DPReview.com is closing April 10th - Find out more

Is Panasonic 12-35mm II parfocal?

Started Feb 25, 2018 | Discussions thread
Holistic Photog Contributing Member • Posts: 719
Real parfocal is important in video though

Paul De Bra wrote:

I don't know about the 12-35 per se but it would be exceptional for it to be parfocal.

However, many newer camera-lens combinations are able to apply focus correction as you zoom, giving you the (false) impression that the lens is parfocal whereas instead of the focus not changing as you zoom it deliberately changes to compensate for the lens not being parfocal.

You can hear this actually: half-press to achieve focus. Then let go of the shutter button (so as to not refocus deliberately), zoom in and out and listen carefully to the lens. When you hear something moving (as in driven by a motor) it is the focus mechanism changing focus so as to keep actual focus constant. So for all practical purposes it is as if the better modern zoom lenses are parfocal: you can change the zoom to some extent and more or less retain focus.

It's not important in stills to have true parfocal behavior, but if you do manual focus in video, AF to give the illusion of parfocality obviously won't help. Even if you do AF in video, there might still be a difference between true parfocality and mimicked.

Post (hide subjects) Posted by
Keyboard shortcuts:
FForum PPrevious NNext WNext unread UUpvote SSubscribe RReply QQuote BBookmark MMy threads
Color scheme? Blue / Yellow