Panasonic 14-140 II OIS problems?

Hey!

I bought the 14-140mm mark II used and besides some dots on the glass inside the lens (not dust), I don't see a difference with the power O.I.S "on" and "off". Besides the symbol on the screen when its off. I read some complains about a few lenses where the OIS is barely noticable, the 14-140 being one of them.

I like to hear your thoughts about this. If you own this lens and can tell the difference between on and off.

I also bought a 100-300mm II and used gh4 with this lens, so I really need the lens ois. With the 100-300mm, the stabe is very nice.

The 14-140 lens has quite a few dots inside of the glass, maybe from water damage? I haven't seen any on the pictures I've taken. If water has somehow entered the lens, I imagine the power ois also might take damage from this. I've searched the interweb for broken lens-ois, but there's no information about this, which make me believe that it's quite rare.

So what du you guys think, is the ois broken? I'm thinking maybe a firmware update would fix it, but I have the most recent update installed. I haven't found a way to reset the lens firmware and re-install the latest one, is this possible somehow?

You can probably tell that english is not my native language(?).

Thanks!

BrodenMax wrote:

Hey!

I bought the 14-140mm mark II used and besides some dots on the glass inside the lens (not dust),

Hard to comment anything on used gear since we never know what its pervious owner might have done to it. I owned the non WR version 14-140 f/3.5-5.6 mk-I 7 years, a major lens always on GX85. Despite it had been used under all sort of weather condition from rain (sometime can be heavy), to freezing cold covered with snow, hot and humid to dusty desert... 0 problem so far. Clean as new except some used mark on the lens mount after so many years of usage...

FYI, a WR gear would be harder to deal with moisture or dust etc if it could find its way inside the lens than non WR gear. It is an external zoom designed lens. When we zoom in and out the pumping action would eventually let fine particle goes through the sealing...

On best WR, internal zoom could be more safe.

I don't see a difference with the power O.I.S "on" and "off".

Before all, I have to declare that my experience is on 14-140 f/3.5-5.6 mk-I only. As per members' info, optically and on performance-wise both mk-I and mk-II are identical.

Why not try it by yourselves? Take few shots on using IS=ON and OFF. To see what is the slowest shutter speed you can use.

I did this on every new lens I purchased. I would take 10 shots on AFS, shoot continuously in very short interval between every shot (half breath) on a reasonably close object having fine detail on it under good lighting condition. Examine the output on 1:1 and take 7 or more sharp image (single pixel formation of edges) out of 10 as the slowest shutter speed you can used.

As per my home testing on GX85, the DUAL IS should be able to provide upto 5 stops of stabilization, which means close to 1/10"~1/15" shutter speed zone on the long end vs the traditional rule of thumb around 1/300".  It means a lot to me.

On GH4, which is a Lens OIS only model, I suppose you could expect around 1/30"~1/40" for the long end @140 (280 eq of FF), i.e., 3~3.5 stops effective stabilization IIRC (my memory is faded since shooting 14-140 on non IBIS body had to traced back to 8/9 years ago: the G1, GF3 and GX1 era).

Of course the above is highly depending on the hand holding stability and style of shooting of individual that could vary a lot.

Besides the symbol on the screen when its off. I read some complains about a few lenses where the OIS is barely noticable, the 14-140 being one of them.

Not to me. So far all of the lens OIS lenses are very effective to me.

Please bear in mind on Panny bodies we can only enjoy lens OIS or no IS. Unlike 5-axis IBIS Olympus bodies which allow shooter to choose IBIS and lens OIS whichever is more effective, hence for them they might choose to disable lens OIS and use IBIS only, or use an IBIS priority setting. This is not applicable to Panny user!

I also had read some reports that the Lens OIS might indeed soften the image. Mostly were results of the very sensitive OIS mechanism of 14-140 plus its light weight construction. It is well known that 14-140 is one of the shutter shock magnets among Panny lenses on older Pannys which had a noisy/hard m-shutter.

Switching IS off, nor put on a tripod couldn't help. E-shutter is the best solution and recently Panny has used a more quite m-shutter (since GX85) and Auto Shutter to address this problem.

I like to hear your thoughts about this. If you own this lens and can tell the difference between on and off.

Night and day different, more obvious on DUAL IS or DUAL IS 2 setup for the extra 2~2.5 stops effectiveness stabilization. Of course, I shoot with e-shutter all the time for the best result of this lens.

I also bought a 100-300mm II and used gh4 with this lens, so I really need the lens ois. With the 100-300mm, the stabe is very nice.

This should mean a lens OIS only combo. If you switch IS to OFF, you are using a non stabilized gear. I guess you are on a tripod or monopod, or you have excellent handholding skill, or you won't need crazy slow shutter speed?

The 14-140 lens has quite a few dots inside of the glass, maybe from water damage? I haven't seen any on the pictures I've taken.

Could be watermark. Try to shoot at the blue sky using f/22. If dust inside, it will show up on the output. Generally dust won't be noticed on f/8 or faster aperture value.

If there would be watermark, specially if on the inner surface of the glasses, I might pay extra care of it since the watermark might signal water/moisture might have once got inside the lens, that might start to corrode the electronics/motors etc inside. Sort of cancer to electronic gear.

If water has somehow entered the lens, I imagine the power ois also might take damage from this.

Might be but not must.

I've searched the interweb for broken lens-ois, but there's no information about this, which make me believe that it's quite rare.

Yes it is very rare. Usually the AF might fail easier than the Lens OIS...

So what du you guys think, is the ois broken?

Without more info it is hard to guess what has actually happened to you.

I'm thinking maybe a firmware update would fix it,

No, it won't.

but I have the most recent update installed. I haven't found a way to reset the lens firmware and re-install the latest one, is this possible somehow?

No. We can't.

You can probably tell that english is not my native language(?).

Thanks!

Please give more info on what led you thinking the OIS of your lens has been broken?

Any in-gear IS is just allowing us to shoot with slower shutter speed than without in-gear IS. The effectiveness of IS will be varied from person to person. While generally 1/focal length of FF was adapted as a guide line, some might require 2x to that!. Even for the same person, the difficulty of shooting, the physical condition of the shooter at the time of shooting etc would also affect the effectiveness a lot. 1 or 2 stops could be off set by many factors easily in real life. Under this shot an effectiveness 5 stops IS might be reduced to 1~2 stops only on another shot...

BTE, if you have doubt on the lens, return it if possible. My 2 cents.

I've had the Mk2  14-140  for a year now and the OIS is very good, especially if I use 4x or 2x magnification. Even with th zoom right out it is noticeable when I switch it on ,I am in my 80s so probably bit more shakey anyway. The lens behaves the same as my Leica 12-60, best OIS I've ever had, I have  had a 3 second hand held shot really sharp.

Take two photos with ois on and off at a shutter speed under accepted values for a good result.

The difference should be discernible, always is when I try it that way to see what effect stabilisation is having

Forget this since nowadays I have DUAL IS, which is activated automatically once it is powered on... Half hit of shutter (to engage AF) or not gives me no difference 😀.

For video, IBIS would give better differences. Lens OIS is great for still style of frame to frame shooting. IBIS or Dual IS (combination of IBIS + Lens OIS) should be more effective for the video style of continous shooting.

alcelc wrote:

Please bear in mind on Panny bodies we can only enjoy lens OIS or no IS. Unlike 5-axis IBIS Olympus bodies which allow shooter to choose IBIS and lens OIS whichever is more effective, hence for them they might choose to disable lens OIS and use IBIS only, or use an IBIS priority setting. This is not applicable to Panny user!

So if I get a Panasonic lens for my G80 with an OIS switch on the lens barrel and switch it to the off position, am I also switching off IBIS?

Cafe Racer wrote:

alcelc wrote:

Please bear in mind on Panny bodies we can only enjoy lens OIS or no IS. Unlike 5-axis IBIS Olympus bodies which allow shooter to choose IBIS and lens OIS whichever is more effective, hence for them they might choose to disable lens OIS and use IBIS only, or use an IBIS priority setting. This is not applicable to Panny user!

So if I get a Panasonic lens for my G80 with an OIS switch on the lens barrel and switch it to the off position, am I also switching off IBIS?

Yes, no IS at all.

For Panny, only non OIS lens can use IBIS.

IBIS will never be used  (except its role in DUAL IS) if the camera can communicate with the lens and know it is an OIS lens. Shooter cannot choose to use IBIS or Lens OIS or DUAL IS... Only the best IS or nothing.

FunGuy66 wrote:

Cafe Racer wrote:

alcelc wrote:

Please bear in mind on Panny bodies we can only enjoy lens OIS or no IS. Unlike 5-axis IBIS Olympus bodies which allow shooter to choose IBIS and lens OIS whichever is more effective, hence for them they might choose to disable lens OIS and use IBIS only, or use an IBIS priority setting. This is not applicable to Panny user!

So if I get a Panasonic lens for my G80 with an OIS switch on the lens barrel and switch it to the off position, am I also switching off IBIS?

Yes. On a G80, switching off OIS via the lens switch also switches off IBIS.

On Panasonic bodies with IBIS, the options are:

Lens with Power OIS: Dual IS, or nothing.

Lens with Mega OIS: OIS only (e.g. 45-200 mk1 and a few others), or Dual IS 1 (e.g. the 30mm macro), or nothing.

That's unfortunate. I'm not keen on Dual IS during video recording on the G80 as I find it a bit jittery, I prefer IBIS only. My Lumix 12-60mm doesn't have a switch on the lens and I thought if I had a Panasonic lens with an OIS switch on the barrel I would be able to choose. How difficult is it to implement such an option?

FunGuy66 wrote:

Cafe Racer wrote:

alcelc wrote:

Please bear in mind on Panny bodies we can only enjoy lens OIS or no IS. Unlike 5-axis IBIS Olympus bodies which allow shooter to choose IBIS and lens OIS whichever is more effective, hence for them they might choose to disable lens OIS and use IBIS only, or use an IBIS priority setting. This is not applicable to Panny user!

So if I get a Panasonic lens for my G80 with an OIS switch on the lens barrel and switch it to the off position, am I also switching off IBIS?

Yes. On a G80, switching off OIS via the lens switch also switches off IBIS.

On Panasonic bodies with IBIS, the options are:

Lens with Power OIS: Dual IS, or nothing.

Lens with Mega OIS: OIS only (e.g. 45-200 mk1 and a few others), or Dual IS 1 (e.g. the 30mm macro), or nothing.

Straightly speaking, Power OIS or Mega OIS wouldn't actually play any part on this. If so, just co-incident. e.g. the 14-42 PZ is power OIS was promised to have a firmware update making it DUAL IS compatible like 45-175PZ, but never happen so far...

The best is to check the DUAL IS compatibility list of Panny:

https://av.jpn.support.panasonic.com/support/global/cs/dsc/connect/dual_is.html

The IS policy of Panny is:

• DUAL IS 2 compatible lens (e.g. 14-140 f/3.5-5.6 mk-I/II) on DUAL IS 2 compatible body (e.g. G85), DUAL IS 2 or nothing.

• DUAL IS 2 compatible lens (e.g. the 14-140 f/3.5-5.6 mk-I/II) on DUAL IS compatible body (e.g. GX85), DUAL IS or nothing.

• DUAL IS compatible lens (e.g. 12-35 f/2.8 mk-I) on DUAL IS 2 compatible body (e.g. G85), DUAL IS only or nothing.

• Non DUAL IS compatible OIS lens (e.g. 14-45 f/3.5-5.6) on DUAL IS 2/DUAL IS compatible body (e.g. G85/GX85), Lens OIS only or nothing.

• Non OIS Lens (e.g. 7-14 f/4) on IBIS body (e.g. G85 which is DUAL IS 2 compatible, GX85 which is DUAL IS compatible or GX7 which is non DUAL IS compatible but has IBIS), IBIS or nothing.

Cafe Racer wrote:

FunGuy66 wrote:

Cafe Racer wrote:

alcelc wrote:

Please bear in mind on Panny bodies we can only enjoy lens OIS or no IS. Unlike 5-axis IBIS Olympus bodies which allow shooter to choose IBIS and lens OIS whichever is more effective, hence for them they might choose to disable lens OIS and use IBIS only, or use an IBIS priority setting. This is not applicable to Panny user!

So if I get a Panasonic lens for my G80 with an OIS switch on the lens barrel and switch it to the off position, am I also switching off IBIS?

Yes. On a G80, switching off OIS via the lens switch also switches off IBIS.

On Panasonic bodies with IBIS, the options are:

Lens with Power OIS: Dual IS, or nothing.

Lens with Mega OIS: OIS only (e.g. 45-200 mk1 and a few others), or Dual IS 1 (e.g. the 30mm macro), or nothing.

That's unfortunate. I'm not keen on Dual IS during video recording on the G80 as I find it a bit jittery, I prefer IBIS only. My Lumix 12-60mm doesn't have a switch on the lens and I thought if I had a Panasonic lens with an OIS switch on the barrel I would be able to choose. How difficult is it to implement such an option?

If you feel the IS was the problem, might switch IS OFF and shoot on tripod (basically no more stabilization issue) to see would your output been improved. If so, your finding might be related to the IS. If not, likely not IS related.

alcelc wrote:

Cafe Racer wrote:

alcelc wrote:

Please bear in mind on Panny bodies we can only enjoy lens OIS or no IS. Unlike 5-axis IBIS Olympus bodies which allow shooter to choose IBIS and lens OIS whichever is more effective, hence for them they might choose to disable lens OIS and use IBIS only, or use an IBIS priority setting. This is not applicable to Panny user!

So if I get a Panasonic lens for my G80 with an OIS switch on the lens barrel and switch it to the off position, am I also switching off IBIS?

Yes, no IS at all.

For Panny, only non OIS lens can use IBIS.

IBIS will never be used (except its role in DUAL IS) if the camera can communicate with the lens and know it is an OIS lens. Shooter cannot choose to use IBIS or Lens OIS or DUAL IS... Only the best IS or nothing.

Oh well, thankfully Olympus have quite a few options if I want a zoom lens without OIS, which will allow me to use IBIS only.

alcelc wrote:

Cafe Racer wrote:

FunGuy66 wrote:

Cafe Racer wrote:

alcelc wrote:

Please bear in mind on Panny bodies we can only enjoy lens OIS or no IS. Unlike 5-axis IBIS Olympus bodies which allow shooter to choose IBIS and lens OIS whichever is more effective, hence for them they might choose to disable lens OIS and use IBIS only, or use an IBIS priority setting. This is not applicable to Panny user!

So if I get a Panasonic lens for my G80 with an OIS switch on the lens barrel and switch it to the off position, am I also switching off IBIS?

Yes. On a G80, switching off OIS via the lens switch also switches off IBIS.

On Panasonic bodies with IBIS, the options are:

Lens with Power OIS: Dual IS, or nothing.

Lens with Mega OIS: OIS only (e.g. 45-200 mk1 and a few others), or Dual IS 1 (e.g. the 30mm macro), or nothing.

That's unfortunate. I'm not keen on Dual IS during video recording on the G80 as I find it a bit jittery, I prefer IBIS only. My Lumix 12-60mm doesn't have a switch on the lens and I thought if I had a Panasonic lens with an OIS switch on the barrel I would be able to choose. How difficult is it to implement such an option?

If you feel the IS was the problem, might switch IS OFF and shoot on tripod (basically no more stabilization issue) to see would your output been improved. If so, your finding might be related to the IS. If not, likely not IS related.

IBIS only with my non-stabilized prime lenses appear to give smoother results.