Hi all, I'm looking to buy my first lens for my Olympus EPL3. Kinda in a dilemma which one to get. Any pros can advise which lens is better for a first lens upgrade?
Panasonic 20mm F1.7 or Olympus 45mm f1.8
- Thread starter Kiddream
- Start date
You listed 2. Maybe the right question is not so much "which lens" but what do you want to shoot? Shorter FL like the Panny 20mm or the Oly 17mm are used more for casual, or street photography. The 45mm is more a specialised lens for Portraits (its equivalent to 90mm FL on a Full Frame/35mm system). So if you want a better quality general walk about lens that is good in low light, you can get the Panny 20/Oly 17 or even sigma 19mm/2.8. If you want to shoot portaits and have good background separation, the 45mm is better.
If you have a kit lens, set to the different FL and see what works best : )
45mm can be a bit restrictive and is actually a portrait lens, but it depends how and what you want to shoot. the 20mm I believe is more versatile. That said, pls go have a try at these 2 lens. bring ur camera to the shops and try out them out.
Sizes difference, dof difference, working distance difference, AF speed difference. 45 works alot better for portraits than 20mm as it induces a bit of distortion (coz of the focal length). AF speed is faster on 45. agrivar suggestion to use kit lens to test which FL works for you is good, try it.
The Olympus 45mm f1.8 is a fantastic lens, not so sure about the Panasonic 20mm F1.7, personally I don't like it.
The Olympus 45mm is a very sharp and optically excellent lens with very little chromatic aberration like purple fringing. This can't be said for the Panasonic 20mm. While it might be acceptably sharp, it is not so good optically and can exhibit purple fringing very readily. Panasonic deals with this by using built-in processing in the camera so that the jpeg output from this lens is corrected for chromatic aberrations, thereby making a supposedly sub-standard lens look good. Unfortunately this does not extend to RAW processing so for those who shoot RAW with this lens on a m43 camera, the chromatic aberrations would be revealed in all those chromatic glory. This also mean that this lens should be used on a Panasonic m43 body as Olympus does not use built-in algorithms in-camera to correct for chromatic aberrations when shooting in jpeg mode.
Example:
However, this is not to say that all Panasonic lenses are that case. They do have very good lenses too, eg. the Pana-Leica 25mm f/1.4 which would make a better choice than the 20mm f/1.7 if budget is not a consideration.
Example:
However, this is not to say that all Panasonic lenses are that case. They do have very good lenses too, eg. the Pana-Leica 25mm f/1.4 which would make a better choice than the 20mm f/1.7 if budget is not a consideration.
If you use DXO optics, CA is not a concern even if you shoot the 20mm f1.7 on oly bodies...
The biggest question is what's your preference and shooting style. The FOV between the two lenses are quite different. I love both the 20/1.7 and 45/1.8. Actually get both and you are all set!
The biggest question is what's your preference and shooting style. The FOV between the two lenses are quite different. I love both the 20/1.7 and 45/1.8. Actually get both and you are all set!
Right.. get both.. i have both and have both panny and oly body. I dont see much CA as I hardly shoot into the sun or even in bright daylight
Thanks all for your replies. I got the 45mm F1.8 instead. Still adjusting to the fixed focal length. Will probably got the 20mm f1.7 later on.
it is a very capable lense.
I wish Panasonic would have taken the opportunity to update the whole 20/1.7, Mark II is such a missed opportunity. It seems the only reason to update it was to bundle it with the GX7 and GM1 kits. The only improvement is probably decreasing the production cost as usual.
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Hit the nail on the head. Was really looking forward to the 20/1.7 II with improved AF speeds , I guess many were also disappointed to find out that there were nil or very little improvements in the mark II.
For a lens this sharp and compact , I can only imagine what a coup it's have been if Pana managed to simply improve on the AF speed
