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Panasonic Lumix G 42.5mm f/1.7 ASPH Power OIS - Review / Test Report |
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Lens Reviews -
(Micro-)Four-Thirds
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Page 1 of 3
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published July 2020
Introduction
As of the time of this review, the Micro-Four-Thirds (MFT) world is in a bit of turmoil about the future of Olympus - and some odd YouTubers are questioning whether the system has still a place in the industry at all. It may then be the right time to remind those skeptics - once again - that the system has aspects that no other current system provides. That's primarily a small package size and low weight. Now you may argue about "equivalency" here but fact remains that the sheer number of compact lenses remains unmatched by quite a margin. And one of them is the Panasonic Lumix G 42.5mm f/1.7 ASPH Power OIS with its size of just 55x50mm and a weight of merely 130g. It's a medium tele lens with a wide variety of applications from portraits to street photography and even landscapes. The regular pricing is at 399EUR/USD. However, it's not a brand new lens anymore and you should be able to find it for at least 50EUR/USD less than that.
The lens construction is simple yet very decent thanks to a metal body and a smoothly operating focus ring. There is no sealing against the elements. However, with no moving outer parts (nor any buttons), the lens should be reasonably safe unless it starts raining cats and dogs. Curiously, Panasonic does not only include a barrel-shaped lens hood but also a decoration ring. This ring can be mounted on the filter thread to ... well ... hide the thread - that's what you call attention to detail. It's also worth noting that the filter diameter is just 37mm thus it's about as small as it gets.
The AF is swift and, of course, noiseless. Manual focusing works "by-wire" thus you are driving the focus motor when turning the focus ring. The mechanism is very precise. Panasonic also incorporated its "Power OIS" image stabilizer. We haven't found any official figures but a gain around 3 f-stops seems to be possible and it's probably more than that on Panasonic cameras with Dual-IS support.
| Specifications |
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| Equiv. focal length (full-format) | "90mm" (in terms of field-of-view) |
| Equiv. aperture (full-format) | "f/3.4" (in terms of depth-of-field) |
| Optical construction | 10 elements in 8 groups inc. 1x aspherical element |
| Number of aperture blades | 7 (rounded) |
| min. focus distance | 0.31m (max. magnification 1:5) |
| Dimensions | 55x50mm |
| Weight | 130g |
| Filter size | φ37mm |
| Hood | barrel-shaped (bayonet mount, supplied) |
| Other features | decoration ring |
| Mount | Micro-Four-Thirds |
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