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

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The only control on the lens itself is a
manual-focus ring, use of which automatically enlarges the viewfinder image. Despite using a fly-by-wire system that drives the focusing mechanism electronically, there is a good feel to the focusing ring. As this is a ‘pancake’ lens that protrudes only 26mm from the front of the camera, it would be reasonable to expect the lens to feel cramped – but it doesn’t. There is no aperture ring, no distance read-out and no depth-of-field scale, but the lens has not been marked-down for any of these omissions because the people who are going to use the Micro Four Thirds system will include relative newcomers to photography who have no need for such old-fashioned things. This camera and lens will NOT replace a 5DII and a 50L for night shooting if you want clean results and it wont replace an M9 and Summilux lens either. 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. I was worried of using Panny on Oly assuming it would lose out on many things that only come with close integration of hardware and software. From your review it seems like a non issue. the top 10-15 photos that i like, that i've taken in the last 12-18 months, were using my dslr/mirrorless

One minor criticism though: many people do street photography and fun shots at night as well. You have no night shots here; meanwhile I’ve seen lots of great night shots that you’ve taken with other cameras. I really want to see what this lens can do in low light. Even the 45-200mm isn’t a bad lens upto 150mm it’s pretty sharp, but starts to drop off after that but still very usable and nothing abit of lightroom can’t sort out. 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.

So as I wrap up this review let me say that Panasonic is leading the race in quality lenses for the m4/3 system. Their top class 7-14, 45 Macro, 14-150 and even the “budget” 55-200 are great lenses. The Olympus lenses like the kit zoom and 17 2.8 are very good lenses but not “great lenses”. I can see myself buying the Panny lenses for “my wife’s” E-P2 in the future unless Olympus raises the stakes and puts out some higher quality lenses. I would like to see small & solid high performing primes in the future. If this happens, and the M4/3 sensors get better with their noise and overall quality then there may be a new revolution in the camera world. Its tough to beat the size and fun factor with these m4/3 kits. For this discussion, at this time, we are talking about how good a lens is for the general photographer, not for just a super talented photographer. Realise that we now have much better choices in fast, cheap and good quality lenses in other FLs. MPB puts photo and video kit into more hands, more sustainably. Every month, visual storytellers sell more than 20,000 cameras and lenses to MPB. Choose used and get affordable access to kit that doesn’t cost the earth. We tested the Panasonic 20mm ƒ/1.7 on the Olympus E-P1, as we had that camera body standardized for lab testing. In our initial handling we had the impression the lens was quite sharp, and our full range of tests bear this out. 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.

Although Panasonic claims the new 20mm adopts the same optical construction of its predecessor, we measured a very slight drop in optical performance Read our original Panasonic Lumix 20mm f/1.7 ASPH. lens review to see how the lens performs under our usual testing procedure. Value For Money My LUMIX GF1 (white ivory, with the pancake lens) arrived just 10 days ago, and I am absolutely happy with it. I agree in full with your comments regarding the pancake lens. It is certainly in the forefront of glass in kits. It is maybe a bit unfair to compare with LEITZ lenses, but it fares very well indeed also in comparison with them, given that their lenses (and cameras) play in a different league /price range. 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 reason why I ask this is because sure the camera can be great for the fun type shots that you talk about and show but what about training? By training, what I mean is a spare for photographers to use to keep their mind photographically inclined and keep their skills fresh if you understand what I’m saying.