Panasonic Lumix G 20mm/F1.7 Pancake Lens

Product Information

Through the firmware updates, Panasonic proposes future-ready solutions for more flexible filmmaking workflow using mirrorless cameras.

Another crucial advantage to the Olympus E-P2 for us London based street shooters, is that it’ll likely attract less attention from the cops who have taken to hassling us. While the Panasonic 25mm F1.7 shows some longitudinal CA wide open, it becomes much less noticeable when you stop down a bit. Still, at 100%, you can certainly spot some purple and green fringing in the out-of-focus regions on the left side of this image, in the vines and stems.

Introduction

Shooting assist functions including Luminance Spot Meter, Zebra Pattern can be used during RAW output. It is possible to start/stop recording on the external device with the BGH1 during HDMI/SDI output.

For a wide aperture lens, falloff of illumination towards the corners of the frame is reasonably well controlled. At maximum aperture the corners are 1.71 stops darker than the image centre and visually uniform illumination is achieved at f/2.8. Sample images in this review were edited in Adobe Camera Raw with adjustments limited to white balance and exposure parameters. Sharpening and noise reduction were left at ACR defaults. Power Save Mode] can be selectable while the camera is powered with an AC adaptor(DMW-AC10, sold separately).

Design

ISO is a unit-area quantity because it is used for exposure. But when you're talking about IQ, equal numbers do not have equal results across formats. We could fix this whole equivalence debate by either getting rid of f/numbers and just using aperture diameters or by getting rid of exposure-based ISO and just using a more absolute measure of sensitivity. So if you use these values, the full frame at f/3.4 iso800 takes the same exact image as f/1.7 iso200 on m43 for this same field of view. If both sensors have the same number of pixels, the amount of light reaching each pixel for the same image is exactly the same. Read our original Panasonic Lumix 20mm f/1.7 ASPH. lens review to see how the lens performs under our usual testing procedure. Value For Money

The 'cats-eye' bokeh is mostly gone by F4. However, bokeh discs becomes less rounded. Specifically, the polygonal shape of the lens's 7-blade aperture becomes more pronounced in the out-of-focus highlights, when you stop down past F2.8, and this can have a slightly negative impact on bokeh in general. In our tests, we couldn’t really identify any color fringing in the images–which is a great thing for JPEG shooters that love to complain about this type of thing. But even for RAW shooters, this means that much less work in the post-production phase. Extra Image Samples Thanks for the comment and for reading this review. MANY of the shots in this review were very low indoor light at night and high ISO. They may not be outside but they were indeed low light. I added a couple of the B&W night shots but they do not really show anything special.That was definitely not my experience unless you are talking about perfect conditions with an easy, static target and great lighting. If you add any kind of adversity to the shooting scenario, the AF weaknesses add up in a hurry. The Panasonic Lumix G 20mm f/1.7 II Asph. lens looks very small on the Panasonic Lumix G9. Photo: Joshua Waller Panasonic Lumix G 20mm f/1.7 II Asph: At a glance However, when shooting wide open, bokeh near the edge of the frame looks lopsided, displaying the classic 'cat eye' effect. While this can lead to a slightly less shallow DOF effect at edges, it's perfectly acceptable for a lens of this type, and wasn't severe enough to yield swirly bokeh in our shots. More importantly, the discs near the corners aren't truncated in an odd or distracting manner.