The Panasonic Leica DG 25-50mm F1.7 is a perfect companion for one of Jordan's favorite video lenses, the Panasonic 10-25mm F1.7. Find out why he likes it so much, and why Chris thinks it's nifty for photos as well.
This is another great lens from Panasonic, but i must say that M43 is not the lightweight option for selective focus. I use both Panasonic M43 and Sony FF cameras for video and the Tamron 28-75 f2.8 has shallower dof, smaller weight, size and cost. It is more limited at wide angle but has more reach when an APSC crop is used (at the press of a button on the Sony a7iii). So for me, FF wins in this focal range, but M43 has other advantages , especially with small, light primes and telephoto lenses.
I think this lens, just like the 10-25mm f/1.7, would be just a great match for the S1, and in fact in perfect if the S1 has the battery holder attached. See photo here:
OK, OK, you are correct, but you don't get the humour about the huge size and weight of these M43 lenses. They are so big that they seem made for a particular FF camera that is considered big and heavy even in the FF class.
I'm surprised that the lens is not parfocal (since it has distance indicators on the barrel) and not at all convinced that is the case, based on the test in the video.
The test of a parfocal lens is to rack focus (i.e. zoom in on the subject and focus, as taught in film school) and pull out to see if focus holds. Doing it the other way around never works for this reason: at 25mm the depth of field is greater than at 50, so you can focus at 25mm and have the image perfectly in focus but zooming in to 50 will lose focus since the depth of field is far shallower. Using a calculator, at 1 meter DOF at 25mm F1.7 is .16m, while at 50mm F1.7 it is only .04m.
If the lens in fact is not parfocal, then the distance indicators would be different at different focal lengths. It would seem that the follow focus ribs would be just decoration since a focus puller would not be able to judge distance based on the indicators, as it would vary based upon focal length.
They should maybe have included a coloured dot or something to make it easier to tell them apart if you have both in your bag. They really are identical twins.
[Hands-on with the new Panasonic Leica 25-50mm F1.7 ASPH: Digital Photography Review](https://www.dpreview.com/articles/0541544615/hands-on-with-the-panasonic-leica-25-50mm-f1-7-asph)
The video content is in addition to, not a replacement for, the articles though they aren’t always published concurrently.
They aren't even handled by the same people, if Chris and Jordan weren't doing the videos they wouldn't be at DPR. You've been around long enough to know better tbh, since when has DPR ever done a lot of extensive lens reviews anyway, they've always been rare unfortunately... At least DPRTV picks up some of that slack.
Isn't anyone 'entitled' to publicly comment on what is publicly done or not done? I think the criticism is well justified. If dpreview doesn't do a significant amount of real lens tests anymore, let alone in a timely manner*, then perhaps they should stop pretending they do by keeping that part of their website alive.
* Even camera reviews have, for the most part, stopped being timely years ago already, while their timeliness had been a major reason to go to dpreview in the first place, in its early days. Today, in many cases people have mostly long since decided whether to buy a new camera or not long before the review appears.
If you cannot see how my point is indeed as reasonable as it can be, after I gave you more reasons than your super short post deserved, I cannot help you.
Also, until now, you didn't comment on *how* he was asking, and neither did I. We might even agree there.
While I commend the contingent of videographers devoted to the ART50-100mmF1.8 (and acknowledge that it is said to be the sharpest zoom ever made for APS-C) it is nonetheless well over DOUBLE the weight of this lens - even BEFORE adding boosters or adaptors.
Keep the Sigma on set, and get the Leica for field work.
@Jon, the Sigma is an outstanding lens, but the two lenses are distinct enough that they are suited to different tasks. They can certainly co-exist, and potentially serve the same purpose.
The weight of the Sigma is not for the faint of heart, but there are also many photographers who regularly use 70-200s for portrait work so it’s not unusual - just that the Leica is more nimble and not prohibitive to anybody (physically).
As for cost, yes, few lenses match the price to performance ratio of the ART50-100.
Not being parfocal AT ALL is a pitty. So it's more a bunch of primes for video instead a zoom? But nevertheless a nice combination with the 10-25mm.
For photography - I would use a 24-105 and a different mount. Seeing corner performance here (which is for sure overrated at 100mm) you can achive similar with a modern F4 zoom.
The S5 plus 24-70 may be an excellent choice, and this new MFT lens sure is expensive and big and heavy and also has a really limited zoom range, but how would a 50-100 eq. lens be comparable to a 24-70, especially for videographers?
Closest equivalent to this might be the Tamron 35-150 f2.8-4, wider and longer, faster at the wide end but slower at the long end (by equivalence obviously), 150g heavier and roughly the same size.
I'd love to have a FF mirrorless version of that DSLR lens by Tamron tbh. I like seeing any outside the box thinking with tele ranges tho, there's been a lot more of that at the wide / normal end lately but not so much at this end.
The Sigma 50-100 is the closer FL equivalent and direct f-stop match but that's a larger monster... Both are cheaper than the Pana but that's not really useful to the M4/3 videographer looking for better AF and/or native features.
Serious videographers keep buying big and heavy cine lenses for horrendous prices, I guess for them those two new Panasonic G lenses are both a welcome addition to the lineup – and even a way to save money, if they might have pondered to cover the range with something, anything, else on the market that would be even just similarly fast. It's also those video-centric features which are mentioned in the video that make them attractive (plus the fact that, as others have said, the new lens, too, *is* parfocal when focused at the long end, not the short end, as it has been done in the video).
20mm eq. is a huge difference to 24mm eq., which would be no alternative for somebody who wants a 20mm wide angle, and 100mm eq. is sufficiently longer than 70mm, too, to make a difference, especially in videography where cropping in post is something else than it is in photography. If those differences wouldn't matter, you could just as well suggest why not buy a 28-50 instead of a 24-70.
Jordan would be great if you did a complete comparison of the Sigma 50-100mm f1.8 on a Metabones speed booster (35-70 mm f1.2) vs the Panasonic 25-50mm f1.7.
When Gerald underdone looked at the Sigma 18-35mm f1.8 on speed booster (13-25mm f1.2) vs the Panasonic 10-25mm f1.7, the Sigma looked to be the winner. I use the Sigma combination all the time and agree its excellent.
Would be nice to see, also using a Metabones BT2 pass through adapter you also gain the full range of the Sigma to get 13-25mm f1.2 boosted, 18-35mm f1.8, 35-70mm f1.2 boosted, 50-100mm f1.8.
pretty big for a 2x zoom and compared to 24-105f4 (4x zoom) on FF that presumably would give pretty close results. Not incredibly attractive, at least for stills.
It's still much cheaper to achieve the equivalent range/DOF on larger sensor, for example, Tamron 35-150 2.8-4, Sigma 50-100 1.8. If on budget, I'd adapt those lenses onto M43 bodies.
Not to mention a lot heavier as well. The Sigma itself is almost 3x the weight before a speed booster. Just more stuff to carry. This is clearly aimed at the videographers who want to have the lightest and most efficient system for them.
The Tamron is actually only about 150g heavier, same size as the PL25-50, but videographers probably want that constant aperture anyway... As a stills shooter I'd actually like a mirrorless version of that Tamron 35-150.
I was sceptical when I first heard the idea, but when I thought about it it actually seems doable and Panasonic might actually have already had it in mind when starting out with the 10-25. 13cm is not too short for a 100mm zoom lens, and 6cm is what the front element diameter of a 100mm f/1.7 would need to be, and it is also what the 10-25's front lens diameter is. I surely would be interested...
Panasonic's Leica DG Vario-Summilux 25-50mm F1.7 ASPH is a fast zoom lens aimed at photographers and filmmakers using Micro Four Thirds camera bodies. Read our review to find out how it performs.
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