Introduction
At a recent Clubsnap Panasonic GX85 hands-on session the Panasonic 12mm f1.4 made a surprising appearance, given it was only recently announced and availability had yet to be confirmed. I was quite delighted to be able to handle the pre-production unit albeit quite briefly so things got even better when I received a message from Clubsnap asking whether I'd like to test drive the lens. Even though it wasn't a focal length I frequently used, it was an opportunity too hard to pass up on so I jumped at the chance.
Many thanks to Panasonic and Clubsnap for the opportunity to test out the Panasonic Lumix G Leica DG Summilux 12mm F1.4 ASPH (12/1.4 from now on).
Disclaimer
As with all user reports, it comes with the usual individual biases.
Over the course of 2 weeks that I had with a pre-production unit, I tried shooting the lens in a wide variety of circumstances to see how it performed over many genres. There are no payments involved and I was given free reign to express my opinions.
Images were shot in RAW + JPEG with the RAW files converted to DNG and processed to taste using Lightroom 5 as this is my usual workflow.
With all that aside, let's take a closer look at the 12/1.4.
What is it?
The 12/1.4 is a wide angle autofocus lens for the micro four thirds (m43) format which roughly equates to the field of view (FOV) of a 24mm lens on the 135 full frame format, disregarding any image aspect ratio differences.
With a maximum aperture of 1.4, it is also the fastest 12mm lens offering in the m43 format. The native m43 lens is weather sealed and will function on any m43 body however the aperture ring function is limited to Panasonic bodies only.
Panasonic 12mm F1.4 mounted on a Panasonic GX85
At a recent Clubsnap Panasonic GX85 hands-on session the Panasonic 12mm f1.4 made a surprising appearance, given it was only recently announced and availability had yet to be confirmed. I was quite delighted to be able to handle the pre-production unit albeit quite briefly so things got even better when I received a message from Clubsnap asking whether I'd like to test drive the lens. Even though it wasn't a focal length I frequently used, it was an opportunity too hard to pass up on so I jumped at the chance.
Many thanks to Panasonic and Clubsnap for the opportunity to test out the Panasonic Lumix G Leica DG Summilux 12mm F1.4 ASPH (12/1.4 from now on).
Disclaimer
As with all user reports, it comes with the usual individual biases.
Over the course of 2 weeks that I had with a pre-production unit, I tried shooting the lens in a wide variety of circumstances to see how it performed over many genres. There are no payments involved and I was given free reign to express my opinions.
Images were shot in RAW + JPEG with the RAW files converted to DNG and processed to taste using Lightroom 5 as this is my usual workflow.
With all that aside, let's take a closer look at the 12/1.4.
What is it?
The 12/1.4 is a wide angle autofocus lens for the micro four thirds (m43) format which roughly equates to the field of view (FOV) of a 24mm lens on the 135 full frame format, disregarding any image aspect ratio differences.
With a maximum aperture of 1.4, it is also the fastest 12mm lens offering in the m43 format. The native m43 lens is weather sealed and will function on any m43 body however the aperture ring function is limited to Panasonic bodies only.
Panasonic 12mm F1.4 mounted on a Panasonic GX85
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