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Lack of up to date pancakes in M43?

Started Feb 9, 2020 | Discussions thread
Impulses Forum Pro • Posts: 10,039
Re: Lack of up to date pancakes in M43?

I haven't read the whole thread but I think I read you already made your choice... In any case, I thought I'd add that I agree with Luke... The 20/1.7 is outright useless for C-AF or video AF but outside of that (and refocusing across it's whole range) the AF performance really isn't as bad as some make it out to be.

Unit focusing (it moves the whole center core in and out, all glass elements at once) is to blame for this weakness, but refocusing for S-AF across short distances it'd be hard to distinguish from other lenses (there were some timed empirical tests of this on the boards years ago). A lot of pancakes use unit focus IIRC, I know Canon's two EF-M pancakes do... The FL and flange distance also plays into how easy it is to design pancakes at certain FLs for certain systems.

When it goes hunting it's more noticeable because it's hunting across it's full focus range and thus the mechanics make it slower the longer the hunting takes, but when any body goes hunting you're often risking a sloppy guess at AF so it's not worth waiting out.

The 14/2.8 was always underrated IMO, it's as sharp as the 20/1.7 (look up LensRentals old tests) or some of the other primes, but the kit pancake zooms are just more attractive for a lot of people (the wider and OIS aided 12-32 in particular IMO, specially if used with one of the small IBIS-less Pana bodies).

 Impulses's gear list:Impulses's gear list
Panasonic GX850 Sony a7R IV Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 75mm F1.8 Panasonic Lumix G 42.5mm F1.7 Sony FE 20mm F1.8G +31 more
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