The GetDPI Photography Forum

Great to see you here. Join our insightful photographic forum today and start tapping into a huge wealth of photographic knowledge. Completing our simple registration process will allow you to gain access to exclusive content, add your own topics and posts, share your work and connect with other members through your own private inbox! And don’t forget to say hi!

14-42x lens

Terry

New member
I ordered the GF3X kit earlier this week from Panasonic. I only want the lens and will be selling the body. Panasonic pulled a Sony on this one! The lens came attached to the body with no body cap or rear lens cap in the box. Annoying but a heads up for anyone else expecting to sell the GF3 body. I thought I had extra body caps but looks like I'm going to need to sacrifice the one from my G3 and order some more.

The 14-42x is small but to be honest it isn't quite as small as I expected. I guess I had illusions that it would be like the 20mm lens but it feels bulkier than that lens. No worries it It is still excellent on the G3 and a great size.
The motor on the lens seem so silent and the zoom is very smooth. It is MUCH, MUCH smoother than I could ever zoom the lens so those who want to zoom in video should be very happy. I wasn't sure if I would like a power zoom after being used to so many other zooms and I will say using it feels pretty natural. Nice surprise.

I will go out and shoot with it this weekend and post some samples.
Side note the GF3 feels really solidly very well built. Don't want to turn it on as I'm selling it as new....but it is tempting...but not that tempting as I've also got an 5N and then a NEX7 on order
 

ggibson

Well-known member
Nice! Looking forward to the pictures and your impressions. I'd be interested to see some comparisons w/ the new lens on the G3 or GF1 body if you still own that one.

FYI, Fry's carries the GF3 (as well as G3) if you want to play with one (I visited the one in Concord).
 

Terry

New member
I went out this afternoon to shoot with the new lens on the G3. My thoughts are mixed.

I like the size of the lens. It will take getting used to the power zoom and I'm not sure I love it. Very personal and subjective but it felt a bit awkward to try and make changes to the focal length with the screen out and the camera at an odd angle.

For me personally, the zoom range is a bit too short. I wish it really was more like a 24-105 type zoom range.

The biggest worry is that I'm not quite sure I'm thrilled with the sharpness so I really need to do more work.

These samples are NOT meant to display anything artistic. I was really trying to test how the lens rendered(color, out of focus areas, vignetting). Yes wide open the lens did vignette and needed some correction in LR. All shot were from RAW files









You can see the vignetting here


I didn't think any of these were particularly sharp when viewed at 100%. I'm saying that in comparison to other m4/3 stuff I've viewed at 100% with other lenses. But I am going to go back and reshoot more controlled with more than lens

















Others












 

biglouis

Well-known member
Terry, the colours look spectacular from this lens. I also like the rendering of the oof areas. In terms of sharpness, all your samples seem to me to contain moving subjects. Perhaps you need to conduct a test on static ones? Even at high speeds you could possibly be seeing a lack of sharpness from movement? Also, are they RAW or jpegs? I only shoot RAW and I find I always have to tweak sharpness even at base iso on my GH-2. I think the default settings for RAW in P-cameras is 'soft'.

Thanks for posting these. I'm tempted by the lens as a general walkabout piece of glass.

LouisB
 

Terry

New member
These were all shot RAW. I'm trying to sort it out. Some are fine some are not. I have some static subjects that aren't fine. I didn't feet like I shot any differently than I normally do. This is my only lens that has OIS and doesn't have a switch. I need to go back and see what is going on with OIS. I thought I had fast enough shutter speeds going.

I did try and so some sharpening but I can just see from the RAWs that these don't look as good as some of my other m4/3 stuff. More to come if I don't just send the lens back right away. It isn't a focal length I need....and I do like a little more length so I'm not sure I want to have to slog through detailed lens testing.
 
Last edited:

ggibson

Well-known member
The bokeh looks so-so, maybe a bit harsh to me, but I'm not sure how it compares to the other 14-42mm lenses. At f3.5-5.6 it's not really a selling point of this lens anyways I guess.

The 100% shots do seem a bit fuzzy. Do you think it could be caused by the OIS?

Thanks for the report.
 

Terry

New member
On the bokeh I just care if it is objectionable (I define has swirly and "nervous")

I am starting to think it may have been OIS. I will do some more work. I know people are reporting an issue with OIS on the 45-175. I have to decide how much time I want to put into this or just punt and return the kit. I don't "need" this lens and don't use that range that much but I'm probably just better off sticking to the more versatile 14-140 for a zoom.
 

wjlapier

Member
Terry, do you still have the lens? Did you figure out what was causing the soft images? I have this lens and I have mixed feelings about it. Yesterday I did some controlled shots on a tripod using the self timer. Some shots on the tele end close up look sharp, but further away I'm not sure. Wide end seems to be soft at 3.5. Stopped down things get better. I'm using it on a GX1.
 

Terry

New member
No, I sent the whole kit back to Panny. I was sort of caught between a rock and hard place. I bought the kit and was going to sell off the GF3 body. But I was afraid I would have a problem if the lens needed to be returned and Panny wanted the whole kit back. So, instead I just returned both. I think I must have gotten a bad sample because others seem to have no issue with the lens.

In the meantime I also bought a Nikon V1 and it seems like the Nikon/Sony are going to be my kit.
 
Top