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Shocking! The 12-32 beats primes?!?! I need opinions please...

Started Aug 27, 2017 | Discussions thread
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mentos77 Contributing Member • Posts: 988
Shocking! The 12-32 beats primes?!?! I need opinions please...

edit: I can't withdraw the post now but at -3 sharpness the Sigma easily beats the zoom. So although this doesn't mean the 12-32 is some freak super lens, it does mean that with Panasonic's in-camera sharpening it can be made as good at reputable prime lenses.

Here are both lenses at 30mm f5.6. I used the center and barrels and blue roof on the left to come to my conclusion that the Sigma is better.

Sigma 30mm f1.4 at f5.6

Panasonic 12-32mm f4-5.6 at approx. 30mm f5.6

fights downloaded so will bring the 20mm back into the mix afterwards...

Initial post....

OK, so I am just killing time whilst the boxing match is on and thought I would give the Panny 20mm 1.7 a chance to become a landscape lens by testing it against the 30mm Sigma 1.4 at f4. The Sigma won. But I also tested the 12-32mm f4-5.6 just for the sake of it.

The zoom beats the 20mm!! at approx. 18mm f4.1 the 12-32 beat the P20 at f4. I won't add those photos for now because the big shock came when I turned the zoom all the way to 32mm (at f5.6) and tested it against the Sigma 30mm at f4. The zoom won! So I re-took photos, first of the Sigma at f5.6, inconclusive, then approx. 30mm f5.5 on the zoom, inconclusive.

The 20mm and 12-32mm easily beat the Oly 17mm f2.8, which was no surprise.

But I would like a second option on the below please. I can't believe what I am seeing. There are clouds so this isn't a perfect test. Like I said no planning; I just stood on the balcony and get the brown roof on the right to the edge of each shot. That does appear to be similarly lit in each scene, whereas other areas are with or without clouds.
I think the 12-32mmm might just edge it? What do you think?

The images are in order of when they were taken, oldest at the top. The camera is the Panasonic G7, handheld as it was a very fast shutter speed. The one thing which I just realised is that I have Sharpness set to +3 in the camera. Also, contrast +2 and saturation +1 using the Natural profile. I will dial sharpness down a bit and update this post if that changes things.

Sigma 30mm f1.4 at f4

Panasonic 12-32mm at f5.6 at 32mm

Sigma at f5.6

P12-32 at approx. 30mm f5.5

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G7
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