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After many months of waiting the brand new Panasonic 14-140mm lens version is in Stock for the first time in US via [shoplink 41977 ebay]KenmoreCamera on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]. The lens is more compact than the predecessor and a tiny bit more faster.
More deal news:
G5 with kit lens for $329 at [shoplink 41978 ebay]MZgamers (Click here)[/shoplink].
GX7 with kit lens will ship tomorrow at Amazon US (Click here).
Canon wireless Gold Box deal at Amazon (Click here).
30 Responses
How is the IQ compare to the old 14-140, or against Olympus 14-150
The new 14-140 is similar in IQ to the old one IMO. Maybe slightly better, but really only small differences. I’d not upgrade beacuse of IQ, but size and weight might make it worth it. Haven’t compared it with the Olympus 14-150, but Photozone rates the old 14-140 as better than the 14-150.
+10
ok thanks,.
i used to have an old one,.but i sold it since i rarely use it,.coz mostly i use primes,.but wondering if the new one is as good as the PL14-150 , 43 version,.
I used the Panasonic Leica Vario 14-150mm for FT with a E5. Now I own and use this new MTF version. It is amazing small, light and very fast focusing. Difficult to compare the two, since I don’t have the other one anymore. Also the OM-D/EM5 sensor is better as the in the Olympus FT E5. It is not as sharp as some prime MFT lenses, but still good enough in my opinion. I use this lens as a walk around lens for my press-work. So I make a living with it! You won’t be disappointed I think. It seems a tag better as many other same kind of zoom-lenses from other brands. Worth to give it a try!
I think the new 14-140mm lens is vastly better. My review here: http://m43photo.blogspot.com/2013/08/lumix-g-hd-14-140mm-f35-56-review.html
Great review and it really shows that the new lens is better.
I agree with Fredrik. I’ve been using this lens extensively for stills and video and its hardly ever off my Panasonics. The size and weight improvements are very welcome and though I don’t have one to compare it with any more, I believe its optically about the same as the Panasonic / Leica 14-150mm 4/3 lens. The 140mm end, the weak link of the old lens, is now much improved. I’ve been shooting stock photography with it for about a month now and the results have been very impressive on both my GH3 and G6.
Pretty much my ideal lens for outdoors work.
Below is a link to my experiences with it.
http://soundimageplus.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Panasonic%2014-140mm%20%28Mark%202%29%20Review%20and%20User%20Experience
There is a post that has some raw files for download here:-
http://soundimageplus.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/panasonic-g6-14-140mm-kit-part-6-raw.html. These are comparisons with a Fuji X-E1 and 18-55mm zoom.
Fredrik,
You made a good point about the auto-correction of distortions, if one shoots jpgs. Pana lenses will be corrected on Pana bodies, and Oly lenses on Oly bodies. Unless you correct distortions in RAW processing, of course, then it may not matter. Too bad the M43 spec doesn’t require that lens correction factors be incorporated across M43 bodies. Ideally, if the lenses had insignificant distortions, then we wouldn’t have to correct at all! 🙂
Thats not true. My pana f1.7/20mm has a bit of barrel distortion but you don’t see them in the JPGs of the E-M5.
I heared only CA isn’t corrected inter-brand-wise.
Yes, this is exactly correct. Read about CA corrections here.
Only the newest Olympus E-M1 does CA corrections. Older Olympus cameras do not do it.
You can still do CA adjustments later from the RAW image file, even if it isn’t done in the camera.
Even the EM1 will only correct chromatic aberration for Olympus lenses, not Panasonic lenses.
Distortion is corrected for all cameras and lenses of both brands, interchangeably.
The lens is quite nice. The only thing I hate is the zoom ring which is stiff and not rubberized for some unknown reason.
I did not like the rubber on the old lens, it melts in the sun
I used this lens while travelling in Asia for 2 years, I loved the zoom range, but i found it a bit heavy. That the new lens is lighter is a big improvement.
My old version has a big problem with the OIS now, even when it is turned off. At 70-140mm the image vibrates. At Panasonic service center in Bangkok they told me it would cost 200 to 300 dollars to repair. For that money I can buy the 45-150mm including that part of the OIS that is broken in the old lens.
I’ve made some comparisons with primes : http://flic.kr/s/aHsjJkicsi
Thanks for the comparison pics! I’m totally surprised. The zoom looks terrible against the primes. There’s no fine detail at all when viewed at 100%.
Yeah ,but still, the differences are “noticeable” if you compare them side by side. For versatility, 10x zoom is nice to have.
Whoa this new flickr is unusable…
Well, um, I got mine from Samy’s in LA about 6 weeks ago. So let’s say “first place in the U.S. that uses this website as its mouthpiece.”
why has this taken so long to reach the US?
Who would’ve thought?
No, I know Panasonic is Good.
Assuming you can get $400 bucks for your version 1 lens on ebay, I’m not sure $300-400 justifies upgrading. I must be lucky because I seem to have a very sharp copy of the version 1 lens. The newer version does seem to be better though.
It has been handy when I needed it, but if I had it to do over again, I don’t think I would buy this lens at all. Especially not for the $800+ I paid for it back in the day.
BTW, does anyone know when the new 12-40 will be in stock?
Yeah when are we gonna go back to talking about olympus?
It was about something’s now in stock, so only half OT.
I’m really appreciating all the real-world-experinece comments on this lens. I’ve just finally ordered myself an E-P5, and I’ve been seriously considering one of these as a replacement for the combination of cheesy kit 14-45 Panasonic and 45-200 Panasonic that I’d been using. It’s got a bit less range on the high end, but I so rarely use the long zoom that the convenience of the wide range would make it totally worth it if the image quality is good enough for a general purpose vacation/walkaround lens.
Yes, I could get one of the more expensive zooms in the ~14-40 or so range, but honestly, I have primes for when I’m taking a shot I really care about anyway.
I’m feeling more confident now that this might be the “easy” lens I’ve been wanting.
still hoping for a weather sealed panaleica D version in m43… expensive, but nice for travel.. and yes oly version would be even better (lens profiles)
This lens is so under appreciated. It’s a completely new lens but everybody treats it like ‘just an update of the first one’. But it has it all, it’s smaller, it’s lighter, its aperture is brighter, its focusing is faster, it performs better optically, and maintains that right up to 140mm, cuts the 0.50m minimum focus distance in half to 0.25m, and it looks better … it is even less expensive than the original was at launch. Some kudos to Panasonic please ? I mean come on look at that list !
David Thorpe agrees: http://youtu.be/mFyf7mssXrs
those superzooms are allways underappreciated, and yes they are not flawless, they will allways perform less as a shorter range lens. though panny has proven with the panaleica D that it can make such a lens in a nice quality. Imho any lens they make in such a range is a great effort to get it at least decent, improving on size and close focus while maintaining quality, only kudos.
But somehow neither olympus nor panasonic makes one in a weatherproof version… 🙁
I bought this lens as soon as it was available in Europe, so have had it for a few months now. I also had the old 14-140. Image quality wise, there is not much to choose between it and the old version, but for some reason none of the reviews mention the biggest problem with the new 14-140. If you are shooting video, the Power OIS is incredibly loud, and the mechanical noise of the lens is picked up on the soundtrack of videos – not dreadful, but certainly noticeable in quiet sections. Panasonic seem to have noticed the problem – it actually audibly gets quieter when you start recording, because it makes a hell of a racket when shooting stills – but this doesn’t fix the problem completely. I tried three copies of the lens because I couldn’t believe the noise was normal, but it seems it is.
It’s a great lens for stills, and is the lens that lives on my G6, but I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone who regularly wants to shoot video.