PANASONIC LUMIX G II Lens, 20MM, F1.7 ASPH., MIRRORLESS Micro Four Thirds, H-H020AK (USA Black)

Product Information

And finally, the longest focal length prime lens I’ve used, and probably the longest that I’d recommend carrying around to photograph landscapes with. The Olympus 75mm. In our tests, we couldn’t really identify any color fringing in the images–which is a great thing for JPEG shooters that love to complain about this type of thing. But even for RAW shooters, this means that much less work in the post-production phase. Extra Image Samples The only downside to this lens is that it’s slow to focus. Especially if it’s quite dark out it can really hunt around. Because of that I do prefer the 15mm lens mentioned above, but I really enjoy the slightly tighter zoom of this 20mm. The lens is also impressively quiet when using AF in video mode thanks to its stepper motor. We tested it with a Panasonic G9 and found the touchscreen makes it painless to move focus smoothly and silently, with just the tap of a finger.

The front element moves in and out during focussing and it seems a little fragile to me. The 14mm f/2.5 for instance, has no external moving parts. Maybe Pansonic will build a new 20mm f/1.7 someday with a design like this 14mm. Follow along as we jump into handling, AF behavior, and optical characteristics to find out if this lens is also a good choice for you. The bokeh – or quality of the out-of-focus regions produced by this 25mm – is fairly pleasing. Panasonic takes pride in the smoothness/polishing of its aspherical surfaces/molds, and it shows here. The discs rendered by out-of-focus highlights are relatively Gaussian and free of distracting patterns like 'onion rings'. Only occasionally do they show the slightest hint of a hard edge (more noticeable as you stop down), but not enough to cause any concern. And no doudt as the Sensors, AF ect improve as they will over time, there will be little point for most owning a DSLR, all expect the pro’s. The Panasonic Lumix 20mm f/1.7 lens gives a 40mm equivalent, and makes it a pleasing lens to use for portraits. 1/4000s, f/1.7, ISO125, 20mm.

Subscribe to get Travel & Art Inspiration once a month to your inbox!

Autofocus is excellent. Very fast. And with the genial red AF assist lamp on the GF1 autofocusing in low light is easy. As I said the only flaw is the vignetting wide open at f/1.7 to around f/2. You can eliminate vignetting at f/4 or you can just correct it later in post processing (something very easy and 100% efficient with a good software).

I took this lens out on a hike, not expecting much in the way of landscapes, mostly just expecting to have fun with macro closeups of bugs and insects, etc. that I came across. When I got home and looked through my pictures however, I was quite happy with the results on all of them! I was learning how to anticipate the longer focal length by now, and started spotting scenes that would work well taken from a distance, with the sunlight coming through the trees, the image appearing more “zoomed in” or “cropped”. When shooting bright light sources at stopped-down apertures – like in the F16 shot above – the 'spikes' of the sunstar are soft-edged and not all that well pronounced. Lateral and longitudinal chromatic aberration (fringing)The D300s is great but I actually prefer the color from the E-P2/20 1.7! The Canon 7D… Well, it’s a nice DSLR no question and gives superior ISO, DR and color. But for all out fun when you go out for a day of shooting? I go with the E-P2 combo. If you do not need the fast FPS, improved high ISO or BULK the m4/3 cams are ideal. You’ll also notice longitudinal chromatic aberration in photos, and this is more noticeable in photos taken at brighter apertures, such as f/1.7. Anyway, the Olympus Pen cameras are entirely magic and I’m quite certain, when handled properly, with the best glass, are capable of broadcast quality filmmaking. When combing all the programs together you get much of the functionality of the substantially more expensive Final Cut Pro.

Handling | Compared to | Autofocus and focus breathing | Image quality | Conclusion | Samples | Full specifications About the Lens: The Olympus 75mm f1.8 takes amazing pictures. It’s larger and heavier than any of the above lenses, and it’s body is made out of metal. I’d say it produces the best quality out of all of these too-but it’s very specialized. I don’t often use it, but I’m very reluctant to part with it, because it truly shines when I get a chance to use it. With the in-camera image stabilization of the Panasonic GX7, we saw a modest profit of 1 to 2 stops. The only downside is that prime lenses have no zoom. You’ll have to swap lenses if you want a different focal length. Not ideal for all the kinds of situations you can find yourself in while out and about. But maybe that’s a good thing. Quality over quantity. And I do feel that the quality of photos taken with a prime lens exceeds that of a zoom lens overall. Not just in sharpness and details, but artist’s creativity.

Panasonic’s 20mm f1.7 II is an autofocusing beast on the GH4 when using the fully automatic focusing modes and not choosing a point beforehand. In fact, we think that it is the fastest focusing lens that we’ve seen for street photography. But when you mount it on the OMD EM5, it starts to lag a bit behind. Once you start selecting specific focusing areas, the focusing speed goes from sloth-like to peregrine falcon. Image Quality

According to DxOMark, this lens isn’t as sharp as its predecessor, and we sort of feel the same way. However, when stopped down to f4, you’ll reach the lens’s sweet spot that you’ll really appreciate. In full frame terms, you’ll hit the equivalent of around f8 and that means that you’ll have perfectly sharp images. There is really no need to stop down beyond this. Bokeh However, I do believe using a prime lens helps you to become a better photographer. You have to stop and consider the scene you’re trying to take a photo of more often. You really learn and come to understand how a certain focal length looks and feels. I recommend anyone who wants to get better at photography to try taking one out as your only lens to challenge yourself! The Panasonic Lumix G 20mm f/1.7 II with a redesigned styling and metal parts, and this gives a very slight improvement in resistance to flare, as well as a slight improvement in contrast. The redesign has very slightly improved the position of the surrounding plastic closest to the lens, which results in a very slight improvement in shielding light from hitting the lens at oblique angles. Image quality is almost flawless. Shoot at f/2.8 for sharpest images and also at f/4 for eliminating the vignetting. I may have said that the lens is sharper at f/2.8 but you'll be surprised at the image quality at f/1.7!

OM System/Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 100-400mm f/5-6.3 IS review

The improved build quality should make the lens last longer, although unfortunately there has not been an improvement in focus speeds with both the old and new lens giving the same focus speeds in our testing. With the same excellent image quality, reasonable value for money, and compact size, this new model should be just as popular as the original and is an excellent choice for Micro Four Thirds users. The new colour options also better match the new cameras from Panasonic and Olympus.