M43 Zooms Panasonic 14-45 mm vs Olympus 12-50 mm

Micro Four Thirds System Equipment

Review and comparison of two mid level standard zoom lenses

Panasonic 14-45 mm OIS vs Olympus 12-50 mm E zoom macro

Photo above  On the left, Olympus EM5 with Olympus 12-50 mm lens. On the right Panasonic GH2 with Panasonic 14-45 mm lens.

Introduction  I recently bought and have been testing a Panasonic GH2, Olympus EM5 and Samsung NX20 each with a range of zoom lenses.  Panasonic and Olympus each make a range of standard zoom lenses. The entry level offerings are the Panasonic 14-42 mm OIS (non collapsing), Panasonic PZ 14-42 mm Power OIS and Olympus 14-42 mm (collapsing).  Next up in the price/performance scale we have the Panasonic 14-45 mm OIS and Olympus 12-50 mm with e- zoom and macro features. The Olympus is often bundled with the EM5 body in a kit. At the top of the price/performance tree we have the Pro level Panasonic 12-35 mm f2.8 zoom. There are plenty of rumors circulating on the net that Olympus will also produce a pro standard zoom.

Marina, Panasonic GH2, Panasonic 14-45 mm zoom at 45 mm

The photo above illustrates the excellent performance available with M43 and a good standard zoom lens. This rendition will have suffered in it's voyage through the internet but on the original you can see individual leaves on the trees and fine details throughout.

This article reports my tests of the Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-45 mm f 3.5-5.6 Asph Mega  OIS and Olympus M.Zuiko ED 12-50 mm f 3.5-6.3 EZ.  Lenses in this price/performance range are attractive to enthusiast photographers as they deliver most of the performance of pro level optics at a fraction the price.

Sample variation  My experience with many lenses is of significant variation between samples leading to variation in technical test results and user reports. Both lenses reviewed here appeared to be good copies with no sign of decentering, faults or malfunction.

The pair of photos below illustrate typical results obtained with the two lenses on the same scene ( the marina above)  at the same focal length and aperture. The information is there in the Olympus version but rendered with greater clarity and definition in the Panasonic version. Both are in focus and not affected by camera shake or shutter shock.

Marina enlargement Olympus 12-50 mm at 45 mm

Marina enlargement Pansonic 14-45 mm at 45 mm

 

 

 

 

Test method  I find that photographing test charts in controlled conditions  provides me with less than half the information I want to know about a lens. So in addition to charts I make many hundreds of photos in a variety of conditions to challenge the camera/lens combination. This includes low contrast, high contrast, closeup and distant shots with many different types of subject. I often find that a lens which performs quite decently well on a test chart can be markedly less well behaved in more difficult conditions.

Testing consistency   Part of my test procedure is to make several shots of the same subject, refocussing for each. I do this to determine if the camera/lens combination will give the same image quality every time. With the Panasonic 14-45 mm that was almost always the case. But with the Olympus 12-50 mm I often  found a small variation in sharpness from one frame to the next.   Some possible reasons for this are discussed below.

Body/lens compatibility  As I gain experience with the M43 system I am finding that in many cases Pansonic lenses work best on Panasonic cameras and Olympus lenses work best on Olympus cameras.  Autofocus accuracy, stabiliser type  and in camera correction of lens aberrations are some of the factors determining compatibility.  So for this comparison I used the Panasonic 14-45 mm lens on the GH2 body and the Olympus 12-50 mm lens on the EM5 body.

Foliage corner Olympus 12-50 mm at 14 mm

Foliage corner Panasonic 14-45 mm at 14 mm

The two photos above illustrate typical results in the corner of the frame with a high contrast subject. Apart from the different color balance which is camera based, you can see more color fringing, local flare and softness in the Olympus image.

Specifications  As I have found several times when comparing M43 lenses from Olympus and Panasonic, these two have a different feature set. The Olympus goes for versatility with a 4.2 x zoom range, manual and power zoom operation plus an inbuilt macro facility.  The Olympus is a modern design with internal zoom and focus so it's length remains constant. There is no focal length scale on the lens barrel. Instead the current focal length is displayed in the monitor or EVF but only on Olympus cameras.  The Panasonic was the first ever M43 lens released with the G1 in 2008 and is still in production.  The Panasonic is more conventional in design with 3.2 x zoom range, standard mechanical zoom ring and extending barrel. The Pana 14-45 mm has an optical image stabiliser in the lens. The Oly 12-50 relies on  Olympus IBIS.

Both the photos below are crops of a larger frame. They are both in focus but the Olympus one is softer. For some reason unknown to me the difference between the two has been exaggerated by  processing the files and bringing them into the blog. Differences like this are not always or even often found but in hundreds of frames of various subjects I never found a matched pair where the Olympus version was sharper than the Panasonic version. I still don't understand the reason for the variable sharpness produced by the Olympus 12-50 mm on the EM5.

Bush Panasonic 14-45 mm

Bush Olympus 12-50 mm

 

Mechanical Operation and autofocus  The Pana 14-45 zooms smoothly and focusses quickly on the GH2, but not as fast as the 12-50 on the EM5.  The Oly 12-50 has a smooth power zoom for video. Manual zoom is faster with a slightly rough feel. The macro facility is very effective allowing the front of the lens to be brought to within a few centimeters of the subject. The 12-50 focusses extremely fast on the EM5 but speed and accuracy do not necessarily travel together. I discovered after many hundreds of test photos in a variety of conditions  that there was a significant misfocussing rate with the EM5/12-50 mm combination particularly at the long end in soft light.  What is "significant" ? I found that with bright sunlight and good  subject contrast the misfocus rate was negligible. But with low subject brightness range, the long end of the zoom and a subject distance over about 20 meters, some frames would be sharp and others slightly soft. I attribute this to slight misfocussing, as it occurs at shutter speeds faster than those affected by shutter shock (see below).

Shutter Shock  The Oly 12-50 mm lens can exhibit unsharpness caused by shutter shock in the shutter speed range about 1/40s --1/125s. This specific cause of unsharpness can be eliminated by setting [Anti Shock 1/8sec] in the EM5 Menu. Please see my article "M43 Shutter Shock Revisited (OMD-EM-5)"in a separate post on this blog for more information and discussion about this topic.

Manual focus  This works just fine with both lenses using focus assist in each case.  I did note however that using the EVF,  the image snaps in and out of focus more clearly on the GH2 than the EM5. That is a camera issue of course, not a lens feature but it does affect the user experience.  My ongoing complaint with all ILC's including M43 is the absence of any way to manually preset a focus distance by scale.  

Panasonic flare

Olympus flare

Resolution  The Pana 14-45 mm has been favourably reviewed by users and technical testers over a four year period, building up a solid reputation in the process.   I have owned two of these lenses over the last three years and found both to deliver very good  resolution at all focal lengths and apertures up to about f 11 after which diffraction effects start to erode resolution.

When the Oly 12-50 mm lens was introduced, numerous reviewers complained that it was a bit soft.  Then technical lens test results started to come out with more favourable assessments, mostly from test chart analysis.   My own testing leads me to the view that both these evaluations are correct, but they are measuring different parameters of lens capability. When presented to a test chart the lens resolves fine details very well at all focal lengths and apertures up to f 11, with some softness and chromatic aberration in the corners at the shorter focal lengths and loss of contrast at the long end.  

Panasonic Oil refinery

The photo above was made with the Panasonic 14-45 mm lens on Panasonic GH2 camera held above my head with the lens stuck through a small gap in the perimeter fence of the refinery. The  large, intricate structure has been rendered faithfully by the camera and lens combination.

But on side by side testing against the Pana 14-45 mm out in the real world a different picture emerged. Time after time, over  hundreds of  matched photos I found the  Pana 14-45 gave pictures which looked crisper, had more "snap" and overall appeared sharper.  I spent considerable time trying to understand the reason for this. I considered  AF errors, IS malfunction and eventually decided that in those cases which were definitely in focus and the shutter speed (faster than about 1/160sec) precluded shutter shock,  the difference between the two lenses may have been due to higher microcontrast achieved by the Pana14-45 mm. 

Aberrations  Both lenses are subject to chromatic aberration paticularly towards the corners at the shorter focal lengths. With the Pana 14-45, CA is automatically corrected in Panasonic but not Olympus cameras. CA from the Oly 12-50 is not corrected in Pana or Oly cameras.

Color fringing  In addition to chromatic aberration both lenses exhibit purple fringing most marked in the corners with subjects having adjacent bright and dark elements. Purple fringing is more prominent with the  Oly12-50 mm. I have read many different explanations for purple fringing in digital cameras and am still not sure I understand why it occurs.  Whatever the cause, it can usually be corrected or greatly reduced with the "Defringe" sliders in ACR 7.1/LR 4.1.

Flare  I find it useful to identify two kinds of flare. The first is general, affecting  the whole or most of the frame and occurs when the sun or other bright light source is in or just outside the frame. The second kind is local, usually revealed by light spilling over from a bright part of the subject to an adjacent dark part. Foliage against a cloudy/bright sky will often reveal this type of flare. The Oly 12-50 mm is more prone to both types of flare than the Pana 14-45.

The combination of  lower microcontrast, more uncorrected chromatic aberration and more local flare means that in general photographic use the Oly 12-50 mm lens, even when correctly focussed,  will often deliver less satisfying image quality than the Pana 14-45 mm. 

Drawing(distortion)  Distortion from both lenses may be corrected in camera to some extent. The net result for the Oly 12-50 is mild barrel at the wide end and virtually nil in the mid range and long end. The 14-45 mm produces moderate barrel distortion at the wide end reducing to mild in the middle focal lengths and slight at the long end.  The distortion from both lenses is circular in type, easily corrected in Adobe Camera Raw/Lightroom.

Conclusion  I am not a lens designer, just a user. However it is clear enough even to my untutored eye that there must be a technical envelope which constrains lens design. This could be visualised as a hexagon of constant area with six points representing Focal length range, Aperture, Features, Size, Price and Optical quality.   If  one of these qualities is increased the others must be reduced.      With the 12-50 mm, Olympus has opted to maximise focal length range and features with a consequent reduction in aperture at the long end and real world  image quality. The Pansonic 14-45 has a shorter focal length range and fewer features but is slightly smaller (at 14 mm) and has better image quality.  In addition that quality is more evenly distributed across the frame and focal length range. The Oly 12-50 mm is best in the central region of the frame and the middle of the focal length range.  With reservations about shutter shock and autofocus issues affecting the Oly 12-50mm, each lens does what it appears to have been designed to do.   You pays your money and makes your choice. [And remember to set Anti Shock with the EM-5/12-50mm combination].