Panasonic 14-42 f/3.5-5.6 ll, what's your opinion (owners)

and experience with this lens ... ?

especially shooting outdoors in good light, F5.6, F8, F11 etc , general landscape, walk around etc ?

From experience with two samples . This lens is an excellent performer wideopen across the frame at all focal lengths , the only reason you`d need to stop it down past F5.6 is if you run out of shutter speed and the wide end is at its sharpest at F4.5

After having the Panasonic 12-32 pancake , the original 14-42, 14-45 and 14-42 PZ Pancake , the new 14-42-IIHD is the best performer of the lot . what`s even better is that it`s very compact and handles far better on a GM1 than the 12-32 does

Ive found It beats the old hightly regarded 14-45 for microcontrast, colour and edge performance as well as focus consistency & CA . I also feel that its sharper alround to but that could be that the cameras I had in the 14-45 days were Shutter shock prone Olys

It's fine for what it is considering cost and it produces photos I'm perfectly happy with on my G6. I haven't had any problems with sharpness or color and I use the full apature range.

I would only say it's soft when comparing it to the 20mm but that isnt a fair comparison at all. I also judge the lens by the whole picture and not looking at pics zoomed  100%, well mostly...

I just bought it on eBay, for $147 + $10 post = $157 in total .. am waiting for it to arrive... my idea is that it will complement my 15 f/1.7 and 25 f/1.4 - on GX7 - outdoors and in good light ..

so, I'm happy to hear about your experiences ...

It's quite a good lens. It's small. Light. Sharpness is completely decent. No one will ever look at your pictures taken by this lens and says: yay, it's not sharp enough! It has good contrast. It keeps lens aberrations low.

I found the wide end has a little high distorsion, but it still works (for me). Stabilization works as expected: 1-2 EV advantage depends on the circumstances (focal length).

Some says it's too conservative since the f number increases very quickly during the zoom range. You'll never notice that, since it's still a daylight lens. And other kit lenses has 0,5 EV advantage at 25mm? And thus, advantage in shallow DOF? Don't make me laugh. f5.1 or f4.5 at 25mm, who cares?

If you need a standard zoom with decent IQ, go for it!

Gunnlaugur Gudmundsson wrote:

and experience with this lens ... ?

especially shooting outdoors in good light, F5.6, F8, F11 etc , general landscape, walk around etc ?

Loga wrote:

It's quite a good lens. It's small. Light. Sharpness is completely decent. No one will ever look at your pictures taken by this lens and says: yay, it's not sharp enough! It has good contrast. It keeps lens aberrations low.

I found the wide end has a little high distorsion, but it still works (for me). Stabilization works as expected: 1-2 EV advantage depends on the circumstances (focal length).

Some says it's too conservative since the f number increases very quickly during the zoom range. You'll never notice that, since it's still a daylight lens. And other kit lenses has 0,5 EV advantage at 25mm? And thus, advantage in shallow DOF? Don't make me laugh. f5.1 or f4.5 at 25mm, who cares?

If you need a standard zoom with decent IQ, go for it!

Thanks, I just did!  $157 ... a bargain I think ...

Gunnlaugur Gudmundsson wrote:

Thanks, I just did! $157 ... a bargain I think ...

Yeah, $160 is pretty good for that lens. I was happy with mine on my G6, the only reason I sold it was to fund my purchase of a 14-140 II (also a good lens, though it does exhibit shutter shock on the G6 with the mechanical shutter), which I sold when I got my 12-35/35-100 f/2.8 zooms.

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with the lens. The first time I saw it, I thought it was a toy. Looking at the images taken with it though, it is anything but a toy.

ijm5012 wrote:

Gunnlaugur Gudmundsson wrote:

Thanks, I just did! $157 ... a bargain I think ...

Yeah, $160 is pretty good for that lens. I was happy with mine on my G6, the only reason I sold it was to fund my purchase of a 14-140 II (also a good lens, though it does exhibit shutter shock on the G6 with the mechanical shutter), which I sold when I got my 12-35/35-100 f/2.8 zooms.

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with the lens. The first time I saw it, I thought it was a toy. Looking at the images taken with it though, it is anything but a toy.

Nice to hear, I had the 14-140 a very nice lens, but too big for me ... I like the m/43 for the balance between performance and size ...

AdamT wrote:

From experience with two samples . This lens is an excellent performer wideopen across the frame at all focal lengths , the only reason you`d need to stop it down past F5.6 is if you run out of shutter speed and the wide end is at its sharpest at F4.5

After having the Panasonic 12-32 pancake , the original 14-42, 14-45 and 14-42 PZ Pancake , the new 14-42-IIHD is the best performer of the lot . what`s even better is that it`s very compact and handles far better on a GM1 than the 12-32 does

Ive found It beats the old hightly regarded 14-45 for microcontrast, colour and edge performance as well as focus consistency & CA . I also feel that its sharper alround to but that could be that the cameras I had in the 14-45 days were Shutter shock prone Olys

Adam, thank you for the above, very informative.

So, in your experience, this lens is (just about) best wide open? If I'm walking around Reykjavik, for instance, taking pictures of people and houses, I don't have to stop down to F5.6 to F8?

At it's widest setting, 14mm (28mm), is it sharpest at F4.5?

Gunnlaugur Gudmundsson wrote:

and experience with this lens ... ?

especially shooting outdoors in good light, F5.6, F8, F11 etc , general landscape, walk around etc ?

Mine is deadly sharp at the wide end. The tele end is perfectly okey but significantly worse than at 14 mm. Really good lens for the price and the size.

Gunnlaugur Gudmundsson wrote:

and experience with this lens ... ?

especially shooting outdoors in good light, F5.6, F8, F11 etc , general landscape, walk around etc ?

This is the only lens used on my Lumix GH1 infrared camera. It has replaced the Lumix 14-45mm on it as soon as SLRGear has said it to be better than the Lumix 14-45mm:
http://slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/1588/cat/69

These are three infrared pictures taken recently in Paris with the Lumix 14-42mm II:

JeanPierre Martel wrote:

Gunnlaugur Gudmundsson wrote:

and experience with this lens ... ?

especially shooting outdoors in good light, F5.6, F8, F11 etc , general landscape, walk around etc ?

This is the only lens used on my Lumix GH1 infrared camera. It has replaced the Lumix 14-45mm on it as soon as SLRGear has said it to be better than the Lumix 14-45mm:
http://slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/1588/cat/69

These are three infrared pictures taken recently in Paris with the Lumix 14-42mm II:

Interesting photos, thank you for sharing ...

I really like mine... The sharpness and contrast seem to be very good. There is a bit of distortion I've noticed on the wide end, but most of the time I'm not bothered by it. In the case where I really don't want that curvature, it's easy enough for me to fix with Photoshop.

Here are some images that I've shot with it.

So, in your experience, this lens is (just about) best wide open? If I'm walking around Reykjavik, for instance, taking pictures of people and houses, I don't have to stop down to F5.6 to F8?

Nope - you`ll gain very little - to be honest as the long end is F5.6 anyway I`d set the lens to F4.5 and it`ll be pretty superb all the way through , it`s not a perfect lens of course but it`d take one of the two F2.8 Oly/Pan zooms to beat it .

AdamT wrote:

So, in your experience, this lens is (just about) best wide open? If I'm walking around Reykjavik, for instance, taking pictures of people and houses, I don't have to stop down to F5.6 to F8?

Nope - you`ll gain very little - to be honest as the long end is F5.6 anyway I`d set the lens to F4.5 and it`ll be pretty superb all the way through , it`s not a perfect lens of course but it`d take one of the two F2.8 Oly/Pan zooms to beat it .

Thank you ...

I really like my copy. Bought it originally just to have one stabilized lens for video. At the time I was using only Olympus glass.  This lens is small, sharp and light.

Gunnlaugur Gudmundsson wrote:

and experience with this lens ... ?

especially shooting outdoors in good light, F5.6, F8, F11 etc , general landscape, walk around etc ?

This was the kit lens that came with my GX7. I didn't like the GX7 but the lens was fine. Since I moved from film to digital, I have owned three kit zooms and this was the best.  Now it lives with my son and he's very happy with it.

A few from Cartagena, Columbia