Panasonic LUMIX G II Lens, 20MM, F1.7 ASPH, MIRRORLESS Micro Four Thirds, H-H020AS (USA Silver)

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Ultimately, though it's not optically perfect, for most folks, the Panasonic Lumix G 25mm F1.7 ASPH is going to be more than good enough. Even the 45-200mm isn’t a bad lens upto 150mm it’s pretty sharp, but starts to drop off after that but still very usable and nothing abit of lightroom can’t sort out.

The lens is also impressively quiet when using AF in video mode thanks to its stepper motor. We tested it with a Panasonic G9 and found the touchscreen makes it painless to move focus smoothly and silently, with just the tap of a finger. Image quality is almost flawless. Shoot at f/2.8 for sharpest images and also at f/4 for eliminating the vignetting. I may have said that the lens is sharper at f/2.8 but you'll be surprised at the image quality at f/1.7! For me, I like the 25mm overall better because it's more contrasty, faster AF, a faster aperture for more shallow DoF, and I like the 50mm equivalent focal length perhaps a little more than 40mm equivalent. Lastly, for me personally, I *prefer* the larger lens size that so many people complain about. I find the 20mm pancake to be convenient only on a rangefinder body like the GX1 or GF series when I am trying to go as low profile as possible. Otherwise I find the 25mm balances very nicely on larger bodies like the G3, G5, and GH3 where the 20mm pancake feels awkward as there's nothing to really hold onto with my left hand.The one thing I really enjoyed about this lens and body combo is the size. I mean, here I am with a pretty small setup that is also a high quality kit. I realized this one day when I brought out this m4/3 conbo along with the Nikon D3s ( see my review here) and at the end of the day the E-P2 images were, umm, dare I say…better? How can this be?? Just like I said in a previous D3s post, I blame it on the Nikon 50 1.8 which is kind of a dog of a lens up to F5.6. Once you stop down to that aperture its decent. The Panasonic Lumix G 20mm F1.7 ASPH was announced earlier this month as the natural companion to the compact Lumix DMC-GF1 Micro Four Thirds camera, alongside a Leica-branded 45mm F2.8 Macro (the camera is also available with a 14-45mm kit zoom). The H-H020, as Panasonic curiously likes to call it, is a large maximum aperture 'normal' prime in a very compact 'pancake'-type body. It gathers a stop and a half more light than Olympus's M. Zuiko Digital 17mm F2.8 pancake (which is only marginally smaller), and is therefore sure to be of interest to E-P1 owners who want to shoot in low light using a lens well-matched to that camera's size.

There are lenses in this list for street photography, candids, portraits, landscapes, and more. We think you’ll like them. However, they’re primarily for the street photography. Anyhow, the hallmark of any good nifty fifty, then and now, is a favorable ratio of quality to price. And Panasonic's modern take for Micro Four Thirds fits the bill nicely: though it's very affordable, it's capable of producing lovely images. If you’re looking for a fisheye lens, then the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 8mm f/1.8 PRO is one such, with autofocus (AF) and weather sealing. It’s got a fast maximum aperture, making it suitable for low-light use, and delivers impressive image quality. In our review, we got consistently excellent results. The best were obtained by processing out some lateral chromatic aberration, though this is to be expected from wide-angle lenses of this type. It also served to remove unsightly colour fringing, and improve apparent edge sharpness. In our tests, we couldn’t really identify any color fringing in the images–which is a great thing for JPEG shooters that love to complain about this type of thing. But even for RAW shooters, this means that much less work in the post-production phase. Extra Image SamplesI have to say I really love 20mm vs 25mm comparisons. And I'm not being sarcastic; I really can't get enough of 'em I think it's because this focal length range is my favorite for general purpose people photography. I've had both lenses myself (I did sell the 20mm recently however because I discovered I preferred the 25mm focal length a bit more), and have a feeling for both. The 20mm is a little sharper at 1.7 compared to the 25mm at 1.4, but the 25mm becomes sharper stopped down even as soon as 1.8. Color and contrast are more appealing on the 25mm with a lot more "pop" to images, whereas the 20mm is flatter--some would say more natural. And of course we all know about the differences in focus speed and noise by now. I was worried of using Panny on Oly assuming it would lose out on many things that only come with close integration of hardware and software. From your review it seems like a non issue. Over our review period, we’ve come to really appreciate the 20mm f1.7 II lens. It’s built and feels super solid with a metal exterior that works well with both the OMD EM5 and the GH4. When it comes to manually focusing though, you’ll only be working with a small sliver of a focusing ring. Granted, this lens isn’t weather sealed nor does it really need to be. Let me be 100% honest here. I have been shooting the Nikon D300s and Canon 7D DSLR’s along with this E-P2/20 1.7 combo (and the D3s) and during this time the most fun I have had taking pictures was with the E-P2 and 20 1.7. The D3s, forget it! It’s for sports/action/wildlife guys and pros. While it is the best there is for that type of shooting, it snot the best solution for an everyday camera.