Panasonic 12mm f1.4 announced

[cantsin]

2 hours ago, Santiago de la Rosa said:

"Can you please explain why this lens would loose a lot of resolution with gh4?"

Same question but with BMPCC

If you correct distortion (by stretching/squeezing) the image while staying in the same pixel resolution, you end up with pixel artefacts respectively visible resolution loss.

[noone]

Interesting.

Australian Camera magazine did a review in the Nov/Dec 2016 issue and they like it though say it "could be considered a fairly expensive lens"  but they also say "the lens's correction for distortion is exceptional..."    tested on a GX8.

In the same issue it was a finalist for their 2017 imaging awards Prime lens category (winner was the Zeiss Otus 28 1.4).

Not a lens for me as it is too expensive for a lens I would use on my second system and I have a 24mm 1.4 FF lens (though an old one) that I can use on FF, APSC and M4/3 for a different use on each.       I don't need that wide a lens on M4/3 (I had the Oly 12 f2 and that was nice enough but not needed either).

[jonpais]

There are still only two reviews up at B&H, so I'd wager it's safe to assume the lens isn't flying off the shelves. 

[Fredrik Lyhne]

20 hours ago, jase said:

So, now that this lens is floating arround for some time: did anyone actually buy and use it?

"in my post for a hotshoe grip I remebered you showing a picture of the GX80 with the Summilux 12mm - since I am a bit curious about this lens, how is your experience with it in general? What about manual focussing, does the speed of turning the ring influences how fast the focus is changed? How goos can you do focuspulls with it? How smooth is Touch AF when you first focus on something far away and then something nearby - is it somehow seamless?"

I bought the 12mm on black friday since it was 20% off. I wouldn't have bought it for full price but now I can sell it without a big loss if I want to. 

I usually shoot on a tripod and set focus before filming, so my style is very different from yours but I will try to answer your questions.

The build is great and the image is great. I compared the lens to my 12-35mm with both set to 12mm f/2.8 and I didn't expect it to be a big difference... Although the Leica was a noticeably sharper, especially in the corners the color is what makes this lens special. The image from the Leica is beautiful with accurate reds, while the Panny lens produced an image with to much yellow. I used the same settings and WB on both and used LED's to make sure everything was equal. The Leica is also a lot wider. I will have to do more test to confirm, but the findings from my first comparison is the same that is reported with the Nocticron, probably the two best lenses for skin tones in system.  

I don't do much focus pulls but Nocticron and Summilux are the best manual focus lenses I have used for m43, besides mf lenses like Veydra and SLR Magic. 

I'm very busy the next few days, but I will see if can make to time to do some more comparisons and testing the manual focus. 

[jase]

That would be great, no hurry!

[jonpais]

3 hours ago, Fredrik Lyhne said:

"in my post for a hotshoe grip I remebered you showing a picture of the GX80 with the Summilux 12mm - since I am a bit curious about this lens, how is your experience with it in general? What about manual focussing, does the speed of turning the ring influences how fast the focus is changed? How goos can you do focuspulls with it? How smooth is Touch AF when you first focus on something far away and then something nearby - is it somehow seamless?"

I bought the 12mm on black friday since it was 20% off. I wouldn't have bought it for full price but now I can sell it without a big loss if I want to. 

I usually shoot on a tripod and set focus before filming, so my style is very different from yours but I will try to answer your questions.

The build is great and the image is great. I compared the lens to my 12-35mm with both set to 12mm f/2.8 and I didn't expect it to be a big difference... Although the Leica was a noticeably sharper, especially in the corners the color is what makes this lens special. The image from the Leica is beautiful with accurate reds, while the Panny lens produced an image with to much yellow. I used the same settings and WB on both and used LED's to make sure everything was equal. The Leica is also a lot wider. I will have to do more test to confirm, but the findings from my first comparison is the same that is reported with the Nocticron, probably the two best lenses for skin tones in system.  

I don't do much focus pulls but Nocticron and Summilux are the best manual focus lenses I have used for m43, besides mf lenses like Veydra and SLR Magic. 

I'm very busy the next few days, but I will see if can make to time to do some more comparisons and testing the manual focus. 

I'd be very interested in seeing some shots of people with the lens. 

[Fredrik Lyhne]

On 11.2.2017 at 2:23 PM, jonpais said:

I'd be very interested in seeing some shots of people with the lens. 

Sorry I haven't had the time to do any test for you guys. I've been away for work the past 2 weeks. 

@jase I did a quick test with the touch AF in manual mode (that's what you meant right?) and it hunts a lot. Manual focus is better but when I'm focussing on something close and then something 1.5 m away it's easy to hit focus just to turn the focus ring to much and get out of focus again. I guess that's what you're used to with photo lenses anyway. I find it somewhat easier to focus with the 12 as it's bigger, the 15mm is so tiny. Note that I performed the tests at f/1.4. Did that make any sense to you? 

One thing I would like to mention is that I think 12mm is a much more difficult focal length than 15mm, but I guess that also depends on what you're gonna do with it. I needed a wide and bright lens for shoothing indoors so I bought this at 20% off at black friday. 

@jonpais congrats on new lens. I'm pretty sure you're gonna love it!

This video is shot with the PL 15mm until 3.48 and then the PL 12mm for the rest of it. Don't remember the aperture but I think it was around 2.0. It's shot on a GH3 in 1080 50p so not sure how helpful it is but at least you can see that the two lenses match up pretty good. They are color corrected and graded btw. The PL12 has a slightly cooler signature and along with the PL42,5 it has the best color and rendering of the Panasonic lenses I have used, with the 15mm coming in not far behind. 

Unfortunately that's all I have for now but I'll see if I can make a quick comparison with the 12-35mm next week. 

 

[jonpais]

2 hours ago, Fredrik Lyhne said:

Sorry I haven't had the time to do any test for you guys. I've been away for work the past 2 weeks. 

@jase I did a quick test with the touch AF in manual mode (that's what you meant right?) and it hunts a lot. Manual focus is better but when I'm focussing on something close and then something 1.5 m away it's easy to hit focus just to turn the focus ring to much and get out of focus again. I guess that's what you're used to with photo lenses anyway. I find it somewhat easier to focus with the 12 as it's bigger, the 15mm is so tiny. Note that I performed the tests at f/1.4. Did that make any sense to you? 

One thing I would like to mention is that I think 12mm is a much more difficult focal length than 15mm, but I guess that also depends on what you're gonna do with it. I needed a wide and bright lens for shoothing indoors so I bought this at 20% off at black friday. 

@jonpais congrats on new lens. I'm pretty sure you're gonna love it!

This video is shot with the PL 15mm until 3.48 and then the PL 12mm for the rest of it. Don't remember the aperture but I think it was around 2.0. It's shot on a GH3 in 1080 50p so not sure how helpful it is but at least you can see that the two lenses match up pretty good. They are color corrected and graded btw. The PL12 has a slightly cooler signature and along with the PL42,5 it has the best color and rendering of the Panasonic lenses I have used, with the 15mm coming in not far behind. 

Unfortunately that's all I have for now but I'll see if I can make a quick comparison with the 12-35mm next week. 

 

Thanks, Fredrik. I should have the lens in my hot little hands early next week. There are a lot of variables, such as the light from the windows, the difference in depth of field and so on, but the 12mm looks sharper to my eyes, especially when glancing at the mat and the lines of the black cabinets or wall on the right.

[Fredrik Lyhne]

35 minutes ago, jonpais said:

Thanks, Fredrik. I should have the lens in my hot little hands early next week. There are a lot of variables, such as the light from the windows, the difference in depth of field and so on, but the 12mm looks sharper to my eyes, especially when glancing at the mat and the lines of the black cabinets or wall on the right.

Yeah, it's a little bit sharper as well. A better lens allover but bigger and pricier so it should be  Do you noitice any big difference in color between your Olympus and Panasonic primes or are they fairly easy to match in post? I had the 60mm for a while, which had great color but I sold because I didn't use it much. 

[jonpais]

4 minutes ago, Fredrik Lyhne said:

Yeah, it's a little bit sharper as well. A better lens allover but bigger and pricier so it should be  Do you noitice any big difference in color between your Olympus and Panasonic primes or are they fairly easy to match in post? I had the 60mm for a while, which had great color but I sold because I didn't use it much. 

Actually, I haven't got any Panasonic primes!  As of next week, my m43 lenses will consist of the Leica 12mm f/1.4, Voigtlander 17.5mm f/0.95, Oly 25mm f/1.2, Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC DN, Leica 42.5mm f/1.2 and Oly 75mm f/1.8. I've got two Panasonic zooms, the 12-35mm f/2.8 and 35-100mm f/2.8, both of which have been sitting unused and which I'd like to sell, but it will be difficult to find a buyer in Vietnam, since practically nobody shoots m43 here. I find the Nokton virtually impossible to focus, I was going to let that one go too, but perhaps it will be easier once I get the GH5, since it's got a much better EVF and LCD. As for focusing, I find the peaking on my G85 pretty inferior to that of the X-T2, which is why I've assigned Monochrome Live View to one of the function buttons. Up until recently, my white balance had been all over the place, so i wouldn't even know what difference if any my lenses were making color-wise. All I can say is, I really like the colors I'm getting from the two Olympus lenses I've got. I'm busy editing a field test of the Fuji 90mm f/2 and the Olympus 25mm f/1.2 at the moment. The Olympus, which cost some $1,200.00 USD, is sharp, but not blisteringly sharp like my Sigma 30mm, which only cost around $300.

[Fredrik Lyhne]

33 minutes ago, jonpais said:

Actually, I haven't got any Panasonic primes!  As of next week, my m43 lenses will consist of the Leica 12mm f/1.4, Voigtlander 17.5mm f/0.95, Oly 25mm f/1.2, Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC DN, Leica 42.5mm f/1.2 and Oly 75mm f/1.8. I've got two Panasonic zooms, the 12-35mm f/2.8 and 35-100mm f/2.8, both of which have been sitting unused and which I'd like to sell, but it will be difficult to find a buyer in Vietnam, since practically nobody shoots m43 here. I find the Nokton virtually impossible to focus, I was going to let that one go too, but perhaps it will be easier once I get the GH5, since it's got a much better EVF and LCD. As for focusing, I find the peaking on my G85 pretty inferior to that of the X-T2, which is why I've assigned Monochrome Live View to one of the function buttons. Up until recently, my white balance had been all over the place, so i wouldn't even know what difference if any my lenses were making color-wise. All I can say is, I really like the colors I'm getting from the two Olympus lenses I've got. I'm busy editing a field test of the Fuji 90mm f/2 and the Olympus 25mm f/1.2 at the moment. The Olympus, which cost some $1,200.00 USD, is sharp, but not blisteringly sharp like my Sigma 30mm, which only cost around $300.

Well, by my count that's 2 Panasonic primes but I see what you mean  Nice range you have now! Looking forward to seeing videos from especially the 25mm and 12mm!.

[andy lee]

The panny 14mm is as lens I use a lot especially on steadycam rigs for walking shots and for wide establishing street shots too, its pin sharp aspheric so I'm looking forward to getting the 12mm it will be useful extra wide lens , I do try to use wide angle lens asleast as possible as I'm not a big fan and as a rule I like to be on the longer end of lenses where ever I can , but certain shot do require these wide lenses .

[Fritz Pierre]

On 3/10/2017 at 0:28 PM, jonpais said:

Actually, I haven't got any Panasonic primes!  As of next week, my m43 lenses will consist of the Leica 12mm f/1.4, Voigtlander 17.5mm f/0.95, Oly 25mm f/1.2, Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC DN, Leica 42.5mm f/1.2 and Oly 75mm f/1.8. I've got two Panasonic zooms, the 12-35mm f/2.8 and 35-100mm f/2.8, both of which have been sitting unused and which I'd like to sell, but it will be difficult to find a buyer in Vietnam, since practically nobody shoots m43 here. I find the Nokton virtually impossible to focus, I was going to let that one go too, but perhaps it will be easier once I get the GH5, since it's got a much better EVF and LCD. As for focusing, I find the peaking on my G85 pretty inferior to that of the X-T2, which is why I've assigned Monochrome Live View to one of the function buttons. Up until recently, my white balance had been all over the place, so i wouldn't even know what difference if any my lenses were making color-wise. All I can say is, I really like the colors I'm getting from the two Olympus lenses I've got. I'm busy editing a field test of the Fuji 90mm f/2 and the Olympus 25mm f/1.2 at the moment. The Olympus, which cost some $1,200.00 USD, is sharp, but not blisteringly sharp like my Sigma 30mm, which only cost around $300.

Hi Jonpais....is it only wide open that you have difficulty with the Nokton or at other stops too?...always been curious about this lens ,so would appreciate a few more words of your experience with the Nokton when you have a moment...for instance does the difficulty persist when you have the camera locked off...

[jonpais]

36 minutes ago, Fritz Pierre said:

Hi Jonpais....is it only wide open that you have difficulty with the Nokton or at other stops too?...always been curious about this lens ,so would appreciate a few more words of your experience with the Nokton when you have a moment...for instance does the difficulty persist when you have the camera locked off...

Hi Fritz, I only took the Nokton out a few times, it's been a while now, so I don't recall which apertures I was using, but it wasn't wide open. I really don't even recall if I was using a tripod or not - I believe I used it on the Zhiyun Crane and on a slider.  Really frustrating, it's the only lens I've ever used where I just couldn't get a sharp picture. Crazy, because I know the lens is great, I've seen plenty of sharp looking videos online. After I finish making a field test of the Sigma 18-35mm, I've got two more lenses left, the Nokton and the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8. So maybe in a couple weeks, I'll have another go at it.

[jase]

42 minutes ago, Fritz Pierre said:

Hi Jonpais....is it only wide open that you have difficulty with the Nokton or at other stops too?...always been curious about this lens ,so would appreciate a few more words of your experience with the Nokton when you have a moment...for instance does the difficulty persist when you have the camera locked off...

In my opinion, the Noktons are far away of being too hard to use, see for example this project, which I shot 100% with the Nokton 25 (although not wide open, mostly arround f2-f4):

Would I do this trip again in the same constellation? Nope, I would rely more on AF for those spotaneous situation, where time does matter.

 

[jonpais]

6 minutes ago, jase said:

In my opinion, the Noktons are far away of being too hard to use, see for example this project, which I shot 100% with the Nokton 25 (although not wide open, mostly arround f2-f4):

Would I do this trip again in the same constellation? Nope, I would rely more on AF for those spotaneous situation, where time does matter.

Yeah, even though this is the 25mm, all the videos I've seen with the Voigtlanders look fine, so I've got no idea what I was doing wrong.

[Matt Holder]

50 minutes ago, jase said:

In my opinion, the Noktons are far away of being too hard to use, see for example this project, which I shot 100% with the Nokton 25 (although not wide open, mostly arround f2-f4):

Would I do this trip again in the same constellation? Nope, I would rely more on AF for those spotaneous situation, where time does matter.

 

The 25 / .095 is my favourite lens - although for practicality I almost always have the 12-35 and 35-100 lenses on my GH4. Every time i use the 25 i just want to lick the screen - it looks so good - and i could recognise the look in your excellent little video.

 

Using 1 focal length and lens delvers a really nice consistent look. 

You did a great job of keeping the jitters out of a lot of shots -considering how hard this lens is to use handheld - i always have at least a monopod on mine- the pana 12-35 works great handheld though

 

Funnily enough the voigt focuses backwards compared to my panas. I usually stop it down to at least 1.2 unless i am in a desperate low light situation. 

Weirdly enough i find it easier to get focus below f2 on this lens as the extra depth of field blur allows me to locate my sharps / focal plane more easily. Its ironic actually... i have got into trouble shooting at f5 on my 7-14 Oly because its hard to pick if you have just missed critical focus slightly.  

 

The Voigt 25/ .095 lens is going to SHINE on my GH5 though, and see a  lot more use- the IBIS is going to be a godsend! 

[jonpais]

1 hour ago, Matt Holder said:

The Voigt 25/ .095 lens is going to SHINE on my GH5 though, and see a  lot more use- the IBIS is going to be a godsend! 

I think having that big, beautiful EVF and LCD screen with such high resolution will help a lot with manual focusing. 

[jase]

14 minutes ago, jonpais said:

I think having that big, beautiful EVF and LCD screen with such high resolution will help a lot with manual focusing. 

Definitely. This is one of the things I dont really like on my GX80, even when using the LCD the video looks sooo much better later in post on my computer. Would trade for better screen / EVF any day.

[Fritz Pierre]

3 hours ago, jonpais said:

I think having that big, beautiful EVF and LCD screen with such high resolution will help a lot with manual focusing. 

Agreed...though seldom mentioned, the EVF will turn out to be a big thing on thing on the GH5 IMO....also mastering and experimenting with the focus peaking settings will help enormously also....off topic, but the GH 5 has so many video tools, that mastering it is going to take some time!...one of the reasons why I bought the 12-60 Leica in advance