Customer Reviews

Panasonic 45-200mm f/4.0-5.6 Lumix G Vario MEGA OIS Zoom Micro Four Thirds Lens for Panasonic and Olympus Micro Four Thirds Cameras

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have five lenses for my G1, but this is my favorite. Overall, it's quite sharp and produces images with an excellent feel to them, particularly for such a comparatively low price.

Initial test reports indicated noticeable softness at 160-200mm, but this appears to have been fixed. One possibility is that the latest firmware may have improved the autofocusing at long focal lengths. This has not been verified by Panasonic, but many owners of new or updated copies of the lens are routinely getting sharper images at 200mm than the early test reports would indicate, so it seems to be the best guess at the moment.

It's important to have realistic expectations for long lenses. If you've never shot with a really long lens on an SLR, it's easy to assume that such a cute little lens will be just as easy to hand hold as its 14-45mm brandmate. It isn't.

At 200mm, it has the same long reach and very narrow angle of view as a 400mm lens on a full frame 35mm. I still have one of those from my film days, and it's 13 inches long, heavy, and almost impossible to hand hold! This Panasonic lens at 200mm is subject to the same laws of physics and optics as those old 400mm bazookas, even though it is so much smaller and lighter.

The optical image stabilization is superb, so you CAN hand hold it in good light, but you need to be well-braced and use good technique, and there's no point in even trying to hand hold it at 200mm at very low shutter speeds. (When I'm shooting at 200mm, I increase the ISO if necessary to make sure my shutter speed is at least 1/125, and I really prefer 1/250 or faster.)

If you've never shot a long tele before, consider using a tripod, turning OIS off, and touching up the autofocus results manually to nail the exact part of the image that you want to be the sharpest. Either that or try to get closer to your subject - sharp hand held shots at 100-150mm are much easier to get.

In summary, this lens is an exceptional value and the zoom range is great for a wide range of subjects, from portraits to wildlife. If you treat it with respect at the long end, you'll get many great pictures with it.

I have no idea why anyone would have this lens and not sing it's praises. Perhaps, for some reason they did not get a good copy. I've now worked with 2 and both were stunningly fast to focus, sharp throughout their entire focal range and provided excellent color and contrast. The lens balances wonderfully well on a Olympus PL1 or other Pens for that matter. It is quicker to focus than other Olympus lenses (perhaps due to firmware interfaces). I love the solid build frankly, but most importantly I"m rewarded with amazing sharpness that easily rivals the Canon 100-400L and 80-400 Nikkor lenses at their long end. I'm coming from both Full Frame and cropped frame sensor DSLR's and I'm telling you this lens is NO compromise in any way. If you don't get superb sharp images from this lens across the board you are flat out doing something wrong or your gear is malfunctioning....that simple. For under $300 you'd be crazy NOT to own this lens with the Panasonic or Olympus 4/3rd cameras. It is just a delight to use PERIOD.

I bought this lens because it is the only telephoto lens currently available for the micro43 system. My first impressions follow:

Build Quality is what you'd expect from a kit lens. It is very "plastic-y" and doesn't really inspire the user with confidence. Perhaps more disconcerting is the fact that you can "feel" the components inside the lens move around. I read on the dpreview forums that this is to be expected.

I was also less than impressed with the Optical Image Stabilization of this lens. Having used/owned various Canon IS lenses in the past, I was expecting 3-4 stops of additional hand-holding ability. However, I've found that I've had consistently poor results with the OIS beyond 2 stops. It is better than nothing (particularly since this lens is so cheap) but not great.

The IQ is quite decent. It has little to no distortion (and it is very good at the wide end) but this may have to do with the fact that Panasonic corrects distortion from their lenses inside the camera. Pictures at the telephoto end are a bit soft but I'm probably being unfair (I've been comparing in my mind to Canon's fantastic 70-200 f/4 IS which costs 3 times more).

The one extremely bright spot for this lens is its relative size. For an equivalent focal length of 90-400, there isn't another lens on the market that can compare to this lens' size. It is no bigger than the standard zoom kit lenses that you get with other systems. Micro43 has a bright future if they can continue to make such small lenses while improving build quality.

this is a fantastic price/value/versatility proposition.

this is the lens that made me go "wow, i *love* the m43 movement"...

i got this lens for my olympus e-pl1, and it works *beautifully*. i also own the oly kitlens, the oly 17 pancake, the panasonic 20mm pancake, and a very old OM 50mm/f1.4 lens (which is my fav for portraits). if i had to keep only 2 lenses this 45-200 would be for sure one of the two. it is not the sharpest and certainly not the fastest or widest, but it sure does many things very well on an m43 body. and it blows away any point and shoot, plus it'll make you look in sympathy at the full-frame guy carrying around the equivalent for his camera...

sum it up: *awesome* tele for the size and weight and quality (try hauling around the equvalent), and also acts as a great portrait lens with the right lighting (many pros love teles for portraits, read an online tutorial and your friends will love you). i *love* this lens. for the price, and considering what we used to pay for this image quality, it's a major "wow, i get the m43 movement".

great things are to come for m43. what a great format. this panny lens hints the vendors are not even remotely pushing the possibilities for now.

sure, it will fall short in the eyes of the full frame guys that already own a lens ten times the price of this (for less versatility and far less portability), but deep inside the snobs will hate you for the combo and the images you'll produce while dragging along a tenth of the traditional heft and volume...

you may feel i went overboard, but, if there is one take-away from this little review, it is this... if you own a m43 camera, get this lens, you will not regret it. it'll open possibilities you did not expect.

PS: if you are an Olympus E-PL1 owner... do NOT turn on the lens IS. let the olympus in-camera IS do the work. if you have *both* systems working against each other...

I have been using this product frequently for my recent 3 weeks visit to California. I'm satisfied with the product because:
1. I have been using film cameras for almost 20years and had recently switched to Panasonic G1 because I want to maintain compatibility with my bunch of Leica M lenses and Nikon lenses. The smallness and lightness of the system impresses me.
2. Never have I dreamed of holding a 400mm FOV with my hand and tracking birds in the air and capturing candid shots. I tried fixing the G1 to the monster 400mm F2.8 Nikon and find it totally not feasible for hand held shots. I must admit a more direct comparison would be to 80-200mm f2.8 which I also tried and dreaded the weight.
3. The pana 45-200mm is compact and could fit into my jacket. There is no need to use a camera back during my recent trip to California since the camera + kit lens can be slung and one pocket holds the 45-200mm lens and the other holds the spare battery which I also purchased from Amazon.
4. The built in OIS also helps me capture shots at lower shutter speed. This is an present surprise since there isn't any OIS function during the old film days.
5. I'd shot birds, scenery, candid and sports (ICE hockey) and find the image to be sharp. Most of the unacceptable image are result of high ISO (more than 800), using OIS during panning and low shutter speed (In my opinion, setting it to 1/500sec at Shutter priority for this lens is safe enough for most situations)
6. The small aperture is a downside of this lens, I would not because penalize this because this is a calculated decision as I wanted a portable system. Furthermore, there is nothing to complain about for such low price.

I quite recently bought the Panasonic GF1 with the 20mm f1.7 lens and at the same time bought the 45-200mm f4.0-5.6 telephoto. I am still getting to know the camera and the lenses -- I am not very seasoned with digital SLRs -- but my initial impressions are quite favorable overall.

The 45-200mm lens is really big on the diminutive GF1 camera body. This is not a comfortable pairing, but the micro four thirds suite of lenses is very small so what can you do.... Still, I knew the lens was really big for the camera body going into this, and you should expect the camera to droop downward as it hangs on your neck with this large lens attached. With the 20mm f1.7 that isn't an issue, obviously, but that's a very different lens for a very different purpose.

You'll want to use the 45-200mm lens with plenty of daylight since it is neither fast nor is it a quick focus, especially at the long end. It has so much magnification power that its narrow image area on the long end takes some getting used to. The "intelligent autofocus" feature is quiet but not so great -- you get to see little green rectangles dancing on the scene you're striving to capture as the camera focuses, and it may not focus on the correct object(s). I have resorted to using "P" mode rather than "iA" so I can use a spot focus on my long-distance subjects -- it seems to focus better than "intelligent autofocus" does.

The lens can produce nice, sharp images, even on the 200mm end, but you need to really practice shooting with it to raise your "hit rate." Given the narrow image field at 200mm, getting a crisp shot of something/someone in a nicely composed image is not easy and entails as much luck as skill. You have to brace the camera as best you can and hope the subject does what you want when you're ready to shoot and also pray that nothing walks between you and the subject, which happens too.

Often the 200mm shots will be at least a little blurry onscreen. Fortunately, there's an easy remedy for that: shoot in raw and post-process. If you use the Silkypix software included with the GF1, when you go to "develop" the raw image move the unsharp mask percentage to about 300% and the radius to 2.0 or so, save to jpg and see how you like the result versus an unmanipulated jpg. Usually you'll get a significantly sharper shot that isn't so obviously corrected. Don't push the radius too high -- the higher you go with either the unsharp mask percentage or radius, the harsher and more contrasty/grainy the image becomes. So accept a little blur for a more natural looking picture. By the way, as far as I know you can't see the effect of the unsharp mask/radius adjustments dynamically in Silkypix as you make them -- you have to develop the image to jpeg to see the sharpening and extra detail, so don't judge the impact of these manipulations in Silkypix.

I did consider the other micro four thirds lenses but there just aren't many choices yet, and you're better off pairing Panasonic lenses with the Panasonic cameras since Olympus puts image stabilization in the camera body, not in the lens like Panasonic. I could have skipped the Panasonic 20mm f1.7, not bought the 45-200mm and just gotten the GF1 camera body and the Panasonic 14-140mm f4.0-5.8 lens. That would have given me 20mm capability and a healthy amount of zoom capability in one single lens. Unfortunately, that lens is (a) 20% heavier than the 45-200mm and (b) costs a whopping $700, versus the $280 I paid for the 45-200mm. Presumably the 14-140mm is a higher-quality lens, but why pay nearly 3x as much for something with much less power that isn't very fast to boot? It really is pricey...

So yeah, this 45-200mm lens isn't the greatest thing ever but it is a very solid value and gives you excellent telephoto capability with patience, practice and post-processing. If Panasonic ever makes a 14-140mm f2.5 for $300 I will probably buy it, but until then I'm quite happy with great quality 20mm fixed prime and this 45-200mm budget telephoto.

After fiddling around with my excellent Panasonic 20mm 1.7 lens and GF-1, I felt that I wanted a zoom lens, especially since I like to capture nature. There's not many zoom lenses that is supported for the micro four-thirds format, the price was good, and I heard good things about this lens, so I grabbed it.

Image quality: it handles pretty well from the 90mm-400mm range (adjusted for 35mm equivalent). With the right aperture setting, it has beautiful bokeh and the image quality is pretty good, though I can see this lens upstaged by more pricey lenses.

Auto-focus: This is one of the more disappointing areas of this lens. From the distance, it does okay on medium to larger sized objects, but as the object gets smaller the more this lens struggle to focus, and it gets worse if it is a moving object. Unfortunately, even if you are using manual focus, I found the focus-by-wire system used on Panasonic micro four third lens to be quite frustrating, as it is quite easy to slip in and out of focus at the slightest touch, and when you are zoomed in and trying to focus, you really don't get a feel of whether you are moving to the right focus range. I am not sure capturing fast moving objects at the distance from out of focus would work well.

Aperture: It starts from 4.0, and while it is not unreasonable for a zoom lens, it is a bit tough for me to shoot from ISO of 400 and up even on a bright sunny day. The noise at 400 is not so bad, and it is hard to expect a faster lens at the price range.

Stabilization: This is one area Panasonic loses to Olympus is that they chose the lens stabilization option, instead of the body stabilization option. With my GF-1, this lens is much bigger and heavier than my camera- easily twice the size and weight of the camera. There is a certain reason for most dSLRs to have that heft, and that is for image stabilization. Not sure how this lens would fare with heavier cameras like G2 and GH1, but for the GF-1, the camera/lens balance is definitely not good.

Build quality: It's okay. Doesn't exactly feel robust in your hands, but it doesn't feel like it's going to break once you drop it. Still, I'd be quite careful with this lens.

Overall: This is a great zoom lens for anyone starting out with the GF-1. The 400mm zoom can add some extra length, which makes it that more fun for outdoor photography. However, I feel that this lens in general is a cheaper one even compared to the 20mm lens. I would say this is about a kit lens quality. Still, a steal at this price point, but there will be some little disappointments.

I purchased this lens soon after I bought the Lumix G1 camera. The camera came with a 14-45mm lens but I wanted an alternative for portraits and animal photography. The 45-200mm Lumix G Vario fit my needs well and I was not disappointed when I mounted it to the G1 body. The images are crisp and clear with no peripheral distortion. I especially enjoy the lens housed Optical Image Stabilization system. I really thought an in-camera OIS was the better system, until I tried the G1 lens line-up. In addition to the OIS the lens also contains the aperture mechanism. Using the camera preview function the lens stops down to the set f/stop value and allows true depth-of-field preview. Overall I find this lens an invaluable addition to my camera kit. I'd certainly recommend it to anyone doing more than simple snap shots. To top off the attraction it is made by Leica and the exquisite fit and finish really shows, not to mention sharp high resolution images. Reviewed by Tim Frazer

Lens is surprisingly affordable (compared to the small fortune the other Lumix lenses cost), and easily fits in the bag. Back in my film camera days, a lens that went to 400mm practically had to be carried around in a mortar tube. With the micro 4/3rds format, the 45-200mm zoom range is just astounding and lens will be superb for wildlife & birds. I was able to shoot pretty effectively w/o tripod on several occasions, aided nicely by the optical image stabilization switch on the side of the barrel.

Pros: Price is just right for this particular lens. Picture quality is very good in daylight shooting. It knock off the background when you focus on an object which is a pleasing effect for me. Fast shipping, order on Monday and receive it on Friday.

Cons: Zoom is not as far but you get a slightly greater distant than 1/1. Good for shooting single subject, animals, and the likes. Otherwise, the included Panasonic G1 14-45mm lens cover the rest. I would like to see a much father distant zoom and most likely buy an adapter with a regular 4/3 lens.

Overall: Construction is solid and I find that zooming is a tad stiff but that will prevent from accidental zoom sliding like the bigger 4/3 lens. Also, Lens built-in Image stabilizer is very good and work well even maximum zooming range. I think this is a good buy but not great because there isn't that many micro 4/3 lens to choose from anyway.