Customer Reviews

Panasonic LUMIX G 20mm f/1.7 Aspherical Pancake Lens for Micro Four Thirds Interchangeable Lens Cameras

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I recently purchased an E-P2 as a portable option to complement my DSLR setup. I've been very happy with its performance in most respects, however it has no flash and the kit lens is slow; this means that indoor usage results in painfully high ISO and noise that is impossible to clean. That lead me to purchase this lens, which is the fastest thing going for M4/3 currently.

First off, this thing is wonderfully compact. Much thinner than the M.Zuiko 14-42mm kit lens, although a bit bigger in diameter, and it makes the E-P2 even more low profile when it's mounted. It balances well on the E-P2 and it looks right at home to me, even though it lacks the signature PEN silver accents. It has a massive manual focus ring which is a pleasure to use (once you get the hang of the micromotor manual focus mechanism, which it shares with the 14-42).

Unlike the newer, smaller Panasonic Lumix 14mm f/2.5 pancake, this guy has some very large lens caps that make it more bulky than it should be. A lens this size begs to be slipped into a pocket, but the huge caps just get in the way; you might want to look for aftermarket replacements.

As for IQ... well, you can read the charts, but suffice it to say that this is a very good performer. Unlike the M.Zuiko kit lens, this guy is sharp wide open, with perhaps only minor improvements by stopping down. This lens can really show what M4/3 is capable of from an IQ perspective in a way that the kit zooms just can't.

Autofocus is at least as accurate as any other lens I've tried on this body, and low light AF accuracy especially is quite good (thanks, no doubt, to the large aperture). AF speed though is mediocre at best, and it's also a good bit louder than would be ideal. The aperture also makes a very noticeable clicking sound, which is a little obnoxious with the E-P2 (which constantly fiddles with the aperture when you're using live view). Neither focus noise nor aperture noise is a real issue for stills, but they might cause some problems if shooting video with the internal mic.

There is one issue with using this lens specific to Olympus bodies: they don't do the software distortion compensation that Panasonic bodies do with Panasonic lenses. This means that, on Olympus bodies only, light falloff is visible towards the corners when shooting wide open (it goes away by around f/4). In practice it's not much of a problem, and the corners aren't that big a deal in most shots anyway, but if you're a PEN shooter you should be aware of it and stop down accordingly if/when the corners do matter.

I should mention that I also own the Olympus 17mm f/2.8, which many would consider an alternative to this lens. If you're new to photography and you're considering owning only one, I highly recommend the Panasonic, whose aperture advantage and longer focal length combine to give you much better options for DOF control. I still enjoy the Olympus (and indeed, it's even *smaller* than this lens), but I think for most people in most situations this is a better choice.

Bottom line: if you own a m4/3 body without a flash and care at all about low light shooting, stop reading and buy this lens right now. For everybody else, you're presumably here for IQ, f/1.7's narrower DOF, and portability, and on all counts this lens delivers. It's a great all around performer and the cost, although high, is not totally unreasonable for something of this quality.

As a side note, if you're used to 50mm as "normal" from the film era, I think you'll find 20mm quite pleasant; I've shot a lot with my 28mm prime on APS-C, and the Panny 20mm here provides a similar FOV to that.

** Update, 5/21/2010 **

My initial thoughts on this lens have proven to be spot on. This little guy spends much, much more time on my camera than the kit lens; the faster aperture is a godsend, and the smaller size is wonderful for portability. Image quality is impeccable and the light falloff is almost never a problem in real world scenarios. If you only buy one lens for your M4/3 body, make it this one.

** Update, 8/7/2011 **

Panasonic has announced a µ4/3 native version of the Leica-branded Panasonic 25mm f/1.4, which should clock in at about twice the price of this lens. I own (and reviewed) the regular Four Thirds version of that lens, and early accounts imply that the µ4/3 version should be nearly the same optically as its full sized cousin.

The 25mm f/1.4 is certainly better, but not by much; only half a stop faster, barely any sharper, and still suffering from corner softness and vignetting wide open. The focal length is a more traditional normal, which (combined with the aperture advantage) makes it more suitable for isolating your subject, but... at twice the cost and twice the size? Those advantages seem difficult to justify.

As far as I'm concerned, the 20mm f/1.7 here remains the first lens you should buy for a µ4/3 body. It plays to the strengths of the system without breaking the bank.

If you own an E-P1, you absolutely owe it to yourself to get this lens right now. I used to own the 17mm and loved its size, but found the image quality lacking. There are plenty of detailed reviews of this 20mm lens out there so I'll spare the tech details.

I've had this for a little over a week and the performance is just amazing. Auto focus speed is very good, not super speedy, but definitely not slow. Images look sharp even wide open with lovely bokeh. It's not quite as nice as the Panasonic/Leica 25mm 1.4 for 4/3, but it is half the price and 1/4 of the size.

I have some good glass like the Olympus 50mm f2 and Olympus 14-52 mark II 2.8-3.5 via the adapter, but those will probably stay on my E-620 since this Panasonic 20mm fits the E-P1 like a glove.

It's amazing how this lens makes the E-P1 come alive like no other lens I've used on it before.

UPDATE 7/12/2010
It's getting close to one year of full use and this lens is still unmatched for native micro four thirds. I now use it on an E-PL1 and it's still working it's magic. With the latest Olympus firmware update for the E-PL1 (available for E-P1 and EP2 as well) the autofocus speed of the 20mm is even faster! As my photographic skill have increased over the month, I've been able to get even better results.

I originally bought the Panasonic Lumix GF1 with the 14-45mm kit lens, and then bought this 20mm pancake.

The pancake turns the GF1 into a really compact set, that I enjoy taking together anywhere. I keep the 20mm lens in the camera most of the times, and only when I know I'll need some telephoto I replace it by the 14-45mm lens.

I owned previously only point-and-shoot and superzooms, so I wanted to try some DSLR, but I was afraid I wouldn't take together because of the bulk. With the GF1 + this pancake lens I have a small camera that I don't mind carrying and that takes DSLR-quality photos.

It lacks OIS, but I don't really feel the need as this is a very fast lens. With the f/1.7 aperture, you can also create nice narrow depth-of-field effects, which are impossible on point-and-shoot cameras.

I just wanted it be a bit wider... notice that this pancake is actually a 40mm in a 35-mm equivalent focal length. Probably in the future Panasonic will release a wide pancake. They currently sell a wide zoom Panasonic 7-14mm f/4.0 Micro Four Thirds Lens for Panasonic Digital SLR Cameras, but that's too expensive.

Panasonic has other few lenses, but I believe this pancake 20mm is what makes more sense to use with the GF1 to have a real compact set.

I found this camera bag Lowepro Apex 60 AW (Black) is the smallest to fit only the GF1 + the 20mm pancake lens, if you're trying to have a real portable set like me, and I also recommend to protect your lens with a filter like this HOYA 46mm UV Filter for Camera Use.

Pros:
- fast f/1.7 lens, great for narrow depth-of-field pictures and low light shots
- fast autofocus
- very compact lens. It makes a lot of sense with the GF1 - as a compact set you'll carry with you all the time, as it fits your coat pocket.
- compact set = less obtrusive camera = more natural, candid photos

Cons:
- well, it's not as flexible as a zoom lens. It's fixed 20mm (40mm equivalent). But the pros outweigh the cons, so you'll end up using it more than the larger zoom lens.

It's very simple, if you have a micro Four Thirds camera, you want this lens. Doesn't matter if you have a Panasonic or Olympus camera, this is the best MFT lens you can buy, and easily the best deal. You can spend more, but you won't get better performance. Hopefully that will change, BTW. Or at least, the ease of making that pronouncement will change.

I have an Olympus E-PL1 with this lens, and unlike some of the older reviews, especially with E-P1 and E-P2, the autofocus is quite good with the latest firmware for the lens and camera. Since the PEN cameras have in-body image stabilization, like god intended, you get some seriously great, crisp shots with this lens.

The minimum focus distance on this lens is tiny, the image quality is fantastic, and, well, there's the speed. Its 1.7 f-stop is the fastest thing in the MFT world, by quite a ways. The next closest is the similar, but shorter focal length, Olympus 17mm f2.8. That's a LOT slower than 1.7, as everyone is well aware, I'm sure. The Panasonic/Leica 45mm is also f2.8.

The speed therefore makes this lens much more versatile and useful than any other MFT lens on the market. With the aperture open, you get a very nice, soft bokeh that is gorgeous. The color repro with this lens is awesome, and I especially love that because I love to take pictures of flowers. The crisp, clear, faithfully reproduced colors of the flower subjects far surpasses the kit lens.

The lens is quite compact, but not as much as the Olympus 17mm, but that's OK because it's packing a larger set of glass, isn't it?

The focus performance must be mentioned. On the *highly* auto-focus challenged Olympus E-PL1 camera, this lens is a huge breath of fresh air, because it focuses faster and more precisely than the kit lens, which is downright awful, really. Because this lens is so fast, it's able to focus in lower light situations that the kit 14-42mm lens can only dream about, and that's a real life saver, believe me. Or perhaps I should say "shot saver", because I lost an extremely important, impossible to replace shot because the kit lens refused to focus and didn't warn me sufficiently. Actually it doesn't warn you at all, sigh.

People keep saying buy it if you can afford it. Am I missing something? It's cheaper than many of the other MFT lenses that I don't even have to try out to know can't match this one. The Panasonic 14-140 costs double this lens, and the 45mm Panasonic/Leica lens is a bunch more than double, and I don't even want it. f2.8 is just a wannabe compared to this lens. Enough said.

I recently went to the Concorso Italiano in Monterey, California, a car show dedicated to Italian marques like Ferrari, Lamborghini, Alfa, etc. I started with the kit lens thinking I would need the zoom capability. It quickly came off and I didn't think about it again all day. The beauty of this lens and it's focal length is that I could shoot the cars standing very close to them. All the pro n00bs with their giant lenses had to stand way back, and as soon as you do that, crowds of people stream in front of your shot. With this lens, I was standing close enough to the cars that most people wouldn't walk in front of me. I was able to get in, get the shots I wanted, and get out of each shooting situation, all while the vest-wearing silly people with their huge lenses and official credentials just had to wait and wait. And the pictures came out a new kind of perfection.

Now that I'm covered myself in slobber, I'll end this review by saying I'm obviously very happy!

I bought this to supplement the 14-45 Lens which also does very well on my "Lumix G" system cameras. I've been using the 20 for a month with great satisfaction. I work commercially with Canon L glass, but, many times out of intrigue, shoot off hours with a number of other systems and therefore have a pretty good idea of their respective strengths and what constitutes good value in the balance of image quality and portability. This lens is a high performer and nicely fulfills its design intentions within the micro 4/3 category.

The best attributes of this lens are its tiny size, low weight (100g), and excellent low light performance. Its image quality is excellent and at f1.7 it's currently the fastest native m43rds lens that money can buy, with both auto-aperture and auto-focus.

The worst attribute of this lens is its noisy auto-focus motor. In my experience, the Panasonic 7-14mm f/4.0 Micro Four Thirds Lens for Panasonic Digital SLR Cameras and the Panasonic 14-140mm f4.0-5.6 HD (the GH1 kit lens) are both essentially silent when auto-focusing and they rarely hunt. This 20mm f1.7 lens is acoustically noisy, really too noisy to be used for movies unless you are going to record audio separately, and the autofocus hunts frequently *while taking movies*.

So all in all I'd say it is a great lens for still photos but not ideal for movies. Ultimately I recommend it for GH1 owners because at f1.7 it will allow you to take better pictures and movies in low light environments than is possible with the much slower f4.0-5.6 GH1 kit lens.

I have limited experience as a photographer--more like a "camera operator," but I have years of experience in post processing of school portraits.

I simply would like echo what a few reviewers have mentioned: the Lumix G 20mm f/1.7 is not ideal for portraiture. That is, anything tighter than a bust crop. Shots taken within 2 feet of the subject could result in facial distortion, which becomes more significant as you get closer. This "balloning" effect is not flattering; noses, foreheads and chins may appear larger than they are. Of course, you could just step back, take a wider shot, and crop. Sure, but doing so would reduce the resolution, resulting in a softer image. Stepping back could also reduce the blurred background effect or "bokeh," which arguably is what separates portraits from snapshots.

The 80-90mm range on a 35mm film camera is said to be ideal for portrait, as it allows for distance while maintaining a shallow a DOF that is all too important for bokeh. For the micro four thirds system, that translates to 40-45mm, and the Olympus M. Zuiko Digital Ed 45mm f/1.8 comes to mind.

Where the Lumix G 20mm f/1.7 shines is in environmental portraits, which is when the subject's environment is framed in the shot. For example, a child on a playground, a couple on the beach, street photography, stuff like that.

The 20mm pancake lens is great for use on the GF1. It makes the camera into a near perfect street shooter, and it's also good for parties or social gatherings where your inconspicuous gear profile will allow you to snap a lot of candid shots. The f/1.7 allows for shooting in low light and produces some beautifully shallow depth of field. Images are are extremely sharp, and I've had no problems with flare after several weeks of usage. I'm perfectly happy with it as my only prime.

There are some minor things any prospective user should be aware of, but I don't feel any of this detracts from the essential quality of the lens. From what I've read, in its unmediated state the lens produces some barrel distortion, which Panasonic corrects in camera via software. You should also be aware that the lens is noisier than the kit zoom and takes slightly more time to acquire focus. From what I've read, this is due to the need to move around more glass while focusing. The implications of these last two minor downsides are 1.) that the use of continuous focus when shooting video will result in some annoying noise, and 2.) it's slightly less good for action shots and quick shooting scenarios, which is what may keep it from being a perfect street shooter. The former can be addressed by simply not using continuous focus when shooting video, and the latter can be addressed by using manual focus and hyperfocal zoning to shoot on the fly. True also, the lens has no image stabilization, but photographers have been capturing great shots for many, many years without image stabilization.

I bought this lens after owning the GH1 HD for 4 weeks. I have used the lens in all kinds of situations for stills and movies. The lens works very well as a still lens, specifically in dark indoors and outdoors situations. It also works very well for close ups, landscapes and even portraits.

As a lens using the Video features of the GH1, I am not fully convinced. Initially it had issues with the auto focus (running in and out of focus and making lots of noise). With the firm ware upgrade this issue has more or less been resolved, but I find myself putting the 14-140 on for video use.

On other positive about this lens is that all of a sudden you can actually carry the camera and lens installed in the pocket of your coat, your GH1 becomes a shoot and click.

All in all, I would recommend buying the lens if budget allows.

I agree with the glowing reviews here and I'll add that I haven't taken this lens off my Olympus PL-1 since I switched it with the PL-1's kit lens two months ago. It shoots gorgeous, professional-quality pics with nice depth in a variety of lighting situations and makes the camera so lightweight. I used to own a used, bulky, older DSLR that I didn't use very often due to its heft, and I traded it in for the PL-1 and this lens. So glad that I did!