Which lens is best? Best Cheap lens for an E-pl6.

Crazy Micro Four Thirds Dude wrote: [many choices]

Panasonic

14-45mm f3.5-5.6 ASPH mega OIS (nice at any aperture, used it on my E-PL5)

12-32mm f3.5-5.6 ASPH mega OIS (neat and small, no manual focus on an Olympus)

12-60mm f3.5-5.6 ASPH power OIS (useful zoom range, probably the preferred lens for maximum usefulness, has better OIS than the others)

Probably any one of those.

Don't bother with old 4/3 lenses needing the adapter. Ends up bulky and defeats the point of using a neat small body, plus the AF can be atrociously slow.

The Panasonic lenses on the E-PL5/6 work well, the IBIS is not that good and is noisy on any longer (to 2 sec) exposure.

The ones that have an OIS switch  - simply use the switch on the lens, it disables the IBIS.

The ones without an OIS switch then you need IBIS on in any mode (acts as master switch for stabilisation) and also Lens IS Priority set to On so the unswitched OIS is activated and auto disables the IBIS.

Possible risk of shutter shock with the E-PL5/6 and with my E-PL5 I used to use a 1/8 sec shutter delay, it did make the shutter quieter and maybe lessen the shutter vibrations but of course you need to then compensate for that delay in any actions shots.

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12-60mm f3.5-5.6 ASPH power OIS

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the person already owns the Olympus 45-150mm plastic fantastic

This: Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-60mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH Power OIS

Refer to the above post by Guy Parsons for useful details.

12-60mm is a versatile range that complements 45-150mm, especially at the wide end, although sometimes wider than 12mm may be desired.

Putting image quality first, I'd say the Panasonic 14-45, 12-60, and 12-60 are the ones to look at. All of the 14-42 options lag behind in image quality.