On Top of The World: Panasonic Lumix G X Vario 12-35mm f/2.8

Hello everyone, today I want to talk about the Panasonic 12-35mm f2.8 that I acquired few months ago that has been my main lens since December 2014 until today in my Panasonic GX7. To start, the 12-35mm f2.8 is what considered by many as the professional grade lens from Panasonic for the Micro Four Thirds cameras. This lens has the constant f2.8 aperture at all zoom settings, complete with weather sealing and a very effective Power O.I.S. Stabilization which is very useful for Panasonic shooter.

First of all, this lens covers full frame equivalent of 24-70mm which makes the zoom range of this lens really useful as a general purpose mid-zoom lens with moderate wide angle territory at its widest zoom up to normal portrait territory at its tightest zoom. This could be the perfect event photographer and wedding photographer lens for covering wider shots as well as a good solid walkaround lens for general travel and day to day use. 

Let's start, what do I like from this lens?

The size of this lens is very similar to my Panasonic 14-140mm f3.5-5.6 as well as my Olympus 75mm f1.8 which I admit is on the big side for the Micro Four Thirds world, but then again, this is only as big as your APS-C 18-55mm kit lens for Canon or Nikon DSLR which is actually a LOT smaller than the real 24-70mm f2.8 of the real full frame. The lens comes with lens hood and pouch. I recommend to use the hood all the time, not only to protect against flare, but also to protect the front element of this lens.

The sharpness of this lens is definitely very sharp as expected from a professional grade lens, and the f2.8 aperture really helps to gather a lot of light especially on low light situation. Combine that with a good optical stabilizer in the lens, this lens does very well in low light and can save you a few stops of light so that you don't have to go higher than ISO 1600 when shooting in dim light conditions.

I love the fact that this lens cover all the standard normal prime lens focal lengths such as 14mm, 17mm, 20mm, and 25mm. This makes me approach the lens as some sort of a collection of prime lenses in a single lens as opposed to a lens with zoom capability. I shoot very often deliberately at dedicated focal length and leave it there to simulate the field of view of the prime lens that I have in mind. This makes this lens the best lens for street photography. Again, coupled with the fast aperture of f2.8, this lens is very flexible when shooting streets.

Autofocus is as fast as the lens can be which is as fast as every other lens that I've reviewed in my blog. There was one or two instances in my personal experience where the focus was actually locking and armed but it actually mis-focused completely although it was on single small point autofocus and the light was good(mid-day sunny outdoor light). This happened at least once every 40 or 50 shots which isn't bad by any means and not worrying at all, but at least you should know. To compare, my 14-140mm f3.5-5.6 only misfocused once or twice during good light, it only misfocused when it was really dark and the camera metering can't get more than -3EV.

On a side note, people seemed to talk about the rendering, contrast, and color of this lens. I do kinda understand about the contrast, but I don't find anything special in particular of this lens when we talk about the rendering or color, it's all the same to me with any other good Micro Four Thirds lens. I can assure you, this lens is sharp, contrasty and worth the money!

Bonus point for this lens, it has a quite close minimum focusing distance at all focal length, making it useful to get an emergency macro shots if you need to. Also this lens handles flare like no others! Very little flare although not completely flare-less like the 75mm f1.8.

What are the things that I don't like from this lens?

As I mentioned before, there were a couple of instances where the autofocus missed the object completely. Also you should know that this lens is a bit soft at 35mm at f2.8 on the closest focusing distance although it is very sharp at longer distances.

I also need to mention that this lens is a tiny bit heavier than the 14-140mm f3.5-5.6 although not by much. You can feel it when you handle the lens for an extended period of time.

I do wish this lens max out at 40mm instead of 35mm but now Olympus has that 12-40mm f2.8 as an alternative to this lens. If you need longer distance, you can get that Olympus version which is as sharp as this lens but minus the stabilizer.

Other thing that I don't like from this lens is the fact that the lens hood is very easy to get knocked when shooting, resulting in a strong vignette in your photos when you don't realize it. 

Be mindful when shooting at 12mm, the perspective distortion starts to kick in at that focal length, better switch to 14mm if possible to avoid significant perspective distortion and keep your verticals as straight as you can.

Conclusion

After using this lens for a few months now, I can safely say that this lens is very good. The focal length range do makes me feel a bit limited sometimes, but that's how all the full frame 24-70mm lens are behaving anyway. I do love the sharpness of this lens, the fast aperture, the build quality, as well as the stabilizer and the weather sealing of this lens. The macro capability of this lens is also surprisingly helping me a lot of times.

I do, however, question about how much sharper this lens is when compared to Panasonic 14-140mm f3.5-5.6. It turns out that the 14-140mm f3.5-5.6 is also very sharp and the 12-35mm isn't that far from it. So I do have to say that if you don't need fast aperture and you need flexible focal length range, go get the 14-140mm f3.5-5.6 instead and save your money; you won't be able to tell if the 12-35mm is sharper anyway unless you pixel peep at 100% on your computer screen. If you, however, need the big aperture, the weather sealing, and the constant aperture, go get this lens and let me assure you it's worth the money. Or if you already have a dedicated lens to cover anything above 45mm focal length, then this lens will make sense to back it up.

Let me share some sample photos:

Landscape at 12mm? Check!

Street photography? Check!

Flare control when shooting at the sun?
Very good, but not totally perfect. See that purple spot?

More street photography.

Close up semi macro photo.

The big aperture makes it very flexible to shoot
in conjunction with off camera flash techniques.

More flower with off camera flash techniques
to reveal ultimate sharpness.

It is very punchy and contrasty!

More close up work.

More street photo stuff.

This lens is heavenly when used in street photography.

Again, street photography.

This is how wide the 12mm is. (24mm full frame)

This is as close as it can get.

See that detail in the wood pieces?

I hope this review helps, until next time and God bless you :)

Dat Sharpness Doe: Olympus 75mm f1.8

I just got a sweet deal on a used Olympus 75mm f1.8 which I've been considering as a serious headshot/portrait lens. The focal length of this lens is quite useful to compress the picture and smash the whole thing to look more interesting and flattering especially when shooting a person's face and thus will help me achieve better portrait result.

When it comes to portrait, the ideal focal length is a mild telephoto focal length between 85mm and 200mm in full frame terms; this prime lens is the equivalent of 150mm full frame which sits right in the ideal focal length range. Coupled with a nerve-wrecking f1.8 aperture, this is ideal to get either low light performance or a super shallow depth of field.

The lens itself isn't lightweight; it is at least as heavy as my old Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 non VC but it is not as large. It is as big as my 14-140mm f3.5-5.6 lens though. For Micro Four Thirds standard, this is big. But for APS-C standard, this is just as big as a standard kit lens.

A warning when using a lens of this focal length: shutter speed matters! You have to get at least 1/200s without stabilization to make your picture sharp. With my E-PL6 in body stabilizer, I can shoot sharp at 1/60s but lower than that is pretty much hit and miss.

What's so special about this lens?

The sharpness is OFF THE CHARTS!!! Shoot wide open, and the picture is already sharp. Stop down to f2.8 and it will reveal the smallest detail possible from a picture. Stop down to f4 for it's maximum possible sharpness but even at f1.8 the sharpness is already crazy enough!

Talking about the bokeh, this lens will give the most bokeh for your money. It has a crazy shallow depth of field due to it's focal length(even in Micro Four Thirds environment) and you should treat this shallow depth of field carefully to your advantage. I find that shooting short range portrait using this lens will require me to stop down to f2.8 to get a person's facial feature sharp from the front of the head at least to the ears. F1.8 is a bit too unwieldy to use when shooting portrait, unless your subject is far away from you.

You can read full detail of the lens on so many different websites who did some lab tests for this lens, but for real world usage this is definitely an ultra sharp lens that you can use at large aperture with ease.

The build quality of this lens is also top notch! It's all metal and the focusing ring is very smooth and just nicely dampened a little bit. It doesn't come with a lens hood and if you care about lens flare or protecting your lens, you should find either the Olympus one or the cheap third party one.

People seemed to love talking about the "color rendering" of this lens so much. I don't get it, I don't find that it produces different looking colors when compared to the other lens shooting more or less the same scene. I don't seem to notice anything about the color anyway but let me assure you that the contrast level is at least top notch! I can notice the contrast level because I used to have a lens that doesn't have a good contrast when I was still shooting Canon.

What do I need to know before I buy this lens?

Be mindful, 150mm is not a general use focal length, you might not going to use this lens frequently for your photography. 150mm is neither long or short; it's definitely not a wildlife lens and it's not short enough to get environmental photo without stepping back very far from the subject. Think carefully before purchasing this baby because the price isn't cheap and you only get one focal length. If you are specifically looking for a portrait or a headshot lens, definitely this is the right one for you. If you are looking to shoot general photography stuff or even street photography, I don't really think this is the right lens. You will be better served with something more flexible such as the Panasonic 35-100mm f2.8, or the Olympus 45mm f1.8, or similar lens.

Also, one thing that bothers me is the amount of chromatic aberration produced by this lens. I don't know if mine is a defective one or if it's simply just the case with every 75mm f1.8. The chromatic aberration doesn't go away even at f4. I have to stop it down to f5.6 for the fringing to completely disappear which is kinda sucks. The good news is that the chromatic aberration is easily removable using Lightroom or similar software.

In summary

Buy this lens if you are doing portrait or low light mild telephoto stuff. Don't buy this lens if you are doing wildlife, it is not long enough. Also for street photography, the 45mm will be easier to wield than this lens unless you are doing specific thing with your photo that requires a longer focal length. If you want a more flexible lens, get the 35-100mm f2.8 or similar lens.

Here are some example of pictures that you can expect to get using this lens:

This was shot at f1.8. Very sharp! See that bokeh?

The compression makes everything look flat and pressed. Good for portrait stuff

See those individual hair? That's the sharpness level that you can expect from this lens.

Very useful at low light to get reasonable mild telephoto street photo.

Get closer to your subject than the 45mm f1.8.

Headshot using this lens gives a very flattering result!

I hope this post helps you to decide whether this lens is the right one for you or not. Thank you and God bless you :)

The Perfect Camera??

GX7 and E-PL6

I am really happy with my current camera gear with all the lenses and accessories; to me all of them combined enables me to shoot almost anything anytime anywhere. If I want to shoot low light and be invisible, I will pick my E-PL6 with an Oly 17mm f1.8 or 25mm f1.8. Or maybe I want to shoot high quality portrait of some people in an important event, I will use my GX7 with an Oly 45mm f1.8 and pickup the Oly FL600R flash as well.

Or maybe I'm on a holiday and I want to take tons of different style of pictures? I will bring my GX7 with the Pan 14-140mm. Wildlife and ultra long range photo? GX7 and 100-300mm. Interior and wide field architectural? E-PL6 and 7-14mm. Be as small as possible but still take great picture? E-PL6 and the 17mm f2.8.

In fact, I can carry them all in just one small messenger bag and still weight less than 3kg and be ready for anything with the E-PL6 wielding one of the utility lenses such as the 100-300mm or 7-14mm to cover the blind spot of the 14-140 on the GX7 on the daytime or the 45mm or 25mm at night to complement the 17mm on GX7 in low light.

Imaginary Camera

However, there is always some time when I get a little bit more imaginative with my thinking and I've been wondering if there's such a super camera that can do more than what both my GX7 and E-PL6 combined can do.

So I started the process of writing down what I like from my current cameras and what is still missing on them that could be added. If any company makes this, I will surely be a happy geek.

E-PL6 with Olympus 45mm f1.8, perfect for quick portrait and long range street photo.

So here it goes...

First, it has to be in the advanced compact rangefinder style, like a GX7: 

- built in EVF that doesn't add bulk like on the GX7,
- lots of manual controls with preferably dual assignable control dials and a separate dedicated ISO dial wheel with 1 stop increments,
- standard hotshoe,
- built in bounce-able pop-up flash like in the GX7,
- assignable custom program modes,
- swiveling screen like the GH4(not just tilt and flip, it's difficult to do video with it),
- generous grip with front-positioned shutter button access preferably similar to E-M1
- it must not be bigger than the GX7.
- and it must be able to accept external vertical grip option if I want to have extra battery or extra ergonomics.

My GX7 with 100-300mm lens, perfect for wildlife and ultra telephoto needs.

Then, the technology must also be good: 

- 16MP Micro Four Thirds sensor will be enough but with removed optical low pass and AA filter so I can get more sharpness and detail,
- wifi features as good as the GX7
- super control panel like in the E-PL6
- improved ISO performance,
- improved dynamic range,
- video quality as good as the GX7 (I don't mind the absence of mic and headphone input, I always do external audio anyway),
- I don't need 4K, 1920x1080 is good enough for me but the video resolution down-sampling process must be at least as good as my GX7,
- 5 axis in body stabilizer like E-M1,
- some degree of weather sealing,
- good tracking auto focus,
- 10fps mechanical shutter burst with at least 20 shot buffer RAW,
- metering and white balance as good as my E-PL6,
- color processing as good as my E-PL6,
- bold focus peaking colors and indicators,
- in camera RAW editing with lots of parameters to edit the image and save it to JPEG,
- and also built in white balance compensation.

Anyway

This camera doesn't exist yet, with the closest one being the GX7. If the GX7 have a better grip with front-located shutter button, a swiveling screen, an Olympus-like color, an Olympus-like white balance accuracy, in camera RAW editing/processing, 5 axis in body stabilizer even during video, a dedicated ISO wheel, and weather sealing, then it will become my perfect camera. I actually won't mind if it's not a Panasonic or Olympus; any brand will do as long as it is still compatible with all my lenses.

This is just a sort of imaginary perfect camera, it doesn't exist.....yet. Nevertheless, I am happy with my current setup of GX7 and E-PL6 and I am sensing that they will be used for quite a long time. That's all for this post, I hope you enjoy this post. Don't forget to follow me at plus.google.com/+GaryWiryawan. Cheers and God bless :)

Update: The newly announced Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II is getting closer to my idea of the perfect camera. We'll see how it turns out.

More Update: The newly announced Panasonic GX8 answers almost all of my requirements, better than the E-M5 Mark II for sure!

My Love of Prime Lenses

Before I start

In case some of you don't know what a prime lens is: Prime lens is a lens with fixed focal length, meaning that you can't zoom with that lens. Usually, a prime lens does have a somewhat large aperture such as f/2.8, f/2, f/1.8 or even f/0.95; prime lens also usually delivers much better image quality result when compared to standard zoom lens due to simpler optical design. Prime lens does perform better in low light because of the large aperture which lets in  more light; it is also capable of blurring the background much more compared to zoom lens.

This was shot with a 50mm f1.8 on Canon APS-C which is 80mm eq full frame.

Back...

...in the Canon days, I used my EF 35mm f2.0 so many times to photograph almost everything, anywhere, no matter how good or bad the light is. It's a lovely lens and it still is until today one of my most respected lens. Coupled with my crop APS-C Canon body, it becomes a 56mm f3.2 equivalent of full frame sensor. It is very close to a regular 50mm but with a slightly wider and slightly more forgiving depth of field while maintaining equivalent exposure of f2.0 on the crop body.

And this was shot with a 35mm f2.0 on Canon APS-C which is close to 50mm eq full frame

I shot only on that lens for 4 months at least before I switched back to zoom but I really learned so many things in just that 4 months thanks to that lens. It teaches me to compose properly without trying to zoom in and out to achieve my composition. If I happen to need wide angle or telephoto lens, I would abandon the shot and just get a different angle or object on that particular scene and focus on it; it is really unforgiving and I missed many of what I thought would be my keeper pictures.

Nevertheless, I am still very thankful that I spent a lot of time with the 35mm f2.0 although I missed some shots. When I move back to zoom lens, I suddenly understand that the relationship between foreground and background changes drastically when you zoom, thus you have to pick how you want your foreground and background relates to each other.

Talking further about zoom lens, a lot of beginners would just zoom out to 18mm and try to get everything in the frame for typical landscape shot but then I learned that a slight zoom in to 40mm would sometimes work better to get that far background to come closer toward our eyes with the already close foreground and thus making a more interesting shot. With the zoom lens however, I can pull back the focal length in tight spaces and zoom in the focal length to get maximum magnification on some scenarios and thus get more keeper shots. However, as time goes, I miss shooting with that 35mm f/2.0 again and I occasionally put that lens back to my 650D and have some fun.

I then also acquired a 22mm f/2.0 which is the kit lens on my EOS M which is a 35mm equivalent on full frame that I also love very much for the versatility as well as the wide angle-ish look that doesn't exaggerate the foreground too much.

My Olympus E-PL6 with fun little prime lenses.

Now... 

...that I am on Micro Four Thirds system, I naturally want to gravitate back toward that 22mm f/2.0 and 35mm f/2.0 feel and vibe on my crop body. Luckily, there are plenty of prime lens choices in the MFT system for so many different focal length and aperture.

This was shot with a 17mm f1.8 on GX7 Micro Four Thirds, which is 35mm eq full frame.

I now have 17mm f/1.8, 17mm f/2.8, 25mm f/1.8, and 45mm f/1.8; they all cover all the necessary focal lengths that I usually need. Those prime lenses, if coupled with my Olympus E-PL6, are very inconspicuous, so they are ideal for keeping the size of the camera down as well as some street photography work. The 17mm lenses are very good for general street photography stuffs, imitating the focal length behaviour of my Canon EF-M 22mm f/2.0 perfectly; the 17mm f/2.8 in particular is perfect to make my camera very close to pocketable. The 25mm lens is perfect for tighter street photography stuffs or as a short range portrait lens. The 45mm lens is superb for portrait and slight compression effect.

My E-PL6 with 25mm f/1.8, a superb camera/lens combination!

Practice your photography with a prime lens!

Now I am suggesting you to have at least one prime lens, in particular the one that can give you a 35mm or 50mm focal length equivalent on full frame; stick to that lens for at least two months and don't change your lens at all, and start to really work hard to get your pictures (the 35mm will be more forgiving than the 50mm in my opinion). You will be surprised by the results and you will start to understand more and more about photography techniques which in time will make you a better photographer. I can now imagine how a scene looked on my 25mm f1.8 or 17mm f1.8 easily so I know whether I can get the shot or not before I turn on the camera. I am still practicing that same skill with my 45mm now, it's quite difficult actually but hopefully I'll get there.

If you don't want to purchase a prime lens and you only have a zoom lens, or if you only have a compact camera with no way to change lens, I suggest you to try the same thing by setting the zoom on your camera to 35mm equivalent or 50mm equivalent and keep it on that zoom for a few months.

Now, let's go outside and shoot some nice pictures! Until next time, cheers and God bless :)

The One Lens to Rule Them All!

If I can only carry one camera and one lens with me (obviously with MFT you can carry 5 lenses and 2 bodies and you will still weight less than 2kg), it will be the Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-140mm f3.5-5.6 on my GX7. It is the ultrazoom lens that can cover everything from moderate wide angle to moderate telephoto.

My beloved GX7 with the Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6. That lens is always on my GX7 70% of the time.

As we all know with ultrazooms, they always lack the sharpness and contrast and often come with very slow aperture. Well this one eliminates the first two problems although it still has some quite slow aperture. I like it and I took so many incredible pictures with it!

Some things that I find very good in this lens are:

1. The image stabilization. Coming from Tamron 18-270mm and 70-300mm VC, the image stabilization in Tamron lenses are top notch! This lens, although doesn't stabilize as good as the Tamrons, is not bad at all; in fact I can zoom all the way to 140mm(280mm full frame) and have a blur free picture at 1/30 of a second!

2. The sharpenss. It is quite sharp at all focal length. At 14mm, stop down to f5.6 and behold a sharp wide angle picture; at 140mm, stop down to f8 and it will be very sharp.

3. Color and contrast. They are quite good in this lens, it doesn't degrade your image too much and is quite good for my needs.

4. The size and build quality. My goodness, coming from Tamron 18-270mm, that lens is gigantic! This lens is barely bigger than my Canon 18-55mm II! It is also has a nice build quality with smooth zoom and focusing ring(albeit MFT focus-by-wire style focus mechanism).

Some things that I don't like about this lens:

1. There's a strong shadow on the foreground when I use the built in GX7 flash together with this lens. It is because the lens is blocking the light path of the flash I suppose.

2. It's expensive! Fortunately, it is justified by the kind of image quality that you are getting from this superzoom lens. A Canon 18-200mm or Nikon 18-200mm won't give you the same sharpness of this lens.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: There have been a lot of people talking about "Shutter Shock" issue of this lens especially when combined with the GX7. Unfortunately, it is true and I also suffer from that thing :( . However, that problem only occurs when you are in the range of approximately 1/20 to 1/200 sec shutter speed in my case which unfortunately also is the range of shutter speed that I use most often during daytime with ISO 200. Try to avoid those shutter speeds or just switch on your Electronic Shutter. With the electronic shutter, it is as sharp as it should be. This shouldn't bother you too much if you don't pixel peep though :)

Here are some pictures that I took with this lens:

This photo of Shanghai's old and new is taken at 14mm. Not bad, eh?

The cliche tree picture with some sun flare! The flare is controlled very well and the chromatic aberration is very minimum.

Trying to capture the Shanghai Tower(2nd tallest building in the world) with 14mm from a close proximity is quite challenging but fun.

Trying to capture three tall skyscrapers together in one shot is even more challenging!

Long range daytime street photography is a breeze with this lens. 

The flexibility of the variable focal length without too much compromise is very handy especially during travel.

I admit I do a little Lightroom post processing, but I swear I didn't crank the contrast slider on this picture!

A very compressed street photo. The 140mm(280mm eq) focal length of this lens is quite far and thus compresses image very well.

Back to wide angle 14mm(28mm eq).

The lens isn't big on the GX7, it stays inconspicuous and thus enabling you to get this kind of shots.

Distortion is negligible, so it is safe to use for architectural shot like this.

It focuses as close as 1ft or 30cm even at 140mm, so you can have a semi macro performance on this lens. Sweet!!

I hope you enjoy this post. Cheers and God bless :)

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