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

Product Information

I am reading this review long after its was originally written. Possibly the best review (fit for human consumption :)) I have read while trying to understand the m4t camera and lens combination. I recently bought EP 3 after a long research but was almost questioning my decision after using it with kit lens 14-42. Somehow I was expecting bit more. I have been using Canon G9 all these years and quality from EP3 wasn’t too great. After reading your review I have made my decision to go with 20 (there is still some hope). What I wasn’t prepared for was that the image quality of this little E-P2 and 20 1.7 would surpass a Nikon D3s with a Nikon 50 1.8 (more on this later). I guess that right there is proof that a lens can make all of the difference in the world. When the lens arrived from B&H I opened the box and was pleased to see a lens pouch was included. Not that I ever use them really, but it’s a nice touch. The last shot was at night time, ISO 1600, F1.7 but it has the art filter applied. Anyway, thanks for reading! It is quite slow to focus by modern standards, but is still my favorite carry-everywhere companion. Diverse werken uit het oeuvre van de Fine Art fotograaf Frank van Driel (Leiden, 1966) worden tentoongesteld in Galerie Persoon. […]

ISO is a unit-area quantity because it is used for exposure. But when you're talking about IQ, equal numbers do not have equal results across formats. We could fix this whole equivalence debate by either getting rid of f/numbers and just using aperture diameters or by getting rid of exposure-based ISO and just using a more absolute measure of sensitivity. Well as already listed its pros the only major cons is: I wish if it would be sielent like other M43 Pany/ Oly are making recently. Of course, for a little more money, you can get Sigma's slightly faster 30mm F1.4 DC DN lens, which is also a strong optical performer. But the trade-off is a tighter crop (60mm in Full-frame terms) and a lens construction that's quite a bit longer and about twice as heavy as the Panasonic. An exposure at ISO 100 f/1.7 1/100 sec on m43 is exactly the same as an exposure taken at ISO 100 f/3.4 1/100 sec on full frame. Olympus also makes a 'nifty fifty' similar to this one. It's a little more expensive, but it's also a bit more compact. Other options in this segment include the faster, though longer Sigma 30mm F1.4 and the higher-end Panasonic/Leica 25mm F1.4 II.The PL 25mm 1.4 is an epic lens and going through my catalogue of images it was notable that a great deal of my most loved images were from that lens. It’s gear value to buy a used one, which I what I did 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. Any comments on how the 20 fairs AF wise on the new OM-D? I’m looking at building a MFT kit (I’m tired of waiting on sony lenses for my NEX). I’ve got the 12, 14, 20 and 45 in my sights. The 45 is a given, the rest of the equation is either the 14 and 20 for 2 smaller lenses to travel with or to combine them into just the 12mm. One of my biggest concerns is AF speed, my second being size. So if the Panasonics do well on the OM-D I’ll go that route, but if they’re not I’ll go with the larger 12mm and call it a day. Any help is greatly appreciated. Any for reference I’m using this setup to shoot my kits around the house, so it’ll be low light (3200 f/2 and 1/90th). Thank you for the review Steve. I’ve been seeing consistently great results with this lens, and hope they become widely available someday – maybe even a bit discounted ;-D I think I’m going to put budget for the lens for next month and should be very happy with the combo…

Images taken at f/1.7 are usable, but I think images taken at f/2 have better contrast and sharpness. It's a small lens and this helps to keep your micro 4/3 camera (and lens set) more 'micro'. It is pity the review doesn't seem to have mention anything about if the focus engine noise has been improved. If you search about the old 20mm, there are much more talks on the focus noise than the focus speed. And also the bokeh quality of 20mm is a little bit better than the 25mm. It would be good if the review can confirm the quality of the bokeh of the new 20mm has unchanged or as good or improved Although Panasonic claims the new 20mm adopts the same optical construction of its predecessor, we measured a very slight drop in optical performance 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).

Key Features

I’m also an obsessive street photographer. http://paultreacy.com/nyc1 (for example) My current favorite workhorse camera / lens combo is my Nikon D200 with 24mm 2.8 AI prime. It’s a sweet combo yielding very sweet images. The overall image quality from the 20mm f1.7 II lens from Panasonic is truthfully pretty damned good. There is a healthy amount of sharpness, contrast, and overall solid color rendition built into this lens. When you couple this with its great build quality and focusing abilities you’ve got yourself quite the winner.

With the in-camera image stabilization of the Panasonic GX7, we saw a modest profit of 1 to 2 stops. The Panasonic Lumix G 20mm f/1.7 II Asph. lens makes for a compact combination with a rangefinder style camera such as the Olympus PEN E-P5.

Ergonomics

Context is key, and Roger provided a good deal of it so taking his numbers out of context to reach a singular conclusion kinda does them a disservice.