and the f2.8. They're pretty darned similar. Amazing, especially considering that this is near the long end, where the cheaper telezooms tend to soften. Both are visibly sharper than my 14-140 at the same focal length.

Honestly, I thought the 14-140 would put up more of a fight. I'll have to go deeper into this series of test shots for a fuller assessment of it at various focal lengths. 9 bodies and 19 lenses yielding over 300 test shots, so I haven't had time to make all the possible comparisons yet.

I hope to someday have time to post the whole set as a public resource...

Panasonic 35-100/4.0-5.6, 90mm, f5.6

Panasonic 35-100/2.8, 92mm, f5.6

Both images processed with DxO PhotoLab, Super-Rezzed in LRC, then interpolated & sharpened for printing 24" @ 300ppi.

How about 2 GX9. 14x140mm, 9mm and 20mm? Maybe spring for a 42.5mm f1.7 paired with the 20mm for interiors and nighttime?

jeffharris wrote:

Pad-Thai-101 wrote:

Hello all,

I am thinking about moving from Sony FE system to m4/3 and plan to have 2 small bodies and small lenses for Traveling. Since I don’t like to switch lenses and want to travel light.

1. I plan to have an Olympus Pen-F, but it’s hard to find a used one on eBay and/or the E-P7 which I don’t think they sell in the USA. So I am thinking about an Olympus E-PL9 and an Panasonic GX9. Is it too confusing to have 2 different brands? I thought I lease I have the flip screen from E-PL9 and EVF from GX9.
2. One body might be paired with a Wide angle lens, still not sure what to get between Olympus 9-18mm or the preorder the Panasonic 9mm 1.7
3. Second body I'd like to Pair with Panasonic 20mm 1.7 which I like its small form factor. Hopefully I can detach the body and lens and put in different pants pockets if I want to.
4. This is my headache, what is a decent travel Telephoto lens. Thinking about Panasonic 45-200mm or 40-150mm (Pana/Oly) or any recommendation? I don't mind if it's slow, but prefer it small, light and sharp enough.

Get another GX9. The EVF is good to have.

Ultra-Wide. The 9mm f1.7 sounds GREAT! When shooting ultra-wide with the 7-14mm f4 the vast majority of my shots are at 7mm.

Telephoto. Forget the 45-200mm. It’s mediocre, much bigger and heavier that the 45-150mm.

The 45-150mm is good, cheap and small. However, if you’re getting something like that, take a look at the Panasonic 14-140mm. It’s the same size, but slightly fatter (58mm vs. 52mm filters). It’s a perfect daylight walkabout lens. AND minimal lens swaps! I love mine!

There's also the tiny 35-100 f4-5.6. People seem to love it.

How about 2 GX9. 14x140mm, 9mm and 20mm? Maybe spring for a 42.5mm f1.7 paired with the 20mm for interiors and nighttime?

Thank you. I was thinking about 1 GX9 and 1 GX8 too, at least I'll have an articulated screen to take self-picture with my partner. In the Covid era, sometime feel strange to ask someone to take picture for you.

Pad-Thai-101 wrote:

jeffharris wrote:

How about 2 GX9. 14x140mm, 9mm and 20mm? Maybe spring for a 42.5mm f1.7 paired with the 20mm for interiors and nighttime?

Thank you. I was thinking about 1 GX9 and 1 GX8 too, at least I'll have an articulated screen to take self-picture with my partner. In the Covid era, sometime feel strange to ask someone to take picture for you.

The GX8 is a joy to use. I pray to any God that’ll listen for an upgraded version. 😜

I'll travel this night towards Istanbul, for a 5 days trip. Great city, fabulous architecture etc.

I'll take with me:

Samyang 7.5mm - architecture, landscapes

Olympus 14-42mm - all arounder

Panasonic 100-300mm II - birds and animals

Panasonic 25mm, just in case.

I'll let home plastic-fantastic 40-150mm... since I have the Panny 100-300II, it didn't "catch" the photobag anymore...

Jacques Cornell wrote:

jeffharris wrote:

Pad-Thai-101 wrote:

Hello all,

I am thinking about moving from Sony FE system to m4/3 and plan to have 2 small bodies and small lenses for Traveling. Since I don’t like to switch lenses and want to travel light.

1. I plan to have an Olympus Pen-F, but it’s hard to find a used one on eBay and/or the E-P7 which I don’t think they sell in the USA. So I am thinking about an Olympus E-PL9 and an Panasonic GX9. Is it too confusing to have 2 different brands? I thought I lease I have the flip screen from E-PL9 and EVF from GX9.
2. One body might be paired with a Wide angle lens, still not sure what to get between Olympus 9-18mm or the preorder the Panasonic 9mm 1.7
3. Second body I'd like to Pair with Panasonic 20mm 1.7 which I like its small form factor. Hopefully I can detach the body and lens and put in different pants pockets if I want to.
4. This is my headache, what is a decent travel Telephoto lens. Thinking about Panasonic 45-200mm or 40-150mm (Pana/Oly) or any recommendation? I don't mind if it's slow, but prefer it small, light and sharp enough.

Get another GX9. The EVF is good to have.

Ultra-Wide. The 9mm f1.7 sounds GREAT! When shooting ultra-wide with the 7-14mm f4 the vast majority of my shots are at 7mm.

Telephoto. Forget the 45-200mm. It’s mediocre, much bigger and heavier that the 45-150mm.

The 45-150mm is good, cheap and small. However, if you’re getting something like that, take a look at the Panasonic 14-140mm. It’s the same size, but slightly fatter (58mm vs. 52mm filters). It’s a perfect daylight walkabout lens. AND minimal lens swaps! I love mine!

Same here. I used to carry the 12-35/2.8 and 35-100/2.8 on long walks and day hikes, but got sick of lens swapping. The 14-140 is probably one of the best 10x zooms one can buy in terms of sharpness wide-open and consistency across the frame and across the focal range. A real standout. My full-bore travel kit is thus GX9 & GX8 with 14-140, 7-14, 20 and 45. It all fits easily in a tiny shoulder bag I can carry without fatigue over 8 hours of wandering on foot.

P.S.: Given my finding below, I may replace the 14-140 with 12-32 and 35-100 in my two-body kit, mounting one on each body to avoid lens swapping. For a one-body kit, I dunno, might stick with 14-140, as I sure do hate lens swapping.

Thank you, I was looking at the Pana 12-35mm 2.8 too, but seem the much shorter minimum focus from Olympus lenses attract me more

There's also the tiny 35-100 f4-5.6. People seem to love it.

I do. Here are shots from the f4-5.6 and the f2.8. They're pretty darned similar. Amazing, especially considering that this is near the long end, where the cheaper telezooms tend to soften. Both are visibly sharper than my 14-140 at the same focal length.

Honestly, I thought the 14-140 would put up more of a fight. I'll have to go deeper into this series of test shots for a fuller assessment of it at various focal lengths. 9 bodies and 19 lenses yielding over 300 test shots, so I haven't had time to make all the possible comparisons yet.

I hope to someday have time to post the whole set as a public resource...

Panasonic 35-100/4.0-5.6, 90mm, f5.6

Panasonic 35-100/2.8, 92mm, f5.6

Both images processed with DxO PhotoLab, Super-Rezzed in LRC, then interpolated & sharpened for printing 24" @ 300ppi.

How about 2 GX9. 14x140mm, 9mm and 20mm? Maybe spring for a 42.5mm f1.7 paired with the 20mm for interiors and nighttime?

gary0319 wrote:

I have 2 small body Olympus kits for travel.

The smallest kit is an E-M10 IV with the 14-42 EZ pancake, and the ultra light (and ultra cheap) 40-150 f/4-5.6. The whole lot fits in a small bag, image below.

The second kit consists of the E-M5 III with the 12-45 f/4 and the 75-300.

I usually take one or the other, but both use the same batteries and both do usb charging so if I were to consider a two kit trip, I would chose these two bodies and then select lenses that would provide a good mix. I notice you have a Samyang. They make a dandy 7.5mm FE for the Olympus (I had the Rokinon), but if money is not a problem, the Olympus 8mm FE is small and can be in-camera defished to 5.5, 7 and 9mm with the E-M5 III. Either works well for an ultra wide. The new 40-150 f/4 is a super match with the 5.3, along with the 12-45 f/4. And… The 10.4 is a nice jacket pocket go any where when paired with the 14-42 EZ. Add an auto opening lens cap and the 10.4 is a super charged point and shoot.

I also have a Pen F, but that doesn’t seem to fit into the mix, IMO, maybe because of the different battery.

My super light E-M10 IV kit with 14-42 EZ and 40-150 f/4-5.6. Fits INTO my personal under airplane seat bag.

Thank you. How's is the 12-45mm f4? I have my eyes on that lens too.

PS. You need a Cooler bag if you want to put a can of beer in, also nobody will know that you have a camera inside. LOL

ursamajorRO wrote:

I'll travel this night towards Istanbul, for a 5 days trip. Great city, fabulous architecture etc.

I'll take with me:

Samyang 7.5mm - architecture, landscapes

Olympus 14-42mm - all arounder

Panasonic 100-300mm II - birds and animals

Panasonic 25mm, just in case.

I'll let home plastic-fantastic 40-150mm... since I have the Panny 100-300II, it didn't "catch" the photobag anymore...

Thank you, I am glad that I have the idea of 2 small cameras like many other

I am hesitating to go with Olympus 12-45mm f4, seems it's very small and sharp.

Pad-Thai-101 wrote:

gary0319 wrote:

I have 2 small body Olympus kits for travel.

The smallest kit is an E-M10 IV with the 14-42 EZ pancake, and the ultra light (and ultra cheap) 40-150 f/4-5.6. The whole lot fits in a small bag, image below.

The second kit consists of the E-M5 III with the 12-45 f/4 and the 75-300.

I usually take one or the other, but both use the same batteries and both do usb charging so if I were to consider a two kit trip, I would chose these two bodies and then select lenses that would provide a good mix. I notice you have a Samyang. They make a dandy 7.5mm FE for the Olympus (I had the Rokinon), but if money is not a problem, the Olympus 8mm FE is small and can be in-camera defished to 5.5, 7 and 9mm with the E-M5 III. Either works well for an ultra wide. The new 40-150 f/4 is a super match with the 5.3, along with the 12-45 f/4. And… The 10.4 is a nice jacket pocket go any where when paired with the 14-42 EZ. Add an auto opening lens cap and the 10.4 is a super charged point and shoot.

I also have a Pen F, but that doesn’t seem to fit into the mix, IMO, maybe because of the different battery.

My super light E-M10 IV kit with 14-42 EZ and 40-150 f/4-5.6. Fits INTO my personal under airplane seat bag.

Thank you. How's is the 12-45mm f4? I have my eyes on that lens too.

PS. You need a Cooler bag if you want to put a can of beer in, also nobody will know that you have a camera inside. LOL

The 12-45 f/4 is very sharp throughout the zoom range and wide open at f/4. I had the 12-40 f/2.8, but it was always sharpest at f/4, and when it came to low light, the f/2.8 wasn't actually that fast so I would always reach for a 1.8 prime.

I have the 12-45, 40-150, and 12-100..all f/4, and each one is as sharp as the others and all wide open at f/4.

As for the beer......never makes it out as a full can 

Pad-Thai-101 wrote:

Jacques Cornell wrote:

jeffharris wrote:

Pad-Thai-101 wrote:

Hello all,

I am thinking about moving from Sony FE system to m4/3 and plan to have 2 small bodies and small lenses for Traveling. Since I don’t like to switch lenses and want to travel light.

1. I plan to have an Olympus Pen-F, but it’s hard to find a used one on eBay and/or the E-P7 which I don’t think they sell in the USA. So I am thinking about an Olympus E-PL9 and an Panasonic GX9. Is it too confusing to have 2 different brands? I thought I lease I have the flip screen from E-PL9 and EVF from GX9.
2. One body might be paired with a Wide angle lens, still not sure what to get between Olympus 9-18mm or the preorder the Panasonic 9mm 1.7
3. Second body I'd like to Pair with Panasonic 20mm 1.7 which I like its small form factor. Hopefully I can detach the body and lens and put in different pants pockets if I want to.
4. This is my headache, what is a decent travel Telephoto lens. Thinking about Panasonic 45-200mm or 40-150mm (Pana/Oly) or any recommendation? I don't mind if it's slow, but prefer it small, light and sharp enough.

Get another GX9. The EVF is good to have.

Ultra-Wide. The 9mm f1.7 sounds GREAT! When shooting ultra-wide with the 7-14mm f4 the vast majority of my shots are at 7mm.

Telephoto. Forget the 45-200mm. It’s mediocre, much bigger and heavier that the 45-150mm.

The 45-150mm is good, cheap and small. However, if you’re getting something like that, take a look at the Panasonic 14-140mm. It’s the same size, but slightly fatter (58mm vs. 52mm filters). It’s a perfect daylight walkabout lens. AND minimal lens swaps! I love mine!

Same here. I used to carry the 12-35/2.8 and 35-100/2.8 on long walks and day hikes, but got sick of lens swapping. The 14-140 is probably one of the best 10x zooms one can buy in terms of sharpness wide-open and consistency across the frame and across the focal range. A real standout. My full-bore travel kit is thus GX9 & GX8 with 14-140, 7-14, 20 and 45. It all fits easily in a tiny shoulder bag I can carry without fatigue over 8 hours of wandering on foot.

P.S.: Given my finding below, I may replace the 14-140 with 12-32 and 35-100 in my two-body kit, mounting one on each body to avoid lens swapping. For a one-body kit, I dunno, might stick with 14-140, as I sure do hate lens swapping.

Thank you, I was looking at the Pana 12-35mm 2.8 too, but seem the much shorter minimum focus from Olympus lenses attract me more

You'll get Dual IS (or whatever Olympus calls it) if you combine body and lens from the same brand. Dual IS combines in-body stabilization (IBIS) with in-lens optical stabilization ("OIS" on Panasonic) for more effective stabilization than either can provide alone. Lots of Panasonic lenses have OIS, but very few Olympus lenses do. An Olympus lens on a Panasonic body will net you only IBIS, not Dual IS.

FWIW, Panasonic's 42.5/1.7 has unusually short minimum focus distance of 31cm, yielding 0.2x magnification, which makes it good for closeups of flowers and such. It also features OIS, which some (many?) other Panasonic primes don't.

There's also the tiny 35-100 f4-5.6. People seem to love it.

I do. Here are shots from the f4-5.6 and the f2.8. They're pretty darned similar. Amazing, especially considering that this is near the long end, where the cheaper telezooms tend to soften. Both are visibly sharper than my 14-140 at the same focal length.

Honestly, I thought the 14-140 would put up more of a fight. I'll have to go deeper into this series of test shots for a fuller assessment of it at various focal lengths. 9 bodies and 19 lenses yielding over 300 test shots, so I haven't had time to make all the possible comparisons yet.

I hope to someday have time to post the whole set as a public resource...

Panasonic 35-100/4.0-5.6, 90mm, f5.6

Panasonic 35-100/2.8, 92mm, f5.6

Both images processed with DxO PhotoLab, Super-Rezzed in LRC, then interpolated & sharpened for printing 24" @ 300ppi.

How about 2 GX9. 14x140mm, 9mm and 20mm? Maybe spring for a 42.5mm f1.7 paired with the 20mm for interiors and nighttime?

Interesting finding.

As I don't have either 35~100 f/2.8 or the 35~100 f/4~5.6, hard to imagine how they compared to 14~140 (I hope you were talking about the f/3.5~5.6 mk-I or mk-II version).

But I have the 45~150 f/4~5.6. Hence might I ask your opinion on the IQ of 45~150 vs 35~100 f/4~5.6?

On IQ, both are similar.

It is a trade off on the shorter and lighter 12~35 vs the 5mm longer on the long end (i.e. eq AoV to FF of 70 vs 80, to me they are in similar class) and closer shooting distance.

Also IMHO it will depend on the camera to be used. In case of OMDS, the latest EM10 & EM1 or EM5 has good IBIS so the lens IS is basically meangingless, so has a wider choices on either 12~35 or 12~40.

If you will use Panny bodies, for non IBIS bodies the lens IS is an important factor. For DUAL IS bodies (GXs) or DUAL IS 2 bodies (Gs & GH), the combined stabilization is even more effective. Also the DFD is only available on Panny lenses... For Panny users, the choice could be more limited.

So, a matter of size and weight, and on which camera it will be used.

Both are not good for selfie.

LCD of GX9 can flip up 90° only. Not for selfie.

LCD of GX8 is a fully articulated model, can be folded out facing the front. It can do selfie but it is not designed for the purpose.

The LCD of GX850 (a.k.a. GF9) or GF10 can flip 180° and face the front. They are designed for selfie. In fact they have a few selfie shooting mode which allows shooting on a selfie stick and control shooting remotely by weaving hand etc...

alcelc wrote:

Interesting finding.

As I don't have either 35~100 f/2.8 or the 35~100 f/4~5.6, hard to imagine how they compared to 14~140 (I hope you were talking about the f/3.5~5.6 mk-I or mk-II version).

Here's a test of the 14-140/3.5-5.6 MkI.

Panasonic 14-140/3.5-5.6 MkI on GX9, 92mm, f5.6, processed with DxO PhotoLab 5 Elite.

But I have the 45~150 f/4~5.6. Hence might I ask your opinion on the IQ of 45~150 vs 35~100 f/4~5.6?

I don't have, and have never had, the 45-150. I did have a 45-200 for a couple years. It was OK, but a bit soft beyond 150mm. Still, a very handy focal length range in a soda-can-size package that fits in a field coat pocket.

Jacques Cornell wrote:

alcelc wrote:

Interesting finding.

As I don't have either 35~100 f/2.8 or the 35~100 f/4~5.6, hard to imagine how they compared to 14~140 (I hope you were talking about the f/3.5~5.6 mk-I or mk-II version).

Here's a test of the 14-140/3.5-5.6 MkI.

Panasonic 14-140/3.5-5.6 MkI on GX9, 92mm, f5.6, processed with DxO PhotoLab 5 Elite.

But I have the 45~150 f/4~5.6. Hence might I ask your opinion on the IQ of 45~150 vs 35~100 f/4~5.6?

I don't have, and have never had, the 45-150. I did have a 45-200 for a couple years. It was OK, but a bit soft beyond 150mm. Still, a very handy focal length range in a soda-can-size package that fits in a field coat pocket.

Thank you for the sample.

The sample of 14140 from GX9 is 20Mp, which it should be, but the two earlier samples of 35100 f/2.8 and f/4-5.6 from GX9 were 7200 x 5403 (38.9Mp) and 7200 x 5328 (38.4Mp) respectively. Had you resized those 2 samples?

Finally, since Picture Information Extractor I used can't extract the shutter info from the EXIF of the shots, might I ask whether the 14140 shot was taken by m-shutter or e-shutter?

On GX85, I can still find trace of shutter shock of this lens on m-shutter throughout a very wide range of shutter speed. Therefore, I have to use e-shutter all the time for the sharpest result. As I noticed the sample is unexpectedly soft, might I rule out shutter shock?

Still remembered the reviews on GX1 & 14-42PZ in the old days and eventually realized shutter shock had affected the tests.

The following was an old testing of mine on various lenses I have:

The original scene:

Wide open of the lenses @32mm~45mm

Cropped to 360x360 and line up for comparison as below:

Wide open of various lenses @32mm~45mm

Best (IMHO) of various lenses @32mm~45mm

From the above, 14-140 indeed can hold up very well on the shorter range IMHO.

Another comparison for the long end around 140/150 among 14140, 45200 and 45150 as below:

The original scenery:

Cropping of the above for comparison:

IMHO 14140 indeed is better than the legendary stopping down for the best result of 45200 @f/8, also marginally better than 45150.

Hence I concluded that 14140 is an invaluable lenses I have on IQ and cost despite it is a 10x zoom.

A reason I have keen interest on your finding. Your info could fill up my gap of knowledge vs these two 35-100 lenses... Thank you again for your help.