Panasonic Lumix G 12-60mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH Power OIS - Review / Test - Samples & Verdict
Lens Reviews - (Micro-)Four-Thirds

Sample Images & Verdict

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Make OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.
Model E-M5MarkII
ISO Speed 200
Focal Length 28.0mm
Aperture: f/7.1
Exposure 1/640s
Make OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.
Model E-M5MarkII
ISO Speed 200
Focal Length 12.0mm
Aperture: f/7.1
Exposure 1/400s
Make OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.
Model E-M5MarkII
ISO Speed 200
Focal Length 60.0mm
Aperture: f/7.1
Exposure 1/800s
Make OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.
Model E-M5MarkII
ISO Speed 200
Focal Length 12.0mm
Aperture: f/7.1
Exposure 1/640s
Make OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.
Model E-M5MarkII
ISO Speed 200
Focal Length 49.0mm
Aperture: f/7.1
Exposure 1/800s
Make OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.
Model E-M5MarkII
ISO Speed 200
Focal Length 12.0mm
Aperture: f/7.1
Exposure 1/800s
Make OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.
Model E-M5MarkII
ISO Speed 200
Focal Length 60.0mm
Aperture: f/5.6
Exposure 1/100s
Make OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.
Model E-M5MarkII
ISO Speed 200
Focal Length 38.0mm
Aperture: f/8.0
Exposure 1/1000s
Make OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.
Model E-M5MarkII
ISO Speed 200
Focal Length 12.0mm
Aperture: f/7.1
Exposure 1/500s
Make OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.
Model E-M5MarkII
ISO Speed 200
Focal Length 18.0mm
Aperture: f/7.1
Exposure 1/320s
Make OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.
Model E-M5MarkII
ISO Speed 200
Focal Length 23.0mm
Aperture: f/7.1
Exposure 1/250s
Make OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.
Model E-M5MarkII
ISO Speed 200
Focal Length 55.0mm
Aperture: f/7.1
Exposure 1/640s

Verdict

The Panasonic Lumix G 12-60mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH Power OIS is a jack of (almost) all trades but a master of none. So from a user perspective it doesn't really have pronounced weaknesses but it doesn't excite either. The center resolution is great at 12mm and the borders/corners are quite decent for standard zoom lens. The results soften towards the 60mm but remain easily usable. Panasonic uses auto-correction to hide some optical weaknesses thus distortions and vignetting are well controlled unless you leave the sandbox. An original distortion of 6.5% at 12mm is a bit over the top in our book just to mention again. Lateral CAs are no issue.

The build quality of the Panasonic lens is pretty good. Rather than just using a plastics, Panasonic used a metal/plastic combination for the body based on a metal mount. The inner lens tube doesn't wobble even when fully extended to 60mm. The weather sealing is certainly a very welcome feature as well. Most modern Panasonic lenses provide a high speed AF and this also applies to this one. AF operations are also silent (and accurate anyway). The Power OIS (image stabilizer) is efficient albeit a little inferior to -say- Canon or Nikon. However, at least Panasonic GX8/85/80 users can take advantage of dual IS (body+lens IS).

The question remains where this leaves us in the grand scheme of things. In terms of quality the lens doesn't really offer anything over the basic kit lenses and not too much over the more extreme 14-140mm zoom lenses in the overlapping range. To be fair - the Panasonic lens shares this characterization with many similar lenses (in different systems) but as such it's also a missed opportunity once again. So it's a good lens but nothing special either.

Optical Quality: to
Mechanical Quality:
Price/Performance:
      
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