Panasonic lens on Olympus body performance?

markot · Apr 9, 2015

I'm considering buying a Panasonic 12-32mm pancake lens for my Olympus OM-D E-M10.

Would this lens focus on Olympus camera just as fast as it does on Panasonic camera?

The_Traveler · Apr 9, 2015

can't speak for that specific lens or body combination but i use omd 5 with panasonic 12-35 and 35-100.
those work perfectly well.

Ron Evers · Apr 9, 2015

The only negative I see is the potential for purple fringing in high contrast areas.

The_Traveler · Apr 10, 2015

Ron Evers said:
The only negative I see is the potential for purple fringing in high contrast areas.

Please expand on this.
Have you experienced this?

pixmedic · Apr 10, 2015

i dont know that it happens with every lens and body, but it is a well documented issue.
also, from what i have read, the fringing and CA can be very slight depending on the lens.
it is my understanding that panasonic has software in camera that corrects for those things where the olympus cameras do not and it has to be done in post.

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Ron Evers · Apr 10, 2015

Thanks pix.

The purple fringing can be quite bad with my E-M5 with the Pany 14/2.5 when an object is strongly back lit by the sky. The fringing seems less with my Pany 14-45 & 45-200.

markot · Apr 10, 2015

Thanks for the replies guys. If a little purple fringing is the only issue, then I just might pull the trigger and buy the lens. I was mainly worried the lens would focus slower on Olympus body. Fringing can be removed in post no problem.
Too bad Olympus' pancake lens is only 14mm on the wide end. I really like the 12mm angle on my 12-50, but that lens is a little too big for my liking.

markot · Apr 11, 2015

Oh, one more thing... how would the image stabilization work with this lens?
Panasonic 12-32 has no IS on/off switch. Would it be on or off by default on Olympus camera?

pixmedic · Apr 11, 2015

markot said:
Oh, one more thing... how would the image stabilization work with this lens?
Panasonic 12-32 has no IS on/off switch. Would it be on or off by default on Olympus camera?

on the olympus cameras, there is an option to set IS to either in body or in lens.
if you are using a panasonic lens with in lens IS, set the olympus camera to "lens IS" and it will use the lenses IS instead of the in body IS.

The_Traveler · Apr 21, 2015

Here is a 100% crop from an ORF file in LR taken with OMD 5 and Panasonic 12-35 lens taken at 18mm (36 mm eq)

markot · Apr 21, 2015

I ordered the lens. Found a nice deal on ebay for virtually new lens.
Will let you know when it arrives

markot · Apr 24, 2015

Received the lens today. And wow this lens is so tiny and light. It focuses really fast and picture quality is good enough as well. Will probably sell my 12-50 Olympus lens.

However, I found the image to be much more stable if I use in body IS instead of in lens IS though. When I enable lens IS priority and I shake the camera, it seems as if there was no IS going on. But with in body IS I can shake the camera and image looks very stable on camera's display.

Anyway, I really like the lens and the fact that it's so small and portable.

Below are a few quick shots I took around the house, JPGs directly out of camera.