Read some reviews about the Panasonic 45-200mm f/4.0-5.6 Lumix G Vario MEGA OIS Zoom four thirds lens for Olympus:

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.

To balance your perspective, another review is presented here, but a not-so-positive one.

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.

These reviews are from Amazon.com

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.
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

Here are some reviews of this Panasonic Lenses:

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.

Another review from a satisfied user:

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.

You can get more Panasonic Lenses Reviews by clicking this link.

The first 800 of Panasonic’s new collapsible 14-42mm lenses rolled off the production line of the company’s Yamagata factory today. The new lens was announced in August and is the first of Panasonic’s new premium ‘X’ brand. Panasonic claims that the lens offers higher quality optics than previous kit lenses, while the new design means that it’s almost as small as a pancake lens.

Featuring a “power zoom” rather than the traditional zoom ring, the lens automatically extends and retracts when the camera is switched on and off. It also features a new Power O.I.S. (optical image stabilisation), which is designed to help take clearer pictures in low light conditions as well as helping to combat camera shake. Read the full story here.

Check out the video below to get a better idea of how it works:

The interchangeable single focal length lens Lumix G 14mm f/2.5 ASPH features a 14mm (35 mm camera equivalent: 28 mm) wide angle and F2.5 brightness with sharp, high contrast image rendering. Taking advantage of the wide angle of view and deep depth of field, the compact LUMIX G 14 mm / F2.5 ASPH offers excellent performance in shooting not only landscapes but also snapshot or indoor shooting. Comprising of six lenses in five groups including three aspherical lenses, the lens system achieves both high compactness with short overall length of 20.5mm and high optical performance. It also excels in shooting subjects with components of straight line including architectures thanks to the minimized distortion.

This is one of the better Panasonic lenses.

The integration of stepping motor and inner focus drive system realizes the use of silent, high speed contrast AF. 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. Highly reliable metal mount assures durability for active use and uses multi-coated lens elements that minimize ghosts and flare to further enhance its shooting performance.

Reviews of Panasonic Lumix 14mm f/2.5 G Aspherical Lens for Micro Four Thirds Interchangeable Lens Cameras

Here are some reviews of Panasonic Lumix 14mm f/2.5 Aspherical Lens from Amazon.com:

When I first opened the box for this lens and pulled it out I couldn’t believe it. It is unbelievably small which is a big reason for me purchasing this lens. The front lens cap is thinner than the one on the 20/1.7 and the rear lens cap is also thinner making the whole package even smaller. After reading reviews stating that this lens is a compromise with heavy vignetting I wasn’t sure what to expect. Well, all I can say is that this lens is sharp. In the center of the frame it appears as sharp as my 20/1.7. On the edges maybe just a tad less sharp but not by much. As to vignetting, maybe a little but barely noticeable and only in some pictures of blank walls. It’s a non issue. I am very happy with the image quality and when I look at this lens on the front of my E-PL1 I just feel amazed at the small size. This lens, coupled with my Panasonic 20/1.7 and a Voigtlander 40/1.4, makes the most wonderful compact kit that I have ever owned and that is the main reason why I converted from my Nikon to the micro 4/3 system. Would I like it if this lens was faster? Sure I would but then it would be bigger. Personally I say bravo to Panasonic for this lens.

Another review from a satisfied user:

This lens probably deserves a “6″ for sharpness and portability. However, because the chromatic aberration, both blue-yellow and red-cyan, are very strong, I only gave this lens a “4″ overall. There’s a bit of distortion and vignetting as well.

All of the above aberrations are automatically corrected in JPEGs and you can correct them without too much difficulty in RAW images processed in Lightroom or CS5. Building an Adobe lens profile would be quite helpful in reducing RAW post-processing work load. My sense is that Panasonic wisely concentrated upon maximizing sharpness and contrast, letting go those aberrations that are now easily corrected by digital post-processing or in-camera.

I had some initial reservations about this lens because of some mixed reviews at various sites. However, the Imaging-Resource lens review showed exceptional sharpness and contrast and that’s really true. High sharpness and good image contrast are the two critical items that have to be built into the glass, and Panasonic did an excellent job here.

My 14/2.5 works very well on an Olympus E-PL1 and is an excellent wide-angle anchor for an mostly prime lens kit that includes Panasonic 20/1.7, Olympus 35/3.5 macro, and Olympus 50/2 macro. The latter two lenses require the MMF-2 adapter but all four prime lenses, camera, VF-2, and accessories are very light and portable, fitting into a very small, light camera bag while giving phenomenal sharpness.

You can read more reviews by visiting this site.

When mounted on Lumix G Micro System Cameras, the Lumix G 20mm/F1.7 ASPH lens allows for use of the advanced contrast Auto Focus (AF) system, which includes Panasonic’s Face Recognition functions. It’s comprised of seven blades, which produce an attractive and smooth background blur effect when shooting at larger aperture settings. The lens also features a highly-reliable metal mount, and use multi-coated lens elements to minimize glare and further enhance optical performance.

Product Description
Panasonic H-H020 20 mm f/1.7 Wide Angle Lens for Micro Four Thirds H-H020 Lenses & Filters

Panasonic LUMIX G 20mm f/1.7 Aspherical Pancake Lens Reviews from Satisfied Users:

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.

You can read similar reviews from this page.

Panasonic lenses are of course, part of the main business strategy of the company. It features lenses for many of its camera lines. Although most of the cameras produced by Panasonic are point and shoot, it has several lenses that can be used to enhance the process of capturing photographs. Along with its plans to expand its compact camera systems, the company will also expand its offering of lenses to help photography enthusiasts capture their best shots better.

In a news report from Techradar,

According to Panasonic, the company is the third biggest player in the interchangeable lens market, and at the top spot for the compact system camera (CSC) area of the market. The Panasonic G3, released in May, is currently the best-selling CSC in the UK, along with being in the top five for all camera sales.

Speaking in London, Panasonic’s Mr Uetmasu spoke of his hopes for the continued growth and expansion of the compact system camera. He made it clear that he did not believe that CSCs were second rate compared to DSLR.

Citing the rapid development in digital camera technology over the past 20 years, he said he could see no reason why compact system cameras could not catch up with DSLRs in the next few years in terms of image quality. Full article here

Through this website, we will feature many different lenses that can be used with Panasonic cameras. We’ll take information from Amazon.com and put them here, thus, helping you make the right decision in choosing lenses for your camera.

Photography enthusiasts really need good lenses so they can capture the right moments with the right lighting at the right time. These photos will become timeless if they contain the right memories and they evoke the right emotions. Crappy lenses can never compare with the good ones, especially in shot angles and lighting. That’s why it is important for photographers to choose the right equipment for their craft.

This website is dedicated to featuring the best Panasonic lenses in the market so as to help people capture better photos and better memories!