panasonic lens

[AvaV]

Panasonic Lumix G X Vario PZ 45-175mm/F4.0-5.6 Lens

I bought this lens recently, and my first attempt to use it was a little disappointing. Does anyone have this lens? I am not certain if there is a way to get updates for the lens if I do not have a panasonic camera. I am not certain if there is something specific that I need to know. The images don't seem to be sharp like my Olympus lens that came with the camera....

[Melaka]

Re: panasonic lens

The latest update appears to be 1.1. You can update Panasonic lenses on an Olympus body.

[StephenL]

Re: panasonic lens

Don't forget to switch off either the in-lens stabilisation or the in-body stabilisation. You shouldn't have both on at the same time.

[Ian]

Re: panasonic lens

What do you find disappointing with this lens?

Do you have any examples?

Ian

[CJJE]

Re: panasonic lens

I have the older 45-200 mm version of this lens, and I would class both lenses as useful consumer quality lenses. They suffer from a relatively slow aperture - particularly at the longer focal lengths - but their optical quality is quite good. I tend to use my Panasonic 30-100 mm f2.8 or 100-200 mm lenses now instead.

As has been said, the joint Olympus/Panasonic update service lets you update the lens' firmware on an Olympus body.

[AvaV]

Re: panasonic lens

Thank you. I just updated it and will see if there is an improvement. The focus was not sharp the first time I tried it out, at least not what I expected from it. I took the same pictures with that lens and the 12-50 that came with the camera, and the 12-50 worked great....the 45-175 was off on the focus.

I don't see a way to turn off the stabilization in the lens. I thought it just would not work on an Olympus camera. How would you turn it off?

[Zuiko]

Re: panasonic lens

Thank you. I just updated it and will see if there is an improvement. The focus was not sharp the first time I tried it out, at least not what I expected from it. I took the same pictures with that lens and the 12-50 that came with the camera, and the 12-50 worked great....the 45-175 was off on the focus.

I don't see a way to turn off the stabilization in the lens. I thought it just would not work on an Olympus camera. How would you turn it off?

Some Panasonic lenses, like yours, do not have an on/off switch for the OIS, it is engaged or disengaged via the (Panasonic) camera bodies. It defaults to "off" on Olympus bodies, so this is not a problem for you.

[AvaV]

Re: panasonic lens

Thank you. As soon as I get a chance I will test this lens out again. Lately, where I live, it has been grey, cloudy....not the greatest intensive to get out with my camera!

[Ian]

Re: panasonic lens

I have the older 45-200 mm version of this lens, and I would class both lenses as useful consumer quality lenses. They suffer from a relatively slow aperture - particularly at the longer focal lengths - but their optical quality is quite good. I tend to use my Panasonic 30-100 mm f2.8 or 100-200 mm lenses now instead.

As has been said, the joint Olympus/Panasonic update service lets you update the lens' firmware on an Olympus body.

The 45-175 is an X-series lens (a bit like Canon's L-series) so it should be superior quality to the 45-200.

Ian

[Ian]

Re: panasonic lens

Thank you. I just updated it and will see if there is an improvement. The focus was not sharp the first time I tried it out, at least not what I expected from it. I took the same pictures with that lens and the 12-50 that came with the camera, and the 12-50 worked great....the 45-175 was off on the focus.

I don't see a way to turn off the stabilization in the lens. I thought it just would not work on an Olympus camera. How would you turn it off?

Another topic for the FTU Wiki! My understanding is that in-body IS on Olympus cameras overrides in-lens OIS, but I feel like checking this assumption myself!

Ian

[CJJE]

Re: panasonic lens

The 45-175 is an X-series lens (a bit like Canon's L-series) so it should be superior quality to the 45-200.

Ian

Very true!! I'd missed that part of the lens description! There's a review here http://www.camerastuffreview.com/pan...onic-45-175-mm which suggests its a bit better than I'd assumed too... Mind you I have the 14-42mm X series power zoom and still feel that its small aperture limits its use a bit.

[Ian]

Re: panasonic lens

Very true!! I'd missed that part of the lens description! There's a review here http://www.camerastuffreview.com/pan...onic-45-175-mm which suggests its a bit better than I'd assumed too... Mind you I have the 14-42mm X series power zoom and still feel that its small aperture limits its use a bit.

Indeed - I think X-series means the lens has something particularly unusual about it and the power zoom/collapsing size feature of the 14-42 probably does list higher than image quality in this case.

Ian

[CJJE]

Re: panasonic lens

Another topic for the FTU Wiki! My understanding is that in-body IS on Olympus cameras overrides in-lens OIS, but I feel like checking this assumption myself!

Ian

I've found the manual for this lens here: http://tda.panasonic-europe-service....48/vqt3r90.pdf

and see that it specifically says that "When using this lens with another make of digital cameras, the Optical Image Stabilizer function will not work. (As of August 2011). For details, contact the respective company." So it would seem that there is no need to worry about the Panasonic OIS fighting the Olympus OIS with this lens!

What's more, a check in the manual for my Lumix G X VARIO PZ 14-42mm / F3.5-5.6 lens shows it responds in exactly the same way (I hadn't realised this before!) so I can consider mounting this lens on my OM-D in future.

Thanks for pointing this out!

[Melaka]

Re: panasonic lens

I've only had my EM5 for three months so my experience of MFT is limited. I have the 12-50 and three Panasonic lenses all of which I find ergonomically more to my liking. They also have a decent lens hood!

As you will have seen from the holiday snaps series the 100-300 can produce stunning results although there were many more OOF than I would have liked/expected. The 45-200 gives very variable exposure with shots, especially the first in a series, frequently being overexposed. I'm beginning to think this may be a lens defect and that it may have to go for repair. The 14-45 has so far not had much use but I'm happy with it.

Most Panasonic lenses (I also have the excellent Pana/Leica FT 14-150) have an OIS switch on the barrel and I hadn't realised it was automatically disabled when on an Olympus camera.

[StephenL]

Re: panasonic lens

My understanding of using stabilised Panasonic lenses on Olympus bodies is that, if the lens has a switch, then you should switch off the len OIS and switch on the body OIS. If it doesn't have a switch, the the lens OIS is only switched on by a function in a Panasonic body, otherwise it is off.