GH4 Olympus 12-40 v Panasonic 12-35

V

Vardalos

Well-known member
I'm getting ready to make a buying decision and because of the build quality and firm stops for manual focus I think the Olympus 12-40mm 2.8 Pro lens may be a better choice. Your comments will be appreciated.
 
I have the 12-35 2.8 and it's a wonderful lens. The focus ring is a little annoying until you get used to it but once you do it's fine.

The 12-35 has Image stabilization and when taking photos the lens talks to the gh4 and the gh4 makes corrections to chromatic aberration and other parameters automatically. The Olympus doesn't do either......

id go the 12-35
 
Not sure if the Olympus glass is better or worse, but I went with 12-35 BECAUSE of the Stabilization and auto everything when desired. And I think it was $860 shipped.
just my 2 cents
 
Both lenses have similar build quality. The Olympus is sharper at the wide end and middle part whereas the Panasonic is better at the long end. The Panasonic is lighter and has IS. Panasonic and Olympus have zoom rings that turn the opposite way.
 
Do you guys have this flicker issue when zooming on the 12-35mm? I experienced it when I used it last week on my GH4, can it be solved with a firmware update?
 
Hi Vardalos,

I've owned both lenses and can honestly say you won't be disappointed with either. They are both amazing =)

I had to reluctantly sell the Panasonic at the end of the last wedding season to help pay the bills over winter (the perils of the early years of business I guess!) and at the beginning of this year I decided to try the Olympus for exactly the reasons of hard stops and the focus ring.

The focus ring for me is a massive positive over the Panasonic as I can more easily pull focus (focus doesn't accelerate like the Panasonic ring when in manual mode) and it's repeatable so great for zone focussing when putting it on a Glidecam for example.

What I liked about the Panasonic is it was smaller and I think it controlled bright points of light better with respect to contrast (nano coating?)

If you do a lot of handheld work the OIS is invaluable. So I guess it comes down to whether the focus ring or OIS is more important to you.

I'll be keeping the Olympus, and hoping to add the upcoming 40-150mm to the arsenal next year.

Firmware should fix flicker on the Panasonic. I never experienced a problem with that.

Thanks,

James
 
Hi James,

Does auto focus work as well with the GH4/Olympus 12-40mm set-up, as it did with the Panasonic GH4/12-35mm?
 
I don't know how it compares to the 12-35mm (having never used it), but autofocus with the 12-40mm is lightning fast with the GH4.
 
I don't think the difference will be that much for video. For stills 240hz sampling rate and DFD might tilt it towards the 12-35.
 
yes the 12-35 DOES have the STEPPING issue IF you zoom a lot. that could be a deciding factor as well. It's never caused me any issues, I guess I don't zoom a lot.
 
Hi Vardalos,

I don't use autofocus very often and to be honest I can't remember the 12-35mm performance. The 12-40mm performs well on the occasions I do use it.
 
When the Olympus 12-40mm's clutch is set to manual focus (only) does the lens rack smoothly or is it steppy like their 12mm f/2?

I saw one brief test where it looked steppy but it wasn't very thorough.
 
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