It sure is itty bitty, but is it any good? We take the pint-sized Panasonic Leica 9mm F1.7 to the sunny streets of Calgary to see how this much-requested lens performs.
I just re-watched the video, and I heard you ask for a comment to tell you that we like you. I like you both, that is, Jordan too. I like the videos you produce for dpreview.tv and I have subscribed, even though I see them here non dpreview.
As someone who has used the Lumix 7-14 f4, and the Olympus 7-14 f 2.8 for over 100 real estate videos, I can comfortably say I'd never buy this lens.
It's a "low light" lens but when do I need a superwide low light lens? Handheld nightime landscape photography ... with stars? Yeah, I'll be on a tripod anyway so F4 is fine.
It has a shallow DoF - again, if I have a wide lens, I'm getting big things and shallow DoF is not a need. Everything is typically far enough away in a 9mm shot that it's all nearly in the same DoF.
It's small - so is the 7-14.
It's wide - but only 9mm. With my 7-14, I also have 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14mm so I can get just the right wide framing, and wider than 9mm.
I can film with a lower ISO than the f4 - true, but then the newer cameras look much better at the higher ISOs that were not as pretty with the GH4, GH3 so the need for a brighter lens is not as needed.
It is probably a great lens and will appeal to some. I'm sure.
A lens like this helps remove the need for a tripod in low light situations. A person can easily shoot dimly lit streets, indoors in temples or cathedrals, low light gallery spaces, without the inconvenience or obstruction of a tripod. Many places won't allow tripods at all.
Shallow DoF isn't really the appeal of m43 - the wide aperture is more about the light gathering capabilities and subsequent versatility in dark situations. Having shot TVC's and online promos for art galleries, even f2.8 can be limiting.
As for newer cameras being better at high ISO shooting, that's a moot point. The retail price of the 9mm is much less than one of those new bodies. It may make sense for you to spend thousands on a GH6 and retain your existing lenses, while others might prefer to spend a fraction of that and keep using their existing camera.
So yes, it's probably not for a real estate shooter, but it will appeal to many more.
It's about a stop, and a half more light than the Olympus 7-14 2.8. Today's cameras are more than capable of delivering that with clean ISO. If we were talking GH2, yeah, I'd agree that a brighter lens is how you get there. But with Olympus and now Panasonic IBIS, and way beter high ISO capability, I'll take a zoom at 2.8 over a fixed lens - especially in the situations you note where the ability to position oneself in the right place in a temple, cathedral, gallery, is dramatically helped by having 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14mm in one lens.
I say this as someone who has shot well over 100 homes - real estate videos, and the ability to get just the right framing trumps ISO gain every time.
Haven't watched the video (because I can never get DPR videos to send me to YouTube to play them so I can see them properly instead of embedded into the tiny space), but the samples look great. Shame I don't have the body to use it!
Thanks for the help, on chrome and brave a long press gives me options, but I cannot open the video in YouTube like any other embedded YouTube video by clicking the title.
If it's been disabled by the channel, I would advise they enable it, if they want to increase views.
If you just type Dpreview on YouTube, it will also be there on their page. You can also click the three dots, go to share, copy the link and paste. It used to go to YouTube when clicking the title before though.
I think they fixed it, seems to be working for me now... Tho sometimes I get the internal YT menu that lets me copy the URL, if long press on the title or the DPR logo I get the Chrome menu to open it right in a new tab tho and I wasn't getting that yesterday.
Looks like it's a great lens! I love that Panasonic is finally getting around to make smaller primes with weather-sealing. Look forward to future releases. And just maybe... we might get a small-ish body with weather sealing at some point? Would love a proper updated version of the excellent GX8
Their review of the g100 found usability concerns with the tight framing at 12mm. Does this lens address those concerns ? Might there be a kit offering ? That would be pretty appealing .
I was thinking the same thing, that this would be a great lens to bundle with the G100. If they'd had this ready to go for the G100 launch it would've been a much more attractive proposition.
BTW for a while now the "Watch on YouTube" links don't work for me in Chrome or Edge. I can watch it here fine, or find it on YT and watch it, but Chrome used to zap me there and now it doesn't???
No. It has been like that for a month or so now. Really annoying. You can though, hold your mouse over the YouTube text in the lower right corner of the video, Press the CTRL + Shift key and click the YouTube text. Will take you to a new YouTube tab,
I may get this lens next year, but don't know why they had dramatic sound in only on part of this video. Thanks for giving up the specs, and I was looking for a bright wide lens next.
@Stuart VC - the thing is that some of the existing MFT lenses can give you better results as far as sharpness is concerned. I, for one, don't care for corner sharpness in tele lenses but for wide-angle lenses, I do. Sure, the "fast" aperture is nice as is the size/weight - but these seem to be the value props, not the IQ. Which is a little baffling for a Leica-certified lens. If I had to choose between this and the Laowa 7.5mm f/2, I'd probably lean towards the Laowa, for instance.
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