Review on PANASONIC 14 45MM F3 5 5 6 MIRRORLESS H FS014045 by Carey Kocik

I have an Olympus E-P3 with a 17mm 2.8 plate. I like the pancake for snaps and the ability to carry the camera in my coat pocket, but I need the zoom for flexible outdoor shooting. After shopping, the Panasonic 14-45 landed on my doorstep. It's small compared to a DSLR lens, but it took my skinny E-P3 from pocket to camera bag. It's really long with the included petal-shaped hood. I mounted an old Nikon lens hood with a 52mm thread on it and took some of my "baby" with me. The build quality of this zoom is very good for a plastic lens and unlike the Panasonic 14-42 it has a metal mount and OIS switch. . Speaking of OIS, this feature works great on my Oly E-P3. I had to dig into the menu to disable sensor-based stabilization for it to work. I compared the stabilization of the sensor and OIS, and OIS gave a stop or even more when I held my hand steady. I've read many times that lens-based stabilization is better, and in this case it is. The autofocus is fast and quiet. Actually both faster and quieter than my Oly 17mm 2.8. No complaints here. Optically this is an excellent lens, comparable to a high quality DSLR zoom lens. At the same aperture and focal length, it's as sharp as my Oly 17mm 2.8. My only complaint is that this zoom is slow at the long end, but F5.6 is the norm for a roll zoom. Carry gear in a bag. By the way, this lens should work on any Panasonic or Olympus Micro 4/3 camera. It worked great on both my Olympus E-P3 and Panasonic GX1.