Panasonic 20mm 1.7 or Lumix 14-45

[Dafilman21]

I am new to M4/3rds and the lenses, is the 20mm pancake far superior than the Lumix 14-45 optically? I know the pancake is faster but I wouldn't mind getting a native zoom.

 

[wwjd]

I don't know those lenses, but this might be interesting for ya

http://www.dxomark.com/Lenses/Ratings

see if you can find them, then do the COMPARE or look at the numbers.

 

[Dafilman21]

I am familiar with dxomark, does anyone have any real world experience with these lenses?

 

[stoneinapond]

...does anyone have any real world experience with these lenses?

The 20 mm is sharper and faster. The 14-45 is softer but nice, slower, but more versatile because of the various focal lengths. Manual focusing with 14-45 is also a much nicer experience.

Although used with an anamorphic adapter you can see both lenses side by side here with the 14-45 set to about the same focal length (forgot to credit the 20 mm).



The 20 mm can be seen at

0.41 to 0.54
1.43 to 1.48
2.11 to 2.20

Also the 14-45 is stabilized although the 20mm doesn't need it that much.

I also have several travel videos taken with 14-45mm.

 

[Dafilman21]

Awesome thanks.

 

[Bruce Foreman]

I am new to M4/3rds and the lenses, is the 20mm pancake far superior than the Lumix 14-45 optically? I know the pancake is faster but I wouldn't mind getting a native zoom.

I advise both. The 14-45 is better than the 14-42 in that it has a more metal build and the zoom action doesn't suffer from the "sticking" you can get with the plastic build. Both do perform fairly well with some saying the 14-45 is a slightly better optical performer. I have and use a 14-45 when I don't want to carry several lenses, it is a pretty good "workhorse" wide angle to "portrait perspective" telephoto lens and can cover a wide variety of situations.

The 20 is a bit sharper, has what I call a "wide" normal FOV and can be quite useful as a single lens. It really comes into it's own with interior and low light working conditions. I have both and use them, I even kept the 20 when I got the 25mm Pan/Leica DG Summilux f1.4.

 

[yslee]

The 20/1.7 is far better optically but it uses a terrible AF motor so it's slow and not quiet. It also cannot be used in C-AF mode.

 

[GrahamH]

I have both and the 14-45mm gets far more use - I only swop to the 20mm in low light, not for extra sharpness.

I don't find my 20mm to be "far better" in sharpness - I would say it's "slightly" better. The 14-45mm is certainly not "soft".

 

[Dafilman21]

Thanks guys, I think I will give the 14-45 a shot.

 

[srscpa]

Be sure to upgrade the firmware when you get the lens.

 

[Lammy]

The 20mm 1.7 version 2 is my favourite overall lens. Just looks better for general day to day portraiture stuff and requires me to move to the right places.

I feel the kit zoom is not cool for my needs because even though it's more versatile, my psychology and own ethic becomes lazier in my photography.

 

[CustomerGH4]

The 20mm 1.7 version 2 is my favourite overall lens. Just looks better for general day to day portraiture stuff and requires me to move to the right places.

I feel the kit zoom is not cool for my needs because even though it's more versatile, my psychology and own ethic becomes lazier in my photography.

I actually got as a first lens the 20mm 1,7 second version instead of the 12-35mm. So far picture is good, but AF is slow, but yeah , think Im gonna stick to primes instead of zooms for the pic quality alone.