Thank you folks for the comments.
Gwendal... the 85/1.4 is quite a mass of weighty glass.
Some background on why I bought it.
I earn my living as a portrait (mostly) photographer. The vast majority of that work is done with a 5DMkII and 70-200 f/2.8L lens. And I always work with some sort of camera support with that lens, even though I always shoot it wide open (f/2.8). I'm just more confident that I can get reliably crisp images that way.
So having recently gotten a GH2, I started to think about how I might, if I ever wanted to, achieve the same look of ultra shallow depth of focus portraits with my m4/3 system. I've never used my m4/3 for professional portrait work, but the idea of trying it appealed to me. Who knows, perhaps some day I can let the big Canon gear go! (Not any time soon, I'm sure... I still need that big, gorgeous FF sensor for much of my work.)
After some study, I felt the 85/1.4 would be just the optic to achieve this look with m4/3 and bought it as a special purpose lens, to used almost exclusively for shallow depth of focus, painterly portraits with the GH2. Given a high enough shutter speed, this would not be difficult to hand hold. But I just prefer using some form of camera support to help minimize any image degradation from camera movement. This can be a bit less convenient in some circumstances, but I do what I feel I need to do to ensure top image quality when I'm working for a professional result. (For walk around and vacation pictures, I use mostly the wonderful Panasonic native lenses, which I rarely feel any need for camera support with.)
Working with smaller, lighter, shorter focal length lenses, which have IS, I feel I can get away from camera support, but with the long, heavy lenses and no IS, I prefer the support.
It is certainly possible to achieve a similar look on m4/3 with something like an 85/1.8 instead, which would be smaller and lighter. And if you keep the shutter speeds up there, working without camera support is do-able. Even easier to work with, and getting a similar result, is the 50mm f/1.4.
I've been working with the Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f/1.4 which is quite a bit lighter and smaller than the 85/1.4. The 50/1.4 gives a 100mm equiv. field of view and very shallow depth of focus with the fast 1.4 aperture - great for portraits with isolated subjects. The result is quite similar to what I get with the 85/1.4, except with a much easier to handle weight and size and the lower magnification factor is less susceptible to camera shake.
Lastly, I also recently acquired a Voigtlander 35mm Noktor f/1.2 Aspherical lens - again, primarily for portrait work with the m4/3. All three of these fast prime lenses are mostly dedicated to shallow depth of focus portrait work. I haven't even had them long enough to put them through their paces yet. But I've shot all three of them enough wide open to see the dramatic shallow depth of focus which I was seeking. They effectively become 70/1.2, 100/1.4, and 170/1.4 lenses.
Of the three, the 50/1.4 and 35/1.2 are much easier to work with and also yield dramatically shallow depth of focus, with great resulting bokeh. This effect is maximized by short camera to subject distances.
Two other legacy primes that I recently acquired, again for shallow depth of focus portraits, are the Canon FDn "new" 50mm f/1.4 and Canon FDn "new" 135mm f/2.8. I haven't worked with the 135/2.8 much yet, but I have spent some time testing the 50/1.4 and I'd say this... if you don't have any fast legacy primes yet and you want to achieve this kind of look with m4/3, I would strongly recommend picking up a nice condition, used Canon FDn "new" 50mm f/1.4 (lots of them on eBay) and nice, inexpensive adapter - like the Fotodiox (through Amazon) and start with that. It's a fantastic lens that, in my tests, is only very, very slightly behind the Zeiss and gives nice results at 1.4, and even moreso at f/2. At f/1.4 you will need to punch up the contrast a bit and sharpen in post, but that's so easy to do. Contrast and sharpness improve significantly at f/2 to f/5.6. A little work with the RAWs in post will bring the images to a fantastic look. The Canon 50/1.4 and adapter all together shouldn't cost much more than $100. For portrait work on the m4/3, I highly recommend this set-up, it ROCKS.
By the way, I only shoot RAW, no jpgs. IQ from jpgs can't even begin to compare to RAWs.
