Lumix G 20mm F1.7 ASPH, the "Perfect Normal" Lens

Four years ago Panasonic presents their large (F1.7) aperture "pancake" 20mm (40mm equivalent) lens as the kit lens for the Lumix DMC-GF1 camera.

Shortly after, M43 photographers discovered the "beauties" of this compact prime lens...

The 40mm-equivalent may at first appear unusual, but some discovered that; with a focal length equal to the M43 sensor's diagonal; this compact optics is in fact a 'perfect normal' lens!

This means the 20mm will produce images free of the 'perspective distortion' associated with wide angle or telephoto lenses!

Shortly after launch, this "pancake" lens became a celebrity when photo blogger Steve Huff claimed that the lowly kit lens is sharper than a Nikon 50/1.8 on a D3S!

Suddenly, this small wonder was so hot, it was hard to come by!

FUJIFILM X-T1 Gunning for OM-Ds?

2014 is gonna be a very interesting year in new digital cameras launch!

As Olympus OM-D fan boys are rubbing their hands in glee, waiting for the new OM-D E-M10 to launch on January 29 at 6am London time...

 FUJIFILM dropped a bomb shell...

Lumix G Vario 12-32mm On OM-D E-M5

By now some of you might realised that I am mighty impressed with this little "kit lens" that came with my GM1, why... I even compared it's performance with a much "larger" Olympus kit and it won!  I even "jump to my conclusion" that the tiny 24-64mm (equivalent) zoom might make a perfect traveling lens on my Olympus OM-D E-M5!

The ultra compact Lumix G Vario 12-32 f3.5/5.6 zoom look really cool on my Olympus OM-D E-M5 body!

Back at work today, my colleague; Nigel does not exactly soak in my excitement on this little jewel... he even STRENGTHEN my untold doubt that the Lumix 12-32 performed better because it was on a Panasonic Lumix camera!

Battle Between Two Kit Lens

A kit lens is a "starter" lens which can be sold with an interchangeable-lens camera such as a single-lens reflex camera. It is generally an inexpensive lens priced at the lowest end of the manufacturer's range so as to not add much to a camera kit's price.

Originally kit lenses were of normal focal length; more recently kit lenses tend to be inexpensive zoom lenses that range from medium wide angle to mid telephoto for added versatility. - Wikipedia

The two kit lens I am comparing here are:

The Olympus Digital M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 ED came with my Olympus E-P2, three years ago. The focal length range is equivalent to 28-84mm in full (35mm) terms.

The new LUMIX G VARIO 12-32mm / F3.5-5.6 ASPH / MEGA O.I.S. that come as a kit lens with my ultra-compact Lumix GM1. The focal length range is equivalent to 24-64mm in full (35mm) terms.

The two kits, Panasonic; left and Olympus, right. Both lens are in their "retracted" positions.  The new Pani for the GM1 is a lot smaller than the 3 year old M.Zuiko.

Lumix GM1 With Leica & Nikon Prime Lens

I have used my selections of old Nikon and Leica M optics on my Olympus E-P2 and OM-D before, the experiences were not intuitive mainly because it is so bloody hard to get an accurate manual focussing on these digital cameras!

Most of you have heard of Focus Peaking, which is a tool to assist you while manual focusing.  It highlights the areas that are in focus so you are able to quickly focus the lens on that area.

You would think that most modern digital cameras with an electronic viewfinder will have focus peaking built in?

Nope!

But did I not post an article about the focus peaking feature in OM-D E-M5?

Yes, but the feature in E-M5 is what I call "pseudo focus peaking", it is very clunky and not very user friendly.

I was not expecting any special feature when I try out my 25 year old 50/2 Leica Summicron-M lens on the GM1!

I was wrong!!

The Leica Summicron-M 50/2 attached to the GM1 with a Voigtlander VM adapter.