Stevie Boy Blue
Senior Member
I bought this lens primarily to shoot video coupled with my recently acquired G9 body, but it’s also proving to be very good for still images. In that regard alone, this GX is growing on me more each time I use it. Essentially, users have 45 – 175mm (90 – 350mm EFL) at their disposal, which comes in very handy for shooting many and varied subjects, from wildlife to compressed street and landscape, etc, etc.
For a fly-by-wire mechanism, I’m impressed by how quickly and smoothly the zoom can be moved from wide angle to full telephoto and back again, at least when utilising the front control ring rather than the alternative lever on the lens barrel. It’s almost as responsive as using a fully manual zoom minus the abrupt stop when reaching full extension that we experience with the more conventional design. As it is, once maximum focal length is reached with the power zoom, we can continue to turn the ring as much as we like without effect. To begin with this felt very strange to me, but I soon became accustomed to and began to appreciate the design, not only re the characteristics of operation but the whole package.
Because everything functions internally, there’s no protrusion of the lens barrel from the housing as we zoom to longer focal lengths. A pretty obvious advantage to its compactness is that we can shoot less conspicuously with the GX compared to any standard G-series lens with a similar ranging telescopic type zoom. Take Panasonic’s plastic fantastic and cheap as chips Lumix G 45 – 150mm as an example when out shooting street/people stuff. Say we want to grab a shot of a group of folks having a picnic and we want the scene to appear as natural as possible, eg with no-one looking straight down the lens because they’ve rumbled our poorly executed tactics.
When extending the more obvious telescopic 45 – 150, there’s a much higher chance that we’ll be noticed by at least one person in the group than if we use the internally-extending, much less conspicuous power zoom of the 45 – 175. (See the example shot I’ve included of the group enjoying time together under the tree, plus the older ladies resting on the garden bench as well as the 2 youngsters embracing in the final mono [B & W] image. The point to note is that I was in full view of everyone at the time of shooting, but all remained oblivious to my photographing them because of the internal zoom.) Using the PZ, nothing changes in external appearance. Whether we shoot at 45 or 175mm, the lens remains the same size, which is fairly small for the vast focal range it covers. As I say, that’s just one benefit that the power zoom has over the manual and extending type, be it for stills or video shooting.
On the subject of video, the sheer smoothness of the 45 – 175’s zoom operation is an invaluable asset – at least for me. I often use Bridge cameras in my armory of photo gear, their power zooms on which I rely for smooth looking footage where a transition from wide to telephoto or vice versa is included in the finished article. Well, I can confirm right now, as smooth as my FZ330 and particularly my two FZ2000s are for this type of work, the lens on review here is smoother still across all focal lengths that each set-up shares.
It’s just a shame that this MILC lens is restricted to 90mm EFL at the wider end. If it went to 24-ish mm like my bridge cameras do, they’d already be more or less redundant as video tools in good light. For want of a better analogy, zooming from wide to telephoto and back again with the 45 – 175 PZ is as smooth as putting a sharp knife through warm butter; not the slightest of interruptions, jerkiness, or instability in the process to be found anywhere. I’ve been utterly impressed with both that and the built-in IS – especially coupled with the IBIS included in the G9 body. It’s pretty much all rock steady, making for a largely enjoyable experience across the board.
To conclude, I rate this lens very highly for both video and stills in good light – especially as I bought mine used and in excellent condition for a bargain £110. Hence, I guess one question some readers may ask is: If I had to, would I pay full market RRP of £399ish for a brand new one?
Yes, absolutely I would. Whilst my 45 – 150 and particularly 14 – 140mm ii are each just a tad sharper for stills shooting at any focal lengths and aperture settings they share with the G X 45 – 175, it still renders output that is good enough for me to keep the lens pretty much permanently attached to my G9. Hence, I recommend it to anyone on the lookout for something a little different but largely no less useful than the manually operated type zoom.
Put it this way, I’m far more impressed with results from this lens than I was with either the 45 – 200 mm or 100 – 300mm that I also tried out recently, both of which I returned for full refunds because neither met with my higher standard in Image quality and demands for fine feather and fur detail rendering, as this PZ does. Overall, I find this a more useful and higher performing lens, save to mention that weighing in at just 210g (0.46 lb,) it is by far the lighter of those three options.
And when push comes to shove, isn’t lightening our load a primary reason why many of us choose M4/3rd gear over larger and heavier formats? I know that certainly applies to me – and the lighter and smaller the whole package the better... at least within reason. ;-)
NOTE that the following images have all been resized and/or cropped for fast loading purposes. Otherwise they are Jpegs as they appeared straight from my camera.
In closing, thanks very much for reading this review. I appreciate your time and I hope you find something useful here.
Best wishes and happy shooting to all.
PS: For anyone interested: Since joining DPR in 2009, I’ve compiled various user-reviews intended to help readers by giving them some insight into my favourite Panasonic products, links for which are supplied below. Please note that I use my time freely and completely absent of remuneration or freebie goods from anyone or any company. If a product impresses me enough, I enjoy spreading the word. I speak as I find and I just happen to like Panasonic cameras and lenses more than any other makes. That’s why I buy and recommend them – nothing more, nothing less.
Lumix G100 Camera: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/65550733
Panasonic 25mm F1.7 lens: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/66591863
Panasonic 42.5mm F1.7 lens: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4665967
Panasonic 14-140mm ii lens: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/65695092
FZ2000 Review Part 1: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/64288303
FZ2000 Review Part 2: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/66360652
FZ300 Review Part 1: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63244070
FZ300 Review Part 2: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/65012028
Cheers...
