Showcase Panasonic 42.5 f/1.7

Someone posted some results from a Swedish site that did a comparison between the Oly 45 and both the Panasonic 42.5s. Seems the order was 42.5/1.2, 42.5/1.7, 45. The new 1.7 was notably better in the corners than the Oly.

 

It's here, the Swedish review:

https://www.mu-43.com/index.php?posts/756677

 

hi admin, maybe this thread should be merged with these threads?

https://www.mu-43.com/threads/73856/
https://www.mu-43.com/threads/73873/

 

The lens hasn't been released yet....

 

Bunch of shots from yesterday and today taken with GM5. It is a long post, but hopefully it shows the lens character like the bokeh and the mfd... Exif's are in the photos...

 

Hmm, the bokeh seems very busy...

 

Because they were shot against busy backgrounds It's f/1.7 lens, so I don't expect miracles. I like it a lot so far. The advantage is the 1:2 macro mfd. There are not many lenses that can do that esp with its size and its aperture is faster then regular macro lenses. It is perfect for gm5.

 

A few more...

 

You're right, these last ones have much nicer OOF backgrounds. Did you ever own an Olympus 45mm? If so how do you find it in comparison?

 

I have Oly 45mm also, but I have not compared them. I use gm5 most of the time and that is one of the reasons I got the lens plus the mfd... I wanted a black 45mm anyway I think cameralabs did a good comparison of these 42.5 and 45mm lenses:
http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Panasonic_Lumix_G_42-5mm_f1-7_H_HS043E/

It looks like he compared 42.5mm to the new 30mm macro also in his 30mm review:
http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Panasonic_Lumix_G_Macro_30mm_f2-8_H_HS030E/

 

Thanks for posting those reviews. The comparison with the Oly 45 was interesting with the 45 delivering some pretty poor corner sharpness. I've never noticed anything that bad with my copy - I think I'll do my own test and see if Gordon Laing's result is an outlier or not.

 

I would keep in mind some of Gordon's words from the review:

"Indeed the Olympus looks quite poor in this comparison, but this performance is not uncommon for most lenses, which are generally softer in the extreme corners at their wider apertures. It's the Lumix here that's performing above average."

 

On the four-thirds.org site the close focusing is listed as .2x which is 1:5. Is it actually closer?

Fred

 

It is 1:5, which is about twice as close as the Olympus at 1:9.

 

I was comparing to FF mfd's, but I was wrong due to sensor size. 42.5mm mfd is roughly twice of PL 45mm mfd so 1:5 sounds right... Zeiss 100 Makro mfd is 1.44x of Canon 100mm mfd which converts to 1/2 magnification...Cameralabs review has that wrong also:

 

It would be equivalent to 1:2.5 on FF so not too far off.

 

Panasonic GX7 + Panasonic 42.5mm f1.7