 Excellent lens with latest firmware |
| Review Date: October 14, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Draper Kauffman, Houston, TX United States |
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. |
About as good as it gets
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| Review Date: April 3, 2010 |
| Reviewer: L. Rothman, |
| 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. |
versatile, must have m43 lens
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| Review Date: April 2, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Paul Liesenberg, bay area, california |
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... |
Extended Range
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| Review Date: March 19, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Jesse H. Schexnayder, Fairbanks, AK |
I purchased this lens used on Marketplace for about $40 less than Amazon's current asking price, and got a free Sigma multi-coated UV filter in the bargain. The lens was in excellent condition as well, it might as well be new.
I'm new to the interchangeable lens world, having recently upgraded from a Panasonic point & shoot to the G1, so I don't really have a frame of reference from which to compare this telephoto zoom. I can say that trying to take closeups of anything more than a few meters away was next to impossible with the kit lens, and living in Alaska I would invariably be wanting to take pictures of rapidly moving moose at a respectable distance.
Having just received the lens today, I can say that it works very well for my intended purposes. I happened to spot some deer on the way home, so I stopped the car, changed the lens, stepped out, and was able to take some decent photos of the animals as they maneuvered through the treeline. This is a first for me, as I was never able to bring this off successfully with my old camera.
[...]
The speed seems sufficient during daylight, but the AF does seem to have issues if you quickly advance the zoom from wide-angle to tele. But maybe I just haven't figured out the quirks. Build quality seems fine as far as I can tell, and the OIS does help noticeably, esp. at the highest zoom.
If you're like me and new to SLRs, you'll be surprised at the size compared to the kit lens, esp. with the lens hood attached. Other people seemed to be surprised as well as I got several curious looks from passersby as I skirted through the woods with this thing.
Bottom line, there aren't many lenses available for the G1 right now, so if you need some additional range, then this is your only choice, and based on my limited experience with it so far, its not a bad one at that. |
Fun and friendly
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| Review Date: September 5, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Frazer Run Properties, Hayesville, NC USA |
| 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 |
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