Review by Sebastian Milczanowski, published April 2011

Introduction

The Panasonic Lumix G 14mm f/2.5 ASPH is - besides the the Panasonic Lumix G 20mm f/1.7 ASPH and the Olympus M.Zuiko 17mm f/2.8 Pancake - the third pancake lens available for micro-four-thirds system cameras. In terms of its depth-of-field capabilities it behaves like a f/5.0 on full format (35mm) while the focal length is equivalent to 28mm. With a few words - a small wide-angle lens suited for photojournalism. The lens is either sold as part of a camera kit with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF2 for about 600EUR or separately for about 350EUR.

The build quality of the tiny lens is perfectly fine - there isn't much potential for shaky components here anyway. It is tightly assembled based on high quality plastics for the lens body on top of a metal mount. The lens does not extend during focusing and thanks to its IF ("inner focusing") system the front element does not rotate so using a polariser is no problem.

In order to show you the tiny size of the lens here's a comparision between the Panasonic Lumix G 20mm f/1.7 ASPH, the Panasonic Lumix G 14mm f/2.5 ASPH and the Panasonic Lumix G VARIO 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH Mega OIS.

You may easily notice the small lens diameter also compared to the already tiny 20mm f/1.7. It really cuts a fine figure on our Panasonic GF1.

Typical for most micro 4/3 lenses the focus ring is operated "by wire" so you drive the AF motor by turning the focus ring (unlike the conventional mechanical coupling). The AF speed is very high and typical for contrast-AF-based systems the accuracy is spot on.