Double Panasonic 14mm review
The polish website Optyczne (Impossible for me to spell it!) published the Panasonic 14mm lens review. Thanks to the magic help of the google translation tool I can post you the lens pro and cons list:
- Advantages:
- robust and exceptionally compact design,
- very good image quality at the center of the frame,
- well corrected chromatic aberration
- decent image quality in bright light,
- negligible astigmatism.
- Disadvantages:
- monstrous distortion,
- a lot of vignetting,
- image quality at the edge of the frame could be improved.
But we also have a native english review at m43photo.blogspot.com! Conclusion? “This is a very capable, fast focusing, sharp and compact lens. What’s not to like?”
Ok, I like that lens but we europeans (and you americans too) have to wait a few weeks before to have the lens in Stock. Click on those direct links to check price and avilability:
Amazon US
You can’t wait that much? Get the lens from japanese eBay resellers. They have all three new Panasonic lenses in Stock (but don’t forget taht you have to pay import taxes!):
Panasonic 14mm f/2.5 eBay acutions
Panasonic 100-300mm f/4.0-5.6 eBay acutions
Panasonic 3D 12.5mm f/12 eBay acutions
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Recent comments
Comment from Camajan: Sotware is the key here! Testing it with...
Comment from Luca: They are not scientists, but journalists...- Comment from Luca: They are NOT reviewing the lens performa...
Comment from Dun: I blame both of them....
CRB
2 years ago |Finally a professional review…
elliot
2 years ago |I trust the Polish site a lot more than the blogspot site, which noted a LOT of purple fringing in the 14mm lens but gave it (more than) a pass.
Good performance only in the center, only in good light? This seems more and more like a misfire by Panasonic. Disappointing.
If it isn’t discernably superior at the Pan/Oly zoom lenses’ apertures then you’re paying a lot of money for merely smaller size and average performance 1 stop wider open.
Camajan
2 years ago |* Advantages: robust and exceptionally compact design,
* very good image quality at the center of the frame,
* well corrected chromatic aberration
* decent image quality in bright light,
* negligible astigmatism.
* Disadvantages: monstrous distortion,
* a lot of vignetting,
* image quality at the edge of the frame could be improved.
Not something i would like to see in my brand new $400 lens…
JoelH
2 years ago |Well, not a useful review if they evaluated the uncorrected distortion and CA. Whether or not you accept the idea that software correction is a proper substitute for extra elements (which I do accept), at least you have to evaluate the system as designed. Test the lens on a Panasonic body with matching firmware. Otherwise it’s just a waste of time.
I don’t really enjoy 3D movies. But if I went to write a review of “Avatar”, I wouldn’t watch the 3D version, refuse to put on the special glasses, and then write that the movie is too blurry to watch.
The reviewer does acknowledge the issue, but has a clear bias against the software correction and does not use a RAW converter that follows the intended corrections. He also claims that after corrected the lens does not have a real 14mm angle of view – a claim that I very much doubt. Panasonic has not missed this point in the past and I don’t believe they are missing it here.
In my view, the review is not more “professional” because of this, but less so.
steve
2 years ago |“He also claims that after corrected the lens does not have a real 14mm angle of view – a claim that I very much doubt.”
Actually this is a very common issue when correctly large amounts of distortion. I wonder what the effective angle of view would be after correction.
david
2 years ago |JoelH’s point is that Panasonic has (at least so far) designed the lenses so that the post-correction angle of view is approximately what is quoted. So one of the 14-xx zooms might have a wide end that’s something less than 14mm, but it yields 14mm after correction.
Similarly, I’d expect the 14mm prime to really be something like a 12mm lens but with lots of barrel distortion. Once the distortion is corrected, it should give about the same angle of view as a true 14mm lens that had no distortion.
CRB
2 years ago |Hes reviewing the lens performance, not the lens CORRECTED performance via software….Ricoh also have lenses on their GXR system and have excellent performance even without software…..in my opnion the review is more professional because it doesnt take into account a software, but only the lens itself……
Luca
2 years ago |They are NOT reviewing the lens performance, but the performance of a closed system of lens and sensor. To test the pure lens performance you need to do optical measurements without a camera behind it. There are only few companies doing that unindependently in the world.
Second, the GXR-system is a closed system. Without any information from ricoh itself you are not able to determine, if there is any correction done or not. And in fact Ricohs says they enhance the performance within the lens module and save them into the RAW-picture. They just don’t tell how much they do.
Tobias W.
2 years ago |“very good image quality at the center of the frame”
Yeah. That’s why I would want to buy a wide angle lens in the first place… Next please!
Name
2 years ago |They ESTIMATE it as almost 31mm after correction.
Please have a little respect to guys, they’re scientists and they know how to test optics, they’re in the proccess of translation an extremely useful reading (“why our lens tests are so different?”) for all the non believers.
You can read it in Polish here
http://optyczne.pl/3457-nowo%C5%9B%C4%87-Czemu_testy_obiektyw%C3%B3w_na_Optyczne.pl_s%C4%85_od_innych_inne_.html
The translated version will be available at lenstip.com
BTW. They say softness at left side is due to specific (for this lens design) astigmatism. It increases much faster on the left side.
photomatix
2 years ago |“Please have a little respect to guys, they’re scientists”
And that’s the problem. Photographic gear has to be tested by photographers, not scientists!
Luca
2 years ago |They are not scientists, but journalists. And their test conditions are the same as for photozone or dpreview, they just use other charts. If they were scientist, the wouldn’t have to ESTIMATE the correct focal length, they could just measure it. Well, even a good photographic journalist is able to do this. I did it for myself, working as a professional photographic journalist in Croatia (I’m italian) and the focal length is in fact just about 28mm AFTER correction. We use a comparable test equipment, a comparable chart and the same software.
Eli Green
2 years ago |I’m in Spain and Amazon Germany just delivered my 14mm to me this morning. I imagine most Europeans could actually get it pretty quickly if they want it.
It is insanely small and very silent / fast to focus. I wanted it for street shots where the extra speed and fast focusing are going to help me more than optical perfection. As other commenters have noted, I won’t even be trying this lens without software correction. What would be the point?
admin
2 years ago |Really? Amazing. Didn’t expect that!
Geir
2 years ago |Here in Norway I’ve had the lens since Friday 05.11.2010.
A little expensive, but otherwise I’m quite pleased.
oluv
2 years ago |their sample seems to have a soft corner on the bottom left. the right side looks ok. i already heard from other lenses with single soft corners, so the 14mm seems to be prone to decentring.
panasonic should improve their final check. i had to exchange my 14-45 twice and my 14-140 four times to finally get a sharp one. even my 20mm pancake has a softer side, but it is barely noticeable except when pixel peeping.
Sebastian
2 years ago |What’s the whole fuzz about the lens not being available? I bought mine last Wednesday here in Vienna, Austria, at a small Panasonic dealer, and he seemed to have enough in stock.
http://a-s-elektro.at/produkt_detail.php?searchquery=14mm&st_id=0&g_id=134&p_id=1059&so=&sn=1
Dun
2 years ago |Review says “What’s not to like?”. I do not like f/2.5. It is not enough for low light. I hope there will be a bright wide prime.
elliot
2 years ago |Review says “What’s not to like?”. I do not like f/2.5. It is not enough for low light.
Plenty of professionals work in low light with f/2.8 lenses every day. If it’s not working for you blame m43 low-light performance, not the lens.
Dun
2 years ago |I blame both of them.
name
2 years ago |eng version online
http://www.lenstip.com/273.1-Lens_review-Panasonic_LUMIX_G_14_mm_f_2.5_ASPH..html
Hey, I’ve just received that nano43 pancake
Camajan
2 years ago |Sotware is the key here! Testing it without proper hardware and software is stupid!
I am all for more in body in lens correcting software. Actually I am sad cameras aren’t powerful enough or intelligent enough to make all those fairly simple tasks!
Programable by us to meet our needs…