[shoplink 14828 ebay]
[/shoplink]
Lensrentals (Click here) just posted their Wide-Angle Micro 4/3 Imatest Results. He measured the resolution at different aperture settings. He really tested ALL wide angle lenses including the new Nokton 17.5mm. And the results are once again a big praise for probably the most sold m43 lens ever…the [shoplink 14796]Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 lens[/shoplink]! So small, so cheap and so damn good! It really shines at all apertures and it even (easily!) beats the [shoplink 23110]Panasonic-Leica 25mm[/shoplink] lens! Of course Lensrentals only measured the resolution and there are many other aspects to consider when judging the quality of the lens. It has to be said that the Olympus 17mm is pretty dispapointing while the [shoplink 16258]Panasonic 14mm[/shoplink] lens is again doing pretty well!
The Panasonic 20mm lens is one of these lenses that wil be remembered for a long time. And I hope Panasonic will do more of that kind of lenses in future!
For US readers. The super 14mm lens got a disocunt and is in Stock for $299 at Amazon (Click here) and Bhphoto (Click here). And the 20mm is also available at Amazon (Click here) after it went out of Stock for a while. The second most sold lens of the moment is the $199 45-20mm lens at Amazon (Click here to get the lens or here to see the ranking).
97 Responses
I have the combo in the picture and an EM-5 and I still like the GF-1 / 20 for street shooting better.
Well, that’s surprising, I thought that the 25mm would be an upgrade from the 20mm, and the 12mm would be significantly better then the 14mm. Panasonic have obviously learned a lot about lens design, and employed the right people! If only their lenses had focusing scales, or at least the ability to set hyperfocal distances in camera. The voigtlander lenses look very nice, I just wish that they would release slower, cheaper versions. Am looking forward to the second part of lens rentals tests.
Voigtlander has a range of small slower lenses that fit M43 quite well. They cover 12, 15, 21, 25, 28mm and up, come in m mount f 3.5 or f4. and will require an adapter. Ken Rockwell rates them very highly. With the m43 sensor any light fall off to the corners that is sometimes evident on FF will be minimised.
http://www.kenrockwell.com/voigtlander/index.htm
Usage of these lenses can be seen on flickr by searching for ‘olympus + Voigtlander 21mm’ (change lens for others).
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=olympus+%2Bvoigtlander+21mm
Nup, it’s got nothing to do with who they employed. Companies can make brilliant stuff, photography has been around for decades, almost centuries.
It’s all to do with marketing and managing.
Drop the cost of part here, use this part, market it at this price. That’s it.
And as we have not tested that part we swapped as it would not have made it worthwhile, we have to recall and scrap an entire shipment of 200,000 at a cost of $500 each.
Not Happy Jan.
The 20mm may have better resolution than the 25mm, but the 25mm IME has better contrast, much less distortion, is faster, and has better bokeh. It’s a sweet lens.
I can’t agree more. Though the focusing speed is the factor with the biggest gap.
I agree, plus it seems the 25 is sharper to my eye. The main reason I sold the 20 for the 25 was the focus speed, particularly in video. I also use one on a GH2 as a backup for the AF100 and even using the super sharp zuiko 35-100 f/2 on the af100, I have to soften the image from the GH2/25 so it matches up.
The 14mm is a highly underrated lens, btw.
Am glad it’s underrated, as that makes it cheaper to pick one up secondhand! Am getting very tempted.
Forget secondhand. Buy it new on the gray market from a kit that’s been parted out. Got mine (without box and papers) brand new for $175 USD.
Seconded. I managed to get one in Malaysia from a parted kit for about that price. I’m really tight with my money, and researched this lens for a long time! From the images I viewed, I felt it would serve me better than the 12/2, at least as sharp, smaller, lighter and cheaper. Feeling rather chuffed with this review, as my other lenses are the 20/1.7 & 45/1.8. If I want maximum sharpness fro a scene, I reach for the Panny 20 and stop it down a bit. Wonderful for landscapes.
And the size factor is amazing! Both the pancakes easily fit in the hip pocket of a pair of chinos or jeans. A friend is doing a DSLR photography course at the moment. She had a look at my kit, having just learned about focal lengths and aperture, and couldn’t quite understand why she was carrying around such a big slow (APSC) kit for double the money!
Got mine off ebay New for $160.- smile –
SAME HERE! All black version. Brand new for about $165 shipped.
What a cool lens. Made in Japan. Metal Mount. Tiny.
Wow I got mine for $210 incl. EMS shipping and thought it was the best deal on earth 🙂
Congrats! 🙂
— Edit: my bad, it was $185 total… Still looks like a rip-off compared to your deal 🙂
The seller is nomohideo2005. They have a bunch, both black and silver. The prices fluctuate a little depending if it has a lens filter or not, or if it’s silver or black.
But you should be able to get one shipped for under $170.
I got mine for the price of a steak dinner. My friend got in a kit and never used it: she was going to give it to me for free, but I thought I could at least get her a nice dinner 🙂
They seem to hover just over the £100 mark here, either in excellent used condition, or new splits from kits.
Too bad Panasonic doesn’t have the 20mm kit option anymore. Would also be nice to see a mk2 with faster AF.
Yeah, a MKII with silent and faster zoom, and keep the size while doing all that.
It would need to be different enough to justify offering a 20mm MKII, so why not make it:
– Internal focus
– Weather sealed
– Fast and silent focus
– Same optical formula
I’d pay $500 for it tomorrow and it would rarely leave my new OM-D. And hopefully it would drop to ~$400 after a year or so for the masses.
It would end up being a lot larger with internal focus and weather sealed. That is why I only mentioned faster AF as a faster motor could accomplish this without making it larger.
Why would it be that much bigger? The front element only extends maybe a 1/4″ or so at it’s maximum. They just need to make the body 1/4″ longer, add a weather seal o-ring and we are good to go. IMO the differences in size/weight would be negligible…
I bet lots of people would ditch their 25mm for the 20mm II, I know I would!
If you mess about by changing all that its a different lens and may turn out to be a dog. Faster quieter AF motor ok, any change to glass or operation no.
I had the 20mm and the 25mm on a G3: My experience is different to the imatest. The 25mm always had an edge over the 20mm. Not by much. Then we have contrast and color rendition – here the 25mm is definately better. Still, the 20mm I would not hesitate to recommend!
+1 same for me on a gh2 – i still have both.
I have both on a GH1. They aren’t direct alternatives. There’s a much bigger perspective difference than it would seem by just comparing focal lengths. The two lenses render an image differently too. The AF is a little better on the 25 but the manual focus is waaaaay better.
I also have both and find the 25 a little better.
Same here, on GH2.
I agree, the 20mm and 25mm are close in terms of resolution/sharpness but the 25mm has better overall IQ, as it should.
This goes to show that Olympus finally should produce a decent pancake. Maybe a remake of their 17mm? Combined with the E-PMx, that would be my dream camera for street photography.
I still hope that Oly or Pana will introduce a 17mm with apperture around f/1.4 – f/2.0.
Im waiting this week the pancake 20/1.7
AF lets it down.
Seriously considering the Panny wide converters for my 14mms (I have the 20mms too). I need AF and the Oly 12/2 is just way overpriced.
I wish I had £10 for every time I’ve heard that the 17mm 2.8 and the 14-42 ii are total rubbish because they lack sharpness and yet wide open they both outresolve the PanaLeica F1.4 by a large and visible margin. For a fraction of the money.
Many times I have heard it said the Leica is “sharp wide open”. If these two Oly lenses are unacceptably sharp to most people, why is the Leica fine? Yes I know it’s harder to make a good F1.4 but they charge appropriately and you buy that lens to shoot wide open, where it turns out, it is considerably less sharp than the EPM1 kit zoom.
Given that the Panasonic only lenses are relatively so good across the board, it seems like having Leica on the barrel is just that: a word on the barrel. Based on these results, I’d pay more for a lens without Leica written anywhere.
Now I am donning my flame-proof suit and battening down the hatches on my nuclear bunker.
I just know there’s going to be fallout.
The test says that at f2.8 the olympus averages 590, and the panasonic/leica 800… Stopping down the Olympus to f4 only improves to an average of 610… just saying.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t take good pictures with the 17mm though.
I know. But if you have to stop the thing down to f2.8 before it’s anything like sharp, it’s sort of failed hasn’t it? Hardly anybody buys that lens because they are desoerate to use it at F2.8. They buy it because they think it’s good wide open. And it really isn’t.
Not really. Personally, I use a fast lens because it’s fast, not because it’s sharp. While I am sure there are fast lenses that are sharp wide open, they no doubt cost a bomb, and are massive.
You need to consider what you use a really fast lens for: mood, “atmospheric” images, or portraits, low light scenes. None of which really need super sharpness typically.
I keep an OM50/1.4 as a fast lens. It’s as soft as a piece of down, and it does certain things really well wide open. Not much use for anything else, compared to the 45/1.8.
Almost all lenses perform better stopped down 2-3 stops, and have an optimum aperture at which they give the sharpest results before diffraction starts to degrade the image sharpness. Fast apertures helped with focusing on older SLR cameras with dull focusing screens, something which modern slr’s have mostly negated, and which is almost irrelevant when using mirrorless cameras and evf’s.
I also have an OM 50mm f1.4 and find it a fantastic lens, and very sharp when stopped down. However I find it very hard to use hand held on a GF1. It’s fantastic on my OM2 though.
For some perspective, that same website has a comparison of some of the best 50mm primes: https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2012/01/the-great-50mm-shootout
Very enlightening. Thanks. Looks like as 1.4s go it’s actually prettty good.
I guess the same thing applies for m43 seeing as you can mount virtually any lens. I wonder what the technically best lens available is, at it’s optimum aperture. Or if indeed such a thing exists!
The 25/1.4 is very very good wide open.
Check this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/miklosrabi/6897346221/in/set-72157625393753886/lightbox/
Look the colours, the bokeh and the contrast.
Q:do in lens image stabilization of pana work on olympus?
in lens stabilization is not needed with Olympus cameras as it is built into the bodies, so any lens used can have stabilization. I don’t know if olympus bodies have the ability to make the lens stabilization work in panasonic lenses if it is turned of in the body.
Panasonic lenses with a physical switch on the lens can be used with either lens (OIS) or body (IBIS) stabilization, your choice. It is recommended not to use both at the same time. If you turn on OIS, you should turn off IBIS and vice versa.
Panasonic lenses such as the X lenses without an OIS switch default to “off” on Olympus bodies. With those you have to use IBIS.
For Panasonic lenses such as the 100-300 with OIS and a switch, it is recommended to use OIS over IBIS on all Olympus bodies not named “E-M5”. OIS is generally more effective than IBIS on the Oly older bodies. The E-M5’s IBIS is more effective than anything else in the Olympus or Panasonic lines.
Panasonic 20mm might be relatively sharp on imatest, but question is how it performs in real world.
I don’t like it’s color rendition and lack of bokeh.
For instance ZD 14-35mm is superior in every respect (optically) except at handling flare to 20mm.
Considering the Panasonic 20mm is about $400 USD, and the Olympus 14-35mm is about $2400 USD, or 6x the cost, I would hope the Olympus would be a bit better. 🙂
But then when it comes to AF focusing on any Lumix or micro 4/3 camera, the 20mm beats the 14-35 by a country mile…especially considering that the 14-35 will not AF at all on any Lumix camera, and just barely works on a Pen.
Balance is a little off on a PEN too…
It is also 10x weight&size, 10x the price! I wonder how many people have found themselves in the camera store pondering whether to go for the zd12-35 or the 20/1.7!!!!
useful information. someone should make a video
Yeah… And the Canon MP-E 65mm has much higher magnification, while the Nikkor 200-400/4 is much sharper at its tele end.
Stupid.
Also like my 20mm, and autofocus is still faster than Canon compacts 😀
Now that is not saying much. This coming from an s90 owner. 🙂
Faster AF than Canon compacts? Sounds like you tested them all. That would be quite a job. I’ve used some and most have had fairly fast AF, certainly faster than the 20mm. Some have been slower too.
the Olympus 17 mm is a fine lens.
I agree with you completely. I’ve gotten some very nice shots with the Oly 17mm and my E-P2. I also have the Pany 20mm and 14mm. I’m happy with all of them.
Just wondering…why would you need 14mm, 20mm AND 17mm? The 17mm seems redundant. There is a noticeable difference between 14mm and 20mm, but only 6mm of difference from 14 or 20 at 35mm equiv. for the 17mm.
Th 17mm is a crappy, not very fast plasticish unexpensive lens. If you are a pixel peeper the 17mm is a total rubish. If you’re not it’s a random pancake (but the only one at 35mm 135 equiv for m43).
I do not trust all tests. Too many measure some way and gives figures. Too many always trusts figures as facts. Many sites needs clicks and if they present surprice things they get clicks.
That the 20mm is outright “better” than the PL25 is a pretty wild claim. It’s resolution is perhaps only better when you don’t correct for its heavy fall-off and barrel distortion, which together can almost destroy the corners in wide open shots.
They don’t claim the 20mm is a better lens than PL25, they have tested one property – Mtf50 – on one camera (E-M5). The measurements are somewhat better for the 20mm in this area.
Hopefully Panasonic will release a second version of the 20mm one day with faster, silent focus, stepless aperture (T-stops?) and stabilization?
Sorry, I am just dreaming…
the panaleica 25mm is an overhyped one of a lens. i had one and was pretty disappointed so i returned it. it was much softer than my 20 pancake, although my pancake is not perfect either. might be sample-variation, but this lens didn’t deserve any “leica” branding.
AF was indeed faster with the panaleica than that from the 20mm pancake, but it was still slow compared to the 14-45, 14-140 or x14-42.
the biggest problem was that it was optically worse than the 20, while being twice as big!
Must have been bad sample, both SLRgear and Lenstip give Leica DG 25mm as good performance as for 20mm pancake.
I think they had a dud lens. My 25mm is a very good lens, and you are kidding yourself if you think it is anywhere near the 20mm, the 14-45mm or the 40-150mm. It is a little short of the 14-35mm DZ and the 50mm DZ, but easily my best m4/3 lens.
Regards,
Alan
I’m content with the GF1+14mm for my personal take anywhere camera.
Considering the quality and current price it’s difficult to beat this combo.
I didn’t like the 20mm. Way over sharpened. The Pana Leica on the other hand is a beautiful lens that doesn’t get in the way. And don’t get me started on the manual focusing between the two.
I personally find reality is way over sharpened too. It’s painful just opening my eyes
WOW! I am surprised that the 20mm beat the Pany/Leica 25mm for resolution.
Also, I am always surprised with the 14mm myself…I think it should be lame because it cost so little.
I shot tese images over the weekend using the 14mm on my GX1….I was hanging on a girder so it was nice to have a small agile camera to work with. It isn’t full-frame quality…but it does a damn nice job!
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5276/7167219830_2968bb7204_b.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7071/7167262782_c59481c902_b.jpg
Love that coal breaker, been there a few times myself.
Did you at least sign in????? LOL!
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5340/7170845686_f5bbae6744_b.jpg
Yep, I’m on there!… I also know the guys who posted the U MAD and Natty Boh stickers 🙂
By the way, notice the flat curved strap lugs on the GF-1, when your finger is over them they are smooth and comfortable and the strap goes in without a ring clip. It is almost undetectable when holding in contrast to the lugs on the EM-5 which simply suck. I’ll try not to rant anymore on the mind numbing design the boobs at Olympus used but it’s tough not to every time they poke at my hands. At least they added plastic tabs to the rings to keep them from grinding off the camera paint.
43shot, learn to hold a camera properly and quit your whining.
Would you like a tissue to wipe away those tears?
this might help…
http://www.band-aid.com
(the Panasonic is a better design, though).
I love my 20mm but I’m looking for something wider. The Oly 12mm is a bit expensive, but then i read here that you can do a bargain on the Pana 14mm from a split kit. Looking it up on eBay an I can get it for $180 … Wow, that is just a no brainer , regular price around here is $500. Time to wire some money to PayPal 🙂
I’m sure you won’t regret it. Bought mine for something like $210 incl. EMS shipping off ebay, shining new. It’s even smaller, faster (AF-wise) and considerably lighter than the 20mm (indeed, it almost weighs nothing), and with the new Panasonic W/A converter, when it’s available, it can be quickly made into an 11mm lens albeit obviously somewhat darker than f/2.5.
You should also strongly consider the Samyang 7.5mm 3.5. I bought one because i was needing a real wide angle lens thats extremely compact yet affordable and all i can say is I am very impressed with it. It has incredible sharpness, contrast and a great minimum short focus range. It is a fish eye lense BUT you can remove the fish eye effect effortlessly in post! The lense is also of a strong metal build and it is manual however with such a wide angle lense you would usually have the focus just set all the time to infinity so its not a hasssle. Check it out!
I got one from the seller nomohideo2005. They have some right now. Got it fast and all as claimed.
You won’t be disappointed, especially for that price. I got mine for $250 on ebay as part of ‘get it! get it!’ impulse buy. It’s quite noticeably sharper than the Oly kit lens [14-42] which was my only other lens at the time of purchase. Obviously it’s light, like super-light! It’s my only lens now that doesn’t topple my Epm1 over. I hated with the kit lens that it wouldn’t sit up straight when you set it down, maybe that’s just me. Fast autofocus, even in low light. The AF IS quiet, but you can definitely still hear it when in use, and even in video it’s distracting when there’s no noise. I’d say the AF noise is my only complaint from this lens.
No way does the 20mm rule, if you are pointing it at a 12 month old.
Ha, ha, I have exactly that problem. Pre-focus the only option. Sometimes I wonder if I am any better off than with my manual lenses.
I have the 20mm on a GF1, and have not had any problems with the focusing speed, Mine is set to single rather then continuous focus, with single point focusing and the focusing point set to the smallest area. I find this allows for accurate focus on the eyes. It might not work for everyone, but it works well for me.
Although this is one of the reasons I wish panasonic built in the ability to set hyperfocal distances, with reasonable light it should be possible to stop down and have almost everything from 1-2 meters to infinity in focus.
I don’t believe this as I owned all the lenses .
My pick is on 25mm being the best in image quality , the 20mm goes to second & 14mm still consider great to me . With new converters coming out make it even more valuable to keep .
The imatest for the nex7 lenses is interesting.
The sigma 30mm looks very good and the Sigma 19mm comes out quite well. It would be nice to see the Sigma 19mm in the M43 test as well
http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2012/04/nex-7-lens-imatest-resolution-comparison
I would have expected the PL25mm to do better, but it’s not far behind, happy I choose it anyway as I’m getting lovely results with it. It’s special in it’s own Leica approved way when it comes to rendering photos.
14mm might be worth investigating as I was saving up for the Oly 12mm.
Had a look at the Sony range on the NEX-7 too. Oh dear… We consider the Sigma a bit average on many aspects for micro4/3 but it’s beating even the $1k Zeiss on the Sony. Glad I moved over to OMD!
What everybody here is ignoring is the fact that these results do not correspond to tests published on lenstip, photozone and other websites. The PL 45mm, Nokton 25mm, PL25mm resolve MUCH better than the 14mm in center frame (definitely when stopped to f/2.8) according to lenstip and photozone (the PL 25mm is not yet reviewed in photozone).
Other than that the information is poorly presented. Max and average resolution mean very little, as they do not show how those figures are distributed across the frame.
I would take those results with a grain of salt.
It’s interesting to see that the Lumix G 14mm pancake lens is doing well. It tends to have a poor reputation online, while I have found it to be very good.
This time they tested the lenses with the E-m5, might explain the differences.
Too bad that 19mm Sigma was not tested.
For me, true wide-angle fun starts at 12mm (24mm FF). I think I will swap my oly 9-18 for the pana 7-14 as soon as I have saved up the money…
I concur a top quality lens even wide open. I just could not live with the aperture. Hatter it produced on my Olympus E-PL2 (before the Fuji X Pro1 I did not know how to describe it). Anyway, does anyone know if this lens has aperture chatter on Panasonic bodies (I doubt it)? Thanks!
Panasonic should remember that GF1 + 20mm pancake lens was a big success. They should release a new version of the 20mm pancake lens as soon as possible to complement with the new GF and GX series. Features like video support, silent & faster autofocus, nano-surface coating, optical image stabilization and a bigger aperture are much desired.