The new Panasonic lens announcement was very…low profile. No hands-on or preview has been posted. We are left in the dark about the real lens performance. All we got is those low resolution image samples have been posted on Panasonic UK (30mm and 42,5mm pages).
New Panasonic lens preorders:
Panasonic 42.5mm f/1.7 POWER O.I.S. Lens at Amazon, BHphoto and Adorama.
Panasonic MACRO 30mm f/2.8 MEGA O.I.S. Lens at Amazon, BHphoto and Adorama.
Panasonic 42,5mm f/1.7
Panasonic 30mm macro
New Panasonic lens preorders:
Panasonic 42.5mm f/1.7 POWER O.I.S. Lens at Amazon, BHphoto and Adorama.
Panasonic MACRO 30mm f/2.8 MEGA O.I.S. Lens at Amazon, BHphoto and Adorama.
74 Responses
Hope its at least as good as the olympus, if so ill upgrade to it as it would be more useful for video for me
The bokeh in examples looks awful
How So? None of the pics have a harsh bokeh. What do you see that I don’t?
I’m with you on that, Caps!
It’s not harsh – it certainly doesn’t look like a kit lens or anything, it’s just not as.. I don’t know … pretty?, or pleasing?, or interesting? as the Leica 42.5, Leica 45 or Oly 45. It might also be the proximity of the subject to the background or the processing or whatever, but it verges on distracting.
Are you serious? Please tell me you didn’t come to your conclusion, from looking at a low res pic?
Won’t know anything for sure until I rent or borrow it and use it alongside my PL45 and friend’s Oly45, but I don’t like the bokeh in these shots compared to the low-res Facebook-ready images I export with my gear. Again, I’m not saying it’s bad – I just don’t like it as much. I know better than to just outright disregard it based on some preliminary sample photos.
Looking back at your previous posts, the problem is not with this lens bokeh which is nice… the problem looks rather with your olympus dedication !
Exactly! -Expect the Olympus Fanboy to review this lens with an Olympus body and complain about CA and corner sharpness. Then Proclaim the Oly 45 the winner, When it should be reviewed on a Panasonic body.
I expect the usual dislike from Blunty, Mirrorless lessons or “Gasp”! Supreme Olympus fanboy himself, Steve “Oly pays for my trip” Huff.
The real test should be Oly body and lens, vs a Panasonic body and lens. But the hate is strong, and a review like that we’ll never see.
“The real test should be Oly body and lens, vs a Panasonic body and lens. But the hate is strong.”
What hate , your hate to olympus?????
🙂 🙂 😉
Quote Altaic : “The bokeh in examples looks awful” … this is an example of hate. Please don’t play this game.
My friend I’ll play the game everytime I want. It’s supossed that we are talkind about two lenses. Where it’s the hate?. Perhaps only in the mind of the haters?.Not mine for sure.
Best.
The game consists in naming “olympus hate” a quote showing Panasonic hate. That is simply wrong. You are free to play this little game again and again and I am entiteled to name it for what it is.
Perhaps this is your game not mine. I have anwered to caps because his oly hate is wellknown . I have had several brands in my life and never had fight for one or other.
Best
Agreed – I really don’t like it compared to other lenses in that range
Compared to what ?
Without an actual side-by-side test against other lenses, it’s all speculation on whether the bokeh is any different. My guess is that this lens will be indistinguishable from the Olympus lens when tested using the exact same set-up.
The 42.5 has prominent Leica-like characteristics (high contrast and a structured bokeh). Some will love it, some will hate it. The quiet, somewhat cool colour palette is typical to Panasonic glass.
The Olympus 45 has rather different rendering. It’s nice to see a choice in the affordable portrait segment.
Nope. Shot with the new 42.5mm f1.7.
They’re pretty impressive, I must say!
The bokeh isn’t as luscious as the Nocticron, but for 1/4 of the price, who’s complaining? 😉
I like both!
No aperture ring?
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a Panasonic lens with one…
Sorry if this is some silly running joke I’m not in on.
The 42.5mm f1.2 and 15mm have aperture rings.
Those are not Panasonic lenses.
Those are Panasonic-Leica lenses.
Yes..and if you own Olympus you pay extra for something that is useless on your camera…I know I own both lenses!! LOL!> The glass is great though!
Designed by Panasonic, manufactured by Panasonic using equipment and processes approved by Leica. They are Panasonic lenses (terrific ones that Iove).
It’s on their new high-end PanaLeica lenses.
Looks sharp, but on first impression I think the 45mm f/1.8 has a more pleasing (to me) bokeh.
Makes me happy to own the Oly 45 🙂
So you are drawing conclusions by those low-res pictures? I’m with CAPS here too… 🙂
I have the Oly 45mm and am with you. The pics look sharp en the bokeh is fine. If both differ, it can only be seen by direct comparison.
When you only have Panasonic body(s) I think it’ s a no brainer. I mainly have Olympus so for me the Oly 45 is fine.
Why these constant brand “wars”, I’ m actually pretty pleased with both brands, I can choose the lens that fits my line of work best. Sometimes it’ s an Oly product and sometimes it’ s a Panny product.
Bokeh’s alright, it’s kind of cinematic look (my first thought about those sample photos is that they were movie screenshots). That being said they should be great for m43 videographers though Oly’s 45mm background blur is more “photogenic” or smth.
Anyway, both lenses are excellent.
Built in OIS is no go for me, sorry Panasonic.
That is really a ridiculous reason. You know you can still use IBIS and turn of OIS right?
The 30 looks promising – I’d like to see more macro-macro shots with it, as close as it can focus.
As far as I know bokeh does not depend solely on the lens. I can just tell that despite the spherical element there are no onion rings inside bokeh.
Not to say that it’s something subjective, some may like the out of focus in a photo while others may not like it. I don’t understand how we can judge this lens from this samples images (apart from the angle of view), therefore I don’t understand the comparisions and complaints.
You are right about most of your points.
You can judge bokeh though. And it’s too busy for my liking. Can’t say the 45mm F1.8 is like that.
I can’t judge bokeh from these shots: I can see how the out of focus area is, how the supject “pops up”, and it’s really similar to the MZuiko45 f1.8. While the subject is nice, the photographer should have chosen a better background: the white sky in the first portrait ruin it, because the light is white, and can’t distiguish the bokeh from the overexposed sky.
In the last portrait, again, while the picture is nice, the tree trunks are not the best bokeh source: I would have put the model along a road, where car and street lights would have helped in it, or inside a shop/room with reflections all around.
Just my two cents.
Agree with both of you – It’s not a good idea to aim for tricky backgrounds when you’re trying to show off a portrait lens, so these sample shots aren’t great for PR reasons. That said, you will encounter backgrounds like this when you’re just shooting spur of the moment shots, and I can say that I haven’t had to toss or doctor any photos I’ve captured with my PL45 in similar environments. I wouldn’t be happy posting these sample shots to Facebook. The true test will be trying it out ourselves and seeing what we can come up with.
Looks like a perfect match for the GM5 to me!
Definitely .
All these lenses are build for GM series .
And what fantastic sub system that is shaping up to be!
Sub? LOL! -Like the PEN series is now? Only thing is, the GM series is more relevant and selling more than the PEN series…
I would personally call the GM related things as THE system. Right size, weight and price.
Sub as in “part of”, not sub as in “lower than”. Man, your Panny inferiority complex knows no bounds.
Mr ALLCAPS your paranoia knows no bounds.
A sub system means a system within a system, not an inferior system.
As far as sales are concerned, are you sure that the GM series is outselling the Pens bearing in mind that Panny sales have fallen to about 8% of the mirrorless market ?
As Panasonic produce better and better cameras their sales seem to fall. It must be that world wide Olympus conspiracy….
maybe if GH4 looked less like DSLR and more like mirroress i would considered it, but for this reson i went with EM-1. GH4 is a ugly black brick.
Don’t waste time on the lens .
I bet this 42.5 F1.7 can’t surpass the great 45mm F1.8 in sharpness & resolution ,
simply because it’s G Vario lens .
Let’s wait for Lenstip to confirm it .
Yeah, I think that’s a weird assumption to make. My guess is that its performance will be nearly identical to the 45/1.8
And saying that it’s bad just because it’s a G Vario is also bizarre. The 20mm/1.7 is a better optical performer than the more expensive Oly 17/1.8…
What a croc o’ sh!t. Lekker belangrijk. For Panny owners the 42.5 IS a big deal anyway. And I don’ t fear for sharpness for them. It’ ll be pretty sharp enough.
G Vario? Vario means zoom. These are not zooms.
well I have the 1.8/45mm but I may get the 42.5 because in practical use when you shoot in cramped spaces ( hotel rooms, ..) very often it makes a huge difference in getting all you want in the finder
Please be less stupid.
Yun, you are a troll.
you tell others not to waste their time on a lens, since you bet it can’t “surpass” some other lens? If you want to advise anyone on anything, best to first gather some actual information.
You know what they say about assuming? it makes an ass out of both u and me.
“surpass” – hah, as if there is one simple criterium to judge a lens and it either is better or worse than another. And many on here seem to think that criterium is the f-number. Well f you and all other f-number worshipers.
Geat lenses, but for Panasonic users only. I won’t pay extra $$$ for built in OIS, it also, adds extra weight and failure chance to the lens.
We Oly users already have amazing Oly 45 1.8 and Oly 60 for macro, and f1 versions also coming next year!
So don’t pay extra for the OIS, pay the same price as the Oly 45 and get OIS for free…
Not to mention the much shorter minimum focus distance, which makes it a lot more useful for close-up photography than the Olympus.
The shorter minimum focus distance is probably the #1 (and maybe only) reason for Oly 45 owners to consider this.
panny user here. but yea…within 1-2 years i dont think panny gonna drop the price to oly 45mm, that lens can be had for about 250 for a like new condition nowadays, really a bargain.
EXTRA WEIGHT??
LOL!!! Are you Serious? Get in a Gym, Sir!
Failure Chance? LOL! Wow…..
Fanboys will com up with every silly reason, just like other indoctrinated people it makes perfect sense…….to them and there fellow believers…
Stop making Oly vs. Pana happen, it’s not gonna happen. I’ve had the Oly 45mm for my GF1 and my GX7, and it’s my favorite lens. No complaints whatsoever. It’s one system, goddamnit!
We mftusers tend to use whatever works on our body’s. I have gh4, epl5 etc with oly and panny lenses. Advantage here goes to panny lenses as these are always stabilised. But for a potrait lens to my mind the 45 f1.8 does not need it. To freeze movement the shuttrrspeed required most of yhe time will prevent motionblur too.
they(panny) made lens to complicate their camera,
why they must made perform olympus body?
(that Microsoft build software or apps for Linux/mac os before windows LOL ha ha)
Stupid!!!
One cannot conlude anything final from these samples. Panasonic shooter here hoping for the best.
Bokeh is a bit too busy for my taste.
Well the Panasonic has to be better! It’s 1.7 vs 1.8. That’s almost 6%!!!!!
Well, apertures are logarithmic…
1.7 vs. 1.8 is actually 1/4 stop more, so 25% more light. Sounds more meaningful that way, doesn’t it?
The Panasonic primes underperform in terms of light transmission. The Summilux f1.4 and 20mm f1.7 both underperform by T0.1 and the Nocticron underperforms by T0.2
F-stops are heavily rounded. There is no practical difference between f/1.7 and f/1.8
Additionally, the 20mm f/1.7 is only T/2.0
How do you know before hand that the Panasonic isn’t rounded from f1.66, and the Olympus from f1.84? And you’re comparing a pancake lens to a short tele with a completely different optical configuration for the t-stops.
Better off waiting until they’re in someone’s hand before claiming that the transmission is the same…
Never used a macro lens before. Why should I prefer 30mm macro vs 60mm macro or other focal length? thanks
It’s ‘working distance’.
IOW, how far away you have to be from the subject. With macro, sometimes that means a lot, esp. with little bugs that will notice you and leave upon doing so.
There is extremely little reason to go for a 30mm macro. The working distance is simply too close, you have to be right on top of the subject. Think lens touching your subject close.
Also, macro lenses have a very long distance to go from macro to infinity, so if you are looking for an autofocus lens, a focus limiter switch is extremely useful.
The only reason to get this lens is that it looks good on a GM1/5
What is the sense to market this as 42.5 mm? Focal ranges are heavily rounded, with much more than a mm in ~50mm range.
because 42.5 x 2 = 85, so in 35mm equivalent – this is a common standard focal length.