Panasonic DMC-GX85K Malfunctions With Olympus 17/1.8 Lens

[j._gewirtz]

My Panasonic DMC-GX85K locks up after 20-40 exposures when used on electronic shutter with my Olympus 17/1.8 lens. When this happens it is necessary to cycle the camera on/off or remove the battery to get the camera to resume functioning. The camera works perfectly with the Panasonic 12-32 lens it came with. I wrote about this problem previously in this thread: Panasonic DMC-GX85 Refuses to Fire Sometimes

 

I sent the camera and lens to Panasonic and then Olympus. Their service technicians were able to recreate the malfunction but both blamed the other company's product and suggested that there may be a marginal incompatibility between the camera body and lens. Is this explanation plausible? I found no reports of this issue in online searches even though it seems likely that many people use this camera and lens combination.

 

In any case I need to decide whether to live with the problem or perhaps throw good money after bad by replacing the camera body or lens. (I would use the Panasonic 20mm if it had faster autofocusing.) Any suggestions? Thanks.

[Robin Smith]

Leica Panasonic 15mm f1.7? But it's expensive, as are the 12/2 Oly and the 12/1.4 Pana/Leica (or the 17/1.2 PRO Oly). For what it's worth I find the 75mm Oly sometimes refuses to allow C-AF on my Em1 mkII. The solution is usually to switch off the camera, remove and replace the lens and then turn the camera on again. Something to do with the body not recognizing the lens.

[Greg M]

The two companies may share the lens mount but they do employ different technologies within the systems and that can lead to issues that sometimes are fixed in firmware adjustments and sometimes may not. The best performance using any of these cameras will be had using the same brand lenses and bodies together. I've always believed that and have used few lenses across the two brands in recent years.

 

At one time I used the Panasonic 12-35 and 35-100mm f2.8 lenses on the original E-M5 and had the 25mm f1.4 Panasonic Leica, never with any issues, but as soon as I started accumulating the Olympus Pro zooms I sold off the Panasonic zooms, put the 25/1.4 in a bag that never leaves the house (along with many other Olympus primes) and have never looked back or been interested in using anything other than M. Zuikos on my Olympus bodies. The Panasonic G9 has been the one temptation but I'm so bought into the Olympus system now I never was really that close to trying it. The DFD technology Panasonic uses and phase detection AF in Olympus bodies are very different and the lenses are designed with those systems in mind. That there might be some issue between the two when certain functions are combined doesn't surprise me too much.