Panasonic 12-32mm on E-PL5

First the good new, if you're rather happy with the Olympus 14-42, the sharpness of the 12-32 will jump out at you. There has been quite some discussions on the good attributes of the 12-32 on these forums lately; I won't repeat them.

The not so good news is noticeable purple fringing (aka CA) on Olympus TruPics VI bodies, including the E-PL5 using this lens. I have done a test of using 12-32 on TruPics VI against TruPics VII bodies. You will have to decide how serious this problem is. Even that, I use 12-32 on my E-PM2 (performance identical to E-PL5) 90% of the time, I don't look for the CA so it seldom bothers me. When CA is too obvious, I remove it using Aperture. It's not a biggy to me.

The following are 100% crops. I don't need to tell you which is which; the difference is apparent. Both sample are SOOC jpeg, CA not touched up. In short, bodies with TruPics VII remove CA very effectively.

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E-PM2 with 12-32 CA Illustration by CyberTred, on Flickr

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E-M10 with 12-32 CA Illustration by CyberTred, on Flickr

 

I've used 12-32 lens + EP5 almost exclusively for this hiking season and was very happy with results. I don't remember any real issues with purple fringing - may be it happened in couple shots, but certainly wasn't setting a trend.

 

Absolutely my experience as well. Most of the time CA isn't a significant issue with this lens.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Mu-43 mobile app

 

The 12-32 is on my EM5 almost all the time as a compact backup to my EM+12-40. Really like the little lens and haven't really noticed the CA in use. Only real disadvantage is there is no way to manual focus it on Olympus bodies as far as I am aware.

 

12mm are exactly the same on my 12-32 and 12-35 lenses.

 

That report says nothing about 12-35 and I would question its accuracy as things in center of those shots do not match and indicate that camera wasn't in same place. Moreover, for correct test it is the optical center (or whatever the term) that should be in exact same point. I guess for 12mm it's enough to run by just making sure the front element is in same point - which can affect test results given the length of 12-50 vs. 12-32.


PS. camera processing do not change focal length. Shots may appear wider or narrower depending on how much distortion and how well it's corrected by lens firmware.