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Product Description
From the Manufacturer
Taking advantage of its wide, 114-degree angle of view, users can easily fit subjects into the frame even when shooting indoors where the distance is limited. The world looks extraordinary when viewed through the new lens, allowing photos and movies to be recorded with a uniquely rich perspective.
This high-performance lens system achieves outstanding compactness by combining 16 lens elements in 12 groups, including two aspherical lenses and four ED lenses. Image resolution is high from corner-to-corner even at the wide-angle setting. It also features F4.0 brightness over the entire zoom range thanks to its large-diameter glass molded lens elements.
When mounted on the DMC-GH1 Lumix G Micro System Camera, the new lens allows use of the advanced contrast AF system, which includes a Face Recognition function, for more convenient, more enjoyable shooting. Seven blades give the aperture a rounded shape that produces an attractively smooth effect in out-of-focus areas when shooting at larger aperture settings.
The Lumix G Vario 7-14mm/F4.0 ASPH. lens also features a highly reliable metal mount, and uses multi-coated lens elements that minimize ghosts and flare to further enhance its optical performance. The optimally designed lens hood enables use even under strong sunlight.
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Technical Specifications
- Lens Construction 16 elements in 12 groups (2 Aspherical lenses, 4 ED lenses)
- Mount Micro Four Thirds mount
- Optical Image Stabilizer NO
- Focal Length f=7 mm to 14 mm (35 mm camera equivalent 14 mm to 28 mm)
- Aperture Type 7 diaphragm blades / Circular aperture diaphragm
- Aperture F4.0
- Minimum Aperture F22
- Closest Focusing Distance 0.25 m / 0.8 ft at all focal lengths
- Maximum magnification Apporox. 0.08x / 0.15x (35 mm camera equivalent)
- Diagonal Angle of View 114° (W) - 75° (T)
- Filter Size -
- Max. Diameter f70 mm / 2.76 in
- Overall Length Approx. 83.1 mm / 3.27 in (from top of the lens hood to the base side of the lens mount)
- Weight Approx. 300 g / 10.58 oz
- Standard Accessory Lens Cap, Lens Rear Cap, Lens Storage Bag
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Product Description
Description:
Interchangeable ultra wide-angle zoom lens, LUMIX G VARIO 7-14mm/F4.0 ASPH. In spite of its impressive wide-angle zoom range of 7-14mm (35mm camera equivalent; 14-28mm), the lens is surprisingly compact and lightweight for casual on-the-go use.
Taking advantage of its wide, 114-degree angle of view, users can easily fit subjects into the frame even when shooting indoors where the distance is limited. The world looks extraordinary when viewed through the new lens, allowing photos and movies to be recorded with a uniquely rich perspective.
This high-performance lens system achieves outstanding compactness by combining 16 lens elements in 12 groups, including two aspherical lenses and four ED lenses. Image resolution is high from corner-to-corner even at the wide-angle setting. It also features F4.0 brightness over the entire zoom range thanks to its large-diameter glass molded lens elements.
When mounted on LUMIX G Micro System Camera, the lens allows use of the advanced contrast AF system, which includes a Face Recognition function, for more convenient, more enjoyable shooting. Seven blades give the aperture a rounded shape that produces an attractively smooth effect in out-of-focus areas when shooting at larger aperture settings.
The LUMIX G VARIO 7-14mm/F4.0 ASPH. lens also features a highly reliable metal mount, and uses multi-coated lens elements that minimize ghosts and flare to further enhance its optical performance. The optimally designed lens hood enables use even under strong sunlight.
Available Warranties for This Item
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
115 of 118 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
How can this outstanding ultra wide micro four thirds lens not have any reviews? I'm not a professional photographer, but I can't sit by idly while this lens is denied its proper accolades.
First, an ultra-wide lens is very useful. The difference between 7mm and 14mm is enormous. The broad field of view at 7mm lets you take amazing landscape pictures. At 7mm, mountains are reduced to boulders, and boulders are reduced to small rocks. More importantly, the ultra-wide angle lets you take close ups of objects while preserving their relationship to the objects around them. And most importantly, the ultra-wide angle lets you take pictures in close or cramped quarters that simply would not be possible with any other lens. At 9mm you can sit in the corner of a room and take a picture of the entire room!!! During filming, you can zoom out from 14mm to 7mm to create a dramatic effect that cannot be achieved with another lens.
Second, this is an excellent choice among all ultra-wides. slrgear and dpreview have tested it and found it to provide excellent image quality. It is ideally suited to the Panasonic G1/GH1/GF1 and the Olympus E-P1 because it is the only ultra-wide lens available for micro four thirds that will auto-focus and auto-expose during movies. Auto-focus and auto-exposure are quiet enough under normal conditions that I can't hear them. Auto-focus hunting is minimal. As of firmware version 1.1 (dated 2009/11/25), this lens officially supports auto-focus in 1080p24 FHD movies. It is incredibly light (only 300 grams) when compared to similar lenses in other formats. The next most compact ultra-wide zoom is the otherwise excellent Olympus Zuiko 7-14mm f/4.0 Aspherical Super ED Lens for Olympus Digital SLR Cameras, which costs 50% more and weighs nearly three times as much with the required Panasonic Mount Adapter. And this lens is currently the only native m43rds ultra wide zoom with constant aperture throughout its zoom range (7mm to 14mm). Wow.
Now the bad news.... Flash is problematic. The wide hood at the end of the lens blocks the on-camera flash in the wide field of view that this lens provides and will cast an ugly shadow right in the bottom middle in your frame. So if you take a flash picture with this lens, your picture will have a dark spot in the center bottom where the lens blocked the on-camera flash :( I'm not sure if a hot-shoe mounted flash can solve this problem because I haven't found any that are rated down to 7mm. This is annoying since at f4.0 this lens isn't fast enough for low light photography without a flash.
And finally, my druthers. My favorite use of this lens is photographing tight indoor spaces, where I am always wishing for a faster lens. So I wish this lens was faster, even though it would be heavier and more expensive. But even exactly as it is, I highly recommend this magical lens for confined quarters and for landscapes.
**Update August 2010**
I took the 7-14mm with me on vacation this month and reacquainted myself with its charms. In Santa Cruz, I discovered that the 7-14mm has a magical ability to look around obstacles, and see things that are not visible to the naked eye. Due to an unfortunate seating choice at the Roaring Camp Railroad, all I could see was the back of the Shay locomotive pulling us up Bear Mountain. At 7mm, this lens reduced the entire locomotive to a small part of the frame and the resulting pictures were better than what I could see with my own eyes (see images). The GH1 with this lens is so light that I took a 1080p24 movie of the Dixiana's 20 minute descent HANDHELD. A few days later I used this lens to take aerial pictures of the Bay Area salt marshes. With this lens's huge 7-14mm range, I could frame my aerial shots exactly as I wanted. No other lens on any other widely available still or video camera system can provide as wide a field of view and as excellent image quality in so compact and inexpensive a package as this lens.
First, an ultra-wide lens is very useful. The difference between 7mm and 14mm is enormous. The broad field of view at 7mm lets you take amazing landscape pictures. At 7mm, mountains are reduced to boulders, and boulders are reduced to small rocks. More importantly, the ultra-wide angle lets you take close ups of objects while preserving their relationship to the objects around them. And most importantly, the ultra-wide angle lets you take pictures in close or cramped quarters that simply would not be possible with any other lens. At 9mm you can sit in the corner of a room and take a picture of the entire room!!! During filming, you can zoom out from 14mm to 7mm to create a dramatic effect that cannot be achieved with another lens.
Second, this is an excellent choice among all ultra-wides. slrgear and dpreview have tested it and found it to provide excellent image quality. It is ideally suited to the Panasonic G1/GH1/GF1 and the Olympus E-P1 because it is the only ultra-wide lens available for micro four thirds that will auto-focus and auto-expose during movies. Auto-focus and auto-exposure are quiet enough under normal conditions that I can't hear them. Auto-focus hunting is minimal. As of firmware version 1.1 (dated 2009/11/25), this lens officially supports auto-focus in 1080p24 FHD movies. It is incredibly light (only 300 grams) when compared to similar lenses in other formats. The next most compact ultra-wide zoom is the otherwise excellent Olympus Zuiko 7-14mm f/4.0 Aspherical Super ED Lens for Olympus Digital SLR Cameras, which costs 50% more and weighs nearly three times as much with the required Panasonic Mount Adapter. And this lens is currently the only native m43rds ultra wide zoom with constant aperture throughout its zoom range (7mm to 14mm). Wow.
Now the bad news.... Flash is problematic. The wide hood at the end of the lens blocks the on-camera flash in the wide field of view that this lens provides and will cast an ugly shadow right in the bottom middle in your frame. So if you take a flash picture with this lens, your picture will have a dark spot in the center bottom where the lens blocked the on-camera flash :( I'm not sure if a hot-shoe mounted flash can solve this problem because I haven't found any that are rated down to 7mm. This is annoying since at f4.0 this lens isn't fast enough for low light photography without a flash.
And finally, my druthers. My favorite use of this lens is photographing tight indoor spaces, where I am always wishing for a faster lens. So I wish this lens was faster, even though it would be heavier and more expensive. But even exactly as it is, I highly recommend this magical lens for confined quarters and for landscapes.
**Update August 2010**
I took the 7-14mm with me on vacation this month and reacquainted myself with its charms. In Santa Cruz, I discovered that the 7-14mm has a magical ability to look around obstacles, and see things that are not visible to the naked eye. Due to an unfortunate seating choice at the Roaring Camp Railroad, all I could see was the back of the Shay locomotive pulling us up Bear Mountain. At 7mm, this lens reduced the entire locomotive to a small part of the frame and the resulting pictures were better than what I could see with my own eyes (see images). The GH1 with this lens is so light that I took a 1080p24 movie of the Dixiana's 20 minute descent HANDHELD. A few days later I used this lens to take aerial pictures of the Bay Area salt marshes. With this lens's huge 7-14mm range, I could frame my aerial shots exactly as I wanted. No other lens on any other widely available still or video camera system can provide as wide a field of view and as excellent image quality in so compact and inexpensive a package as this lens.
49 of 50 people found the following review helpful
This lens has been very hard to get for awhile now and it is certainly not cheap. It does, however, deliver the goods. It is a stunningly good performer and its diminutive size demonstrates the advantage the micro-four-thirds has in wide angle optics solutions with the elimination of the mirror-box. The G1+7-14 looks almost comically small sitting next to my Canon 400D+10-22 - and the 7-14 actually goes wider than the 10-22.
Please keep in mind that this is a UWA, so when I and other reviewers praise it we are doing so in the context of a UWA lens. That means expect the corners to not be perfectly sharp, no UWA lens achieves this. But this lens has great center sharpness and corner sharpness the keeps up with the best competition. Simply stunning results. If you've never shot UWA come to the table with the right expectations, if you have UWA experience I think you'll be very impressed.
Flare performance is excellent, comparable to the Canon 10-22 which is another great flare performer.
Be advised, no filter attachment is practical with this lens. This is usually not a problem as polarizers are less frequently useful on UWA lenses (effect will vary dramatically over such a wide viewing angle) and for a digital camera few other filters are useful.
Is it worth the price? Well, that is a hard call as it is not a cheap lens. Right now it is your only option for micro-four-thirds. Comparing to other systems the Canon 10-22 is probably comparable and cheaper. So yes, I think you are paying a bit of a micro-four-thirds premium. That said, once you put it on a micro-four-thirds body and hold it in your hand and look at the results it is a whole new ball game to have something this small with such excellent UWA performance - there is nothing else like it out there. If you are a UWA shooter I strongly suspect you'll find it well worth the cost, its portable size and tremendous performance make it a landscape or architecture photographers dream solution for compact/lightweight gear.
Finally, note that in early 2010 Olympus is planning on releasing a micro-four-thirds 9-18mm lens that will likely be significantly cheaper (probably 40% less). It of course won't go as wide (and there is quite a difference between 7mm and 9mm) and will likely not be as good in the IQ department, but it will use a 52mm filter and might be a more attractive price point for many buyers. As far as that goes you can pry my 7-14 from my cold, dead fingers if you'd like to try...
Please keep in mind that this is a UWA, so when I and other reviewers praise it we are doing so in the context of a UWA lens. That means expect the corners to not be perfectly sharp, no UWA lens achieves this. But this lens has great center sharpness and corner sharpness the keeps up with the best competition. Simply stunning results. If you've never shot UWA come to the table with the right expectations, if you have UWA experience I think you'll be very impressed.
Flare performance is excellent, comparable to the Canon 10-22 which is another great flare performer.
Be advised, no filter attachment is practical with this lens. This is usually not a problem as polarizers are less frequently useful on UWA lenses (effect will vary dramatically over such a wide viewing angle) and for a digital camera few other filters are useful.
Is it worth the price? Well, that is a hard call as it is not a cheap lens. Right now it is your only option for micro-four-thirds. Comparing to other systems the Canon 10-22 is probably comparable and cheaper. So yes, I think you are paying a bit of a micro-four-thirds premium. That said, once you put it on a micro-four-thirds body and hold it in your hand and look at the results it is a whole new ball game to have something this small with such excellent UWA performance - there is nothing else like it out there. If you are a UWA shooter I strongly suspect you'll find it well worth the cost, its portable size and tremendous performance make it a landscape or architecture photographers dream solution for compact/lightweight gear.
Finally, note that in early 2010 Olympus is planning on releasing a micro-four-thirds 9-18mm lens that will likely be significantly cheaper (probably 40% less). It of course won't go as wide (and there is quite a difference between 7mm and 9mm) and will likely not be as good in the IQ department, but it will use a 52mm filter and might be a more attractive price point for many buyers. As far as that goes you can pry my 7-14 from my cold, dead fingers if you'd like to try...
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful
I wanted a high quality, lightweight ultra-wide lens to take hiking in the mountains of Colorado. The Lumix 7-14mm on my Panasonic GF1 replaces my previous UWA, the Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6 that I used on my Nikon D300.
Advantages vs Sigma 10-20mmm f4-5.6
* Smaller and lighter
* Constant f4 aperture
* Better build quality
* Integrated lens hood
* Very sharp across the entire frame, even wide open
* Little barrel distortion @7mm.
Disadvantages vs Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6
* Much more expensive
* No filter thread
I occasionally used a circular polarizer with my Sigma to increase color saturation and contrast, but the effect is pretty uneven on ultra wide lenses. The Lumix 7-14mm has very good contrast and color, so I don't really miss the polarizer unless I want to reduce water reflections or glare from foliage.
If you shoot landscapes with a M4/3 camera, you'll love this little gem!
Advantages vs Sigma 10-20mmm f4-5.6
* Smaller and lighter
* Constant f4 aperture
* Better build quality
* Integrated lens hood
* Very sharp across the entire frame, even wide open
* Little barrel distortion @7mm.
Disadvantages vs Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6
* Much more expensive
* No filter thread
I occasionally used a circular polarizer with my Sigma to increase color saturation and contrast, but the effect is pretty uneven on ultra wide lenses. The Lumix 7-14mm has very good contrast and color, so I don't really miss the polarizer unless I want to reduce water reflections or glare from foliage.
If you shoot landscapes with a M4/3 camera, you'll love this little gem!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
OUTSTANDING lens. Seriously. Amazing.
This lens is outstanding. Absolutely amazing. I took this to Rome. By myself. For four days. And had the most amazing time in the world. Read more
Published 2 days ago by JC
Meney well spent
The 7-14 mm is a pricy investment but, worth the money. I've been looking with and depth and found it. This lens crosses plains perfectly. Read more
Published 6 days ago by Bigfish
Great lens, high price
If I had been able to procure this lens for $750, I would have felt better about it. As it is, at $950, you have to ask yourself whether it's worth it or not. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Zachary Wagner
Panasonic 7-14 mm lens is over rated & over priced.
If you are considering buying this zoom lens be sure to keep in mind that 7mm is wide angle and not fisheye (114 degrees only)
I have found a super deal on a Rokinon FE75MFT-B... Read more
I have found a super deal on a Rokinon FE75MFT-B... Read more
Published 2 months ago by James P. Ltaestro
highest quality lens
This is the best built wide angle lens I've ever used. The build is flawless - it seems like it was put together by a high
precision robot. Read more
precision robot. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Paul D Lum
Excellent and Fun Lens
I bought this lens from Amazon Warehouse and it's in great shape. What a sharp lens! Using it with an Olympus E-P3, it functions very well. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Susan Peirce
A must-have
Incredibly wide and sharp even in the edges. Quite light and not bulky at all. A must-have to complement the 14-140mm stock lens with GH1/GH2! Read more
Published 5 months ago by Etienne
Ultra Wide as Heck
I'm not a guy who makes big prints or does 100% blow ups of resolution charts, but you can find that junk on the web. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Jimbo C
Gets the job done but not up to professional landscape standards
I am using this lens on the Panasonic GH2, a very advanced Micro 4/3 camera. My other M4/3 lenses are the Panasonic 14-140mm, 45mm Macro, 100-300mm, 20mm f/1.7, and 25mm f/1.4. Read more
Published 7 months ago by David Siegfried
Nothing's Perfect, But This Lens Is Close!
Customer Video Review
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Published 8 months ago by Tom Diaz
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