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GF1 and focus noise with 20mm

iau

New member
Hi,

Found this forum while doing some research for GF1. Got mine along with the 20mm f1.7 this week and have not had much time to try it out, but the first thing I noticed was the sound of the focus motor. It feels like a friction sound. When I tried it with a 14-45mm in the store, I didn't hear this sound. After some research I've learned that this sound is normal, but I'm a little on the fence about returning the camera or not.

Unfortunately not much chance to play with various lenses on the camera in the stores, so I was wondering if somebody could could share their experience with this camera and different lenses. Is this noise prominent with all lenses and is it something that a future firmware update will "fix"?

Thanks in advance!
-iau
 

PeterB666

Member
I have the 20mm f/1.7 and it does have a very noisy auto focus motor. This is normal with this lens and there is no fix for it. I use it with the E-P1 so it is nothing to do with the camera.

On the other hand, the fly by wire manual focus (which of course drives a motor too) is silent.

Possibly some future lens firmware update could make it a little more quiet but only a redesign of the lens and lens motor will achive a silent or near silent lens.

Other that being a little too prone to flare, it is a good lens and the only affordable fast auto-focus lens available in MFT.

BTW, I have the Panasonic 45-200 zoom and it is near slient (other than the aperture and the occassional odd click when zooming).
 
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iau

New member
Thanks for your quick reply! I understand it is the lens that causes the noise, not the camera when this particular lens is mounted. That is good news! Actually I thought the focus motor was in the camera, so I hadn't investigated that part.

It may be a keeper after all! :)
 

iau

New member
hey there i've heard other reports on this, apparently it's normal,

have a look here, someone else had the same lense but on a E-P1 so it's the lense ;-)

http://forum.getdpi.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12576
Thanks for the link. I think my noise is made from the lenses moving when focusing. Luckily the aperture clicks are not there (so much) on the GF1, but this may have something to do with Live View on the Oly. Anyway, everything looks to be in order. I also found another thread on DPreview where someone posted a link to a video of "my noise".

Anyway, I'm liking the camera more and more and will definitely keep it, despite the annoying noise from the lens while focusing. It will replace my LX3 as a walk around camera. Just need to test it some more! :)
 
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