Initial experience of Pany 20/1.7

<p>For me, Panasonic's new 20/1.7 lens was the first photographic equipment ever in 27 years of my life as hobby photographer that I bought on the day it was released (just four days ago), which alone should explain enough how eagerly I had been waiting for this little giant!</p>

<p>So, here I would like to share my initial experience with the lens. All images are taken with the lens wide open (at f1.7) and with Kenko skylight filter for protection. The Kenko filter is multi-coated, but not designated "for digital" or anything like that. The smallest filter intended for digital available at this moment is 49mm, so I had to use the conventional MC filter. Even so, I would have to say that the lens performed just admirably.</p>

<p>The first image shows fairly smooth bokeh (sorry for my reuse of the image posted just yesterday).</p><div></div>

<p>The next image is a landscape at dusk.</p><div></div>

<p>Here's a 100% crop from the center of the image above (not resized and just converted to JPEG).</p><div></div>

<p>And this is also 100% crop from the same image above, but from the area right above and close to the edge.</p><div></div>

<p>I would say that the resolution is quite good. Remember that the image was shot wide open.</p>

<p>And now, this is a sort of "torture test". You should clearly see ghosts from the street light in the center of the image, but it may have been caused by the filter. On the other hand, flare seems to be well under control.</p><div></div>

<p>And finally, this is another torture test. The street light is right next to the left above edge of the frame. Again, the flare is well under control and the lens managed to render a quite contrasty image.</p>

<p>Ao far as these test shots are concerned, I would say that the lens is quite promising. :)</p>

<p>Oh, FWIW, the camera was Panasonic G1 and ISO was set to 100. And please forgive me for some grammatical errors that are no more able to be corrected.</p><div></div>

<p>Excellent pictures. It looks promising. Congratulation with your new equipment. I do consider the same equipment as you but are concerned about the lens' ability to take portraits with a nice blurred background ("nice bokeh") due to the smaller sensor.<br>

If possible - could you also make a test of the lens at f/1.7 (full open) to show the bokeh with these distances:<br>

Object (focus): 1.0 meter - Background: 2 meter<br>

Object (focus): 1.5 meter - Background: 3 meter<br>

I think that should indicate how well the lens can make a "nice bokeh" when used for portraits.<br>

Thanks for your help.<br>

/Henrik</p>

<p>question, why would you use a 20mm lens for a portrait 1 meter away? (and then worry about "nice bokeh")</p>

<p><em>question, why would you use a 20mm lens for a portrait 1 meter away? (and then worry about "nice bokeh")</em><br>

Why not? I've used the 40mm nokton on 35mm film for portaits and liked it, so why not 20mm on µ4/3?<br>

Akira, thanks for the sample shots. Looks a great lens.</p>

<p>A 40 mm lens is not what is traditonally considered a portrait lens. We can debate until the cows come home about shooting environmental portraits...however most model subjects do not care to have their noses prominent or noses sharp and ears out of focus at F 1.7. Akira knows this lens is a low light/ available darkness lens. Designed to perform well wide open, where most lenses perform best a stop or two down from max aperture. It presumably focuses very fast too...</p>

<p>As for bokeh,forgive my- err- heresy. I still don't really get the importance. The out of focus highlights in the background (will they be nice and soft (creamy some say) or show the effects of a less than round aperture blade array...<strong> gomenassai to all true bokeh fans / Don't send the dogs after me. </strong> <br /> <strong>T</strong> hank you Akira for the torture test on this hot new product. Panasonic engineering is likely to capture a goodly chunk of the market in new adopters of SLR system. A hot company right out of the gate in SLRs. Olympus will be challenged to meet that friendly competition in its consortium as far as micro 4/3 optics...as well as bodies.. I have two HG and one SG Olympus lenses. All fine for me in 4/3 size. 50mm F 2 takes an EC-14 for some portrait stuff. I like it. Versatile. Light. Fast.</p>

<p>Q:What was the Yen price, if I may ask? (I may one day soon consider a G-1 body, a blue one:-).) Aloha nui, gs</p>

<p>Looks good. Thanks for sharing. Can't wait til Amazon start shipping :-)</p>

<p>Akira-san</p>

<p>nice test images, thank you for posting them.</p>

<p>^-^</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Thank you gentlemen, for showing your interests. :) Now, on request of Henrik and for my own interest, I have performed a "bokeh" test. Here's the take one.</p><div></div>

<p>The group of focused leaves in the center are approx. 1m away from me and the group behind it is approx. 2m away. Now, this is the 100% crop of the central area.</p><div></div>

<p>Then, this is the take two. The twigs a little below the center are approx. 1.5m away and the twigs with white flowers, approx. 3m away.</p><div></div>

<p>And this is the 100% crop from the central area.</p><div></div>

<p>Needless to say, all images are taken with the 20/1.7 lens wide open and all images posted in this thread were processed from RAW files using PSE 7.0 with Camera RAW 5.5, and no sharpening was applied.</p>

<p>I would say that the bokeh in both cases is pretty smooth, but you might not be able to expect too much amount of bokeh. Actually the spyder lily in the first image was just 30-40cm away and the houses in the background, at least 50m away. So, you would see how it is difficult to get too much bokeh from this lens.</p>

<p>By the way, there is a correction in the initial test above: both torture test images were taken with my G1 set to ISO "400", not "100".</p>

<p>As to Gerry's question, according to the most famous price comparison website, the lowest offered price for Pany 20/1.7 is 37,542 JPY. I bought mine at Yodobashi, one of the largest retailer chain that offered one for 42,000 JPY. Why? Well, the it offers 10% of the price as "service point" which can be used as money when you buy something at one of the chain. I already had 5,000+ point and I got 10% of the rest of money I paid, so virtually it was about 4,000 JPY cheaper than the lowest offered price. Good deal, wasn't it? :)</p>

<p>Akira, Thanks for your post! :)</p>

<p>Personally, I think the price is ridiculous. Considering CDAF and how these lenses operate (slow for my applications), I won't be buying one (not for these prices). When G1 debuted, it was a fun system. For reasons unknown, everything about m4/3rds appear priced way too high. Even eBay adapters are selling for >$100/each (for Pentax-110 lenses!!).</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Oh, as for the focusing speed, I would say the G1-20/1.7 combo is "reasonably" fast, which means, it is not as fast as G1/kit lens combo, but I can accept the fact because fast lens requires more careful and conservative focusing. I have tried Nikon D700-50/1.4G combo and D300-35/1.8G combo. Although I didn't test side by side, the focusing speed of both combos didn't seem faster than G1-20/1.7 combo: they needed to focus carefully and conservatively, too.</p>

<p>Vivek, you posted while I was working on my previous post. The price of 20/1.7 in Japan is only 2,000 JPY more than that of Oly 17/2.8 which doesn't relly attract me. And it is somewhere inbetween the prices of Nikon AF-s 35/1.8G and 50/1.4G. So I would say the price is quite fair. And the most important thing is that 20/1.7 is the most attractive for me amoung these four. Also, now that I bought this 20/1.7, I won't need to look for fast C-mount lenses in similar range or Oly Pen F lenses, sorry to say. :)</p>

<p>Akira, The difference ( say a Nikon APS-C ) is size. m4/3rds sensor is still half the size of an APS-C sensor.</p>

<p>Already ISO400 is a big stretch for the m4/3rds.</p>

<p>Yeah, nothing beats lenses with real aperture and focus rings. Not to mention a non plastic construction.</p>

<p>Oly-D 17/2.8 is, well, let us just say that it ain't a real Pen lens. ;)</p>

<p>Notwithstanding what my requirements/choices are what is important is if something is suitable for you and fascinates you. The 20/1.7 appears to appeal to you. Glad to hear that. :)</p>

<p>BTW, Pana sells this with a proper hood, do they not (unlike Oly-D 17/2.8)? I can't find a picture of this lens with its hood anywhere.</p>

<p>for a 20mm it seems quite flat, compared to the nikkor 20mmf2.8 that I use, which shows more field curvature. would you agree? </p>

<p>while it is true 4/3rds is smaller than APS its not quite that much.</p>

<p>second attempt at image</p><div></div>

<p>Whatever the size difference may be, ISO400 is tops for m4/3rds, IME.</p>

<p>I do not hesitate about higher ISOs even with a D40x (old tech CCD and all), for example. </p>

<p>I think Pentax has great potential to bring out a m4/3rds style, mirrorless, APS-C sensored cam.</p>

<p>The Pentax Kx (generic AA batteries, no need to buy only one over priced battery like the Pana one), I am going to take look at its high ISO performance. It can take old M42/K mount lenses. </p>

<p>The color choice is splendid as well. :-)</p>