First impression of 45 and 12-24 lenses

Thomas Wieser wrote:

Yesterday I visited the Photokina at Cologne and took some time to play with the new lenses.

Both lenses are very lightweight but seem very well made. When I read the specification at first I was sceptical and expected the lenses to feel cheap and flimsy, however I was proofed wrong, the lenses have more quality feel than my 18-55 ll or my 30 pancake.
On NX20 and NX210 AF was fast.

I had my NX10 with me and AF did not work fine with the 45mm lens, or to be more precise, AF worked but I got no "green" focus confirmation. Seems we will have to wait for a firmeware update for this camera. I had no NX11 with me, so cannot comment on behaviour with this camera.
The 12-24 worked fine on NX10.

I took photos of a member of staff with my NX10 and the 45mm lens at f1.8 and found it to be very sharp wide open, nice background blur and if you zoom in on the eye it is very sharp and contrasty. I got the impression that this lens is not meant as cheapo 50mm lens and is built to deliver high quality.

The lens is not as small as the pancakes but there are no features that compromise quality to make it small.

It was not possible to put my SD card in one of their NX20 cameras when I tried the 12-24 so I had to rely on the magnification of the display to get a first impression of the performance but again it looks promising, even wide open (as this is not a fast lens it will often get used wide open I think).

Thanks! I didn't realize they have working copies of the lenses already. Maybe they will be here sooner rather than later

Traditionalists might prefer 55 mm for portraits with APS-C, but 45 mm might be more useful in cramped indoors. Also, I have seen a trend to get a little closer for portraits than maybe what traditional photographers would for "flattering" portraits.

Eric
--
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