E-P1 with Lumix 20mm f1.7 first impressions...

Hello everyone,

as promised, my Lumix 20mm f1.7 arrived first thing this morning from Mathers of Lancashire... excellent service and the best price I've found anywhere for Panasonic cameras/lenses.

First impressions, good news first...

• The lens looks and feels much nicer in reality on the silver E-P1 than the photos I've seen suggest... it balances well, and the lens cap, though more bulky feels nice and substantial/secure going onto the lens.

• The focusing ring is really nice - a good smooth feel to the rotation with a nice level of friction.

• The image quality is excellent, nice and sharp, bokeh again looks better than the shots I've seen so far would suggest. Minimal distortion/CA, even on the E-P1 which doesn't automatically correct for CA in software. This is the minimum standard I'd like to see for all future m4/3rds lenses... probably the best IQ I've seen yet out of all available m4/3rds lenses.

• The lens is noisy and slow to focus, compared with every other Lumix m4/3rds lens - I'd like some feedback here from GF1 and G1 owners - does the GF1 focus much, much faster than the latest firmware equipped G1? because if it doesn't, I don't understand the reports I've seen praising the CDAF speed with this lens... it's not much faster than the E-P1, which I expect is down to the focusing motor employed? very similar to the 17mm f2.8 in focus speed performance.

The E-P1 has a wide open aperture of f2.8 for live view display - as you point the camera into bright light, the E-P1 will close down the aperture to reduce that brightness for live view display. Every time you focus, the aperture is opened fully to f1.7 - and then closed down to f2.8 at the end of the CDAF cycle. When you take the shot, the aperture is set to the chosen setting and afterwards, set back to f2.8 (or smaller, depending on light levels) for live view.

• What the above means, is that there is a frequent, annoying 'ticking' going on as the aperture is cycled through these settings... it's even more annoying than the vibrating sound of the lens motors as it moves to focus. Every time the aperture is changed, there is an interruption (jerkiness) to the live view display. THIS NEEDS A FIRMWARE FIX PLEASE OLYMPUS

• The above 'aperture dance' does not occur on the G1... which holds the aperture wide open for live view and focusing, only stopping down to the chosen aperture for the exposure.

That's all for now, I'll hopefully have images to post later.

Kind Regards

Brian
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Hi Jules,

Julian_K wrote:

Thanks for your report Brian, it's very informative to hear considering I am so, so close to purchasing ths lens for my E-P1.

yes, I know there will be a lot of E-P1 owners considering this lens... the IQ and aperture speed is definitely worth it, but the E-P1 method of using aperture to control live view light levels is more noticable on this lens because the 17mm is f2.8 wide open - so unless you're in varying/bright conditions, the aperture doesn't dance around so much.

One quick question with the aperture, are you saying that the aperture reverts back to 2.8 after EVERY shot?

Yes, aperture reverts to f2.8 for live view... opens wide for every CDAF cycle, and then back to f2.8

Cheers

Brian
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Hi Jules,

Julian_K wrote:

If shooting in Manual and use S-AF I am assuming the issue you are referring to is non-existent?

I assumed that too... which is why I checked, and the E-P1 behaves in exactly the same way - standard aperture for live viewing f2.8, closing down further if the light levels increase... switching to the selected aperture for the exposure and then reverting back to f2.8 for live view... opening up fully for the CDAF sequence.

Cheers once again!

You're welcome

P.S. the Image Quality is worth this niggle... it is, frankly, superb.

Cheers

Brian
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Use face detection, it works great!

I think that, while there's obvious improvement to be made in the Olympus CDAF algorithm, focusing speed will also be limited by the focus motor technology employed for each lens. The Lumix 14-45, 45-200, 14-140 and I think 7-14 all use super silent, super smooth, super fast focusing motors... the Lumix 20mm f1.7 and Olympus kit lenses all use smaller, noisier, slower focuing motors.

Cheers

Brian
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Then squeeze the shutter button and you'll see a green square (usually a slightly different size) to confirm focus lock on the face... then fire away. I often shoot in burst mode at this stage, once I've locked the face and maintain eye contact with the subject, to get the expression I'm looking for.

If you saw the white square in this shot, did you then see the green square in the same position before taking the shot?

Cheers

Brian
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This is why you need to confirm the green square locks on the face detected... with multiple people in the frame, the green square will obviously only lock onto one face - not sure how it chooses which, but probably the largest/closest.

Cheers

Brian
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Brian Mosley wrote:

The E-P1 has a wide open aperture of f2.8 for live view display - as you point the camera into bright light, the E-P1 will close down the aperture to reduce that brightness for live view display. Every time you focus, the aperture is opened fully to f1.7 - and then closed down to f2.8 at the end of the CDAF cycle. When you take the shot, the aperture is set to the chosen setting and afterwards, set back to f2.8 (or smaller, depending on light levels) for live view.

• What the above means, is that there is a frequent, annoying 'ticking' going on as the aperture is cycled through these settings... it's even more annoying than the vibrating sound of the lens motors as it moves to focus. Every time the aperture is changed, there is an interruption (jerkiness) to the live view display. THIS NEEDS A FIRMWARE FIX PLEASE OLYMPUS

• The above 'aperture dance' does not occur on the G1... which holds the aperture wide open for live view and focusing, only stopping down to the chosen aperture for the exposure.

1. Congratulations on the new lens! (FWIW my dealer offered the same price as Mathers, so I'm happy too.)

2. Sorry the weather's not better for you! It was lovely in Lancashire yesterday!

3. I posted elsewhere about the aperture cycling on the G1. Which changes even with my fingers away from the buttons. I haven't checked to see if it's only f1.7-2.8, but I got the impression it was stopping down to protect the sensor. If so I wonder why not f16?

It would really be nice to be told what is going on.

I'll compare focussing speeds with the other G1 lenses later.

Mike
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G1 FZ50

Hi Mike,

Michael J Davis wrote:

3. I posted elsewhere about the aperture cycling on the G1. Which changes even with my fingers away from the buttons. I haven't checked to see if it's only f1.7-2.8, but I got the impression it was stopping down to protect the sensor. If so I wonder why not f16?

the G1 keeps the aperture wide open (f1.7) during live view and focusing, and then stops down for the exposure.

If the light gets bright enough, the aperture is switched to f8. The aperture switching happens far less frequently than on the E-P1.

Cheers

Brian
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Brian,

I've just received mine from Mathers 30 minutes ago! There has been quite a bit of discussion of relative AF speed and noise on this thread. I think Andy Westlake has explained this in an earlier thread.

Apparently all Panasonic Micro4/3 lenses use internal focusing except for the 20mm f1.7 which moves the whole lens unit as does the 17mm f2.8 Olympus. The Olympus 14-42mm zoom uses front element or group focusing. Andy indicated that was a reason for the difference in focusing speeds and presumably noise among the Micro4/3 lenses. Certainly you can hear the 20mm f1.7 focus on my G1 whereas the Panasonic zooms are effectively silent. It is slower to focus as well relative to the Panasonic zooms which are unbelievable fast. However, as Andy said the 20mm f1.7 is no slouch on my G1.

I'm sure we all would like to hear you view on the relative speed and noise of your two Micro4/3 pancakes on the E-P1.

By the way I'm using a Hamma 46mm rubber lens hood on the 20mm as I have been on my 4/3 25mm Olympus Pancake (43mm)
More latter I hope.
Regards,
Derek

Hi Derek,

Derek Bach wrote:

I'm sure we all would like to hear you view on the relative speed and noise of your two Micro4/3 pancakes on the E-P1.

Quite similar.

Cheers

Brian
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CDAF = Contrast Detect Auto Focus... it's the method all m4/3rds cameras use to auto focus.

Tremor16 wrote:

Okay, I'm a bit stumped now... Firstly, I can find no mention of 'CDAF' in the manual. I tried C-AF with both single point and multi-point, but my half-pressing the shutter did absolutely nothing. The camera didn't respond at all?? Taking the picture resulted in an out-of-focus shot. I've never used C-AF, so can somebody fill me in on why it doesn't seem to be working? Firmware 1.1.

Use S-AF, and move the camera slightly between trying to get a focus lock if you're struggling... you need to get the green square to confirm focus has locked on the white square (which you need to get first).

Hope that makes sense, keep trying

Cheers

Brian
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And this is what it looks like on a white E-P1: