Author Topic: Panazonic 20mm VS Olympus 17mm (Read 9730 times)

jai · « **on:** February 02, 2010, 02:43:16 PM »

I ordered the 20mm from Panny and saw someone local selling the 17mm. Any suggestions to whether I should buy it or not? Is it more "wide-angled"? or very much similar and not buy it to save money?

rudegus604 · « **Reply #1 on:** February 02, 2010, 03:41:45 PM »

The 20 is a MUCH better lens. Faster, better in low light and sharper. That being said I have the 17mm and love it. It's super compact, makes the EP2 pocketable, has good centre sharpness and it pretty snappy in its own right. The kicker for me? I picked my 17mm up off craigslist for 140$ vs paying nearly 3 times as much locally for the 20mm. If I was you, i'd bypass the 17 and save the $$$ for the 14mm panasonic thats coming out.

ratobuhler · « **Reply #2 on:** February 02, 2010, 03:43:37 PM »

The panasonic looks quite a bit better than the Olympus in this evaluation

Olympus: www.slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/1276/cat/14
Panasonic: www.slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/1295/cat/68

Play with the interactive Blur Index graph to compare sharpness at different apertures.

Federico Alberto · « **Reply #3 on:** February 03, 2010, 02:53:05 PM »

I sold my 17mm AND the 14-42mm to get the 20mm. It is so much better than the Olys...

popo · « **Reply #4 on:** February 03, 2010, 04:02:53 PM »

I only have the 20mm and not used the 17mm, but the aperture of the 20mm swung it for me. It's the lens I keep on the E-P1 99% of the time since I got it.

ratobuhler · « **Reply #5 on:** February 03, 2010, 04:35:54 PM »

The 17 mm goes for under $200 on eBay. The Panasonic 20 mm is still around $450. Everyone seems to get rid of the 17 mm.

rudegus604 · « **Reply #6 on:** February 06, 2010, 02:33:46 PM »

i just got my 20mm a couple days ago. WOW is all I can say. It IS that much better then the 17mm. I thought to myself "At more then double the price, can it really be more then twice as good a lens?" Well dare I say its exceeded all the hype i've read about it. Its fun, it's compact, and I find it much easier to get the shots I want. As a novice I don't go out expecting to get many worthwhile captures. But since I've have the 20mm I've shot more in the last few days then probably the previous month since buying my E-P2. And I've gotten (at least to me) more useable shots then ever before. It's forgiving, razor sharp, and just flat out fun. A GREAT lens.

And just in case any fellow canadians are out there, this online vendor gets them regularly and just talked to a rep there the other day saying they are getting a shipment of at least 5 lenses in the next week. They sell there for $420

www.mostlydigital.ca

f64 · « **Reply #7 on:** February 26, 2010, 05:01:38 PM »

There is a very good reason why the 20mm sells for about 3 times the 17mm in the camera market. The 17mm is a good lens but the 20mm is a very good lens, and people are willing to pay for a superior product.

I had a chance to test the 17mm and 20mm side-by-side today, and the 20mm is a clear winner if used to it's potential.
Even with my limited, subjective testing, the 20mm, in my opinion (

), holds it own with some of Nikon's best lenses that I have used in the past 20 years.

peterb666 · « **Reply #8 on:** February 26, 2010, 06:15:08 PM »

I went for the 20mm for the extra stop and a half but for $200USD, the 17mm would be a killer lens and even that 3mm would have be useful for me last weekend shooting landscapes.

f64 · « **Reply #9 on:** March 01, 2010, 01:08:38 PM »

peterb666......looks like I will be the new owner of a 20mm...though not at the good 200USD deal you got...but not bad!

Will slap the lens on my e-p1 for my next trip coming up in a couple of weeks, and see how long it takes to switch to another lens.

peterb666 · « **Reply #10 on:** March 02, 2010, 03:40:16 AM »

The USD200 I was referring to was the price difference between the cheap 17mm someone mentioned and the best pricing you can get for the 20mm.

I paid around USD430 for mine from Japan but I also got it well before any of the US suppliers were shipping to Australia.

The lens costs a lot more than that in Australia and the only viable option to source it would have been to buy the GF-1 and kit lens then flog the GF-1 on eBay. It probably would have worked out at a similar sort of costing.

Panazonic 20mm VS Olympus 17mm