Panasonic 100 skärm
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The Panasonic Lumix mm hugely impresses with its compactness for a full-frame macro lens, contrasting starkly with larger competitors. Complementing Panasonic's other prime lenses, its size consistency aids in balancing cameras for video work. The sharpness is great across the frame, with great quality images. Why you can trust Digital Camera World Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.
Find out how we test. Editors note: this lens review was first published Jan 8 , however after publication, Panasonic informed us the lens used for testing had been damaged in transit affecting its performance. Accidents happen, and we have now retested a new copy of the lens and updated this review accordingly. Panasonic cameras are going from strength to strength, and in — were the fastest-growing full-frame camera brand.
But what is a camera system without good first-party lenses? Panasonic has achieved this size reduction with a newly developed Dual Phase Linear Motor the motor used for focusing , which Panasonic claims offers the same performance at a fraction of the size.
Panasonic Lumix S 100mm f/2.8 Macro review: an incredibly compact lens for close-ups
Eagled-eyed readers will spot fewer elements than rivals and no O. S as factors that have also most likely contributed to a much smaller body. But has this size reduction also reduced performance? Let's find out. All the lenses mentioned here are direct equivalents, although rivals do fit in optical image stabilization as well as more glass elements in varying combinations , more switches, and buttons, and the Canon lens also packs a 1.
So you do get what you pay for with the more expensive rivals. At only 82mm in length and g in weight, there really is no comparison to the equivalent Canon mm, Nikon mm, or Sony 90mm — with each of those lenses being g, g, and g heavier respectively, and 66mm, 58mm, and Weight is also kept remarkably consistent, with the Lumix S prime lineup from the 18mm all the way to the mm lenses only differing in weight by 60g between the lightest 35mm at g and the heaviest 85mm at g.
With Panasonic being the hybrid video camera brand to beat right now, it is fantastic to see video-first design running through everything Panasonic puts out, and now seeing its design foresight come to pass like this gives me so much confidence in Lumix going forward. Panasonic lenses are generally very nice, although I do not find them as premium looking or feeling as other brands. The lens is made out of solid plastic and features a rubberized manual focus ring that is easy to find and grip without taking your eye from the viewfinder.
The lens is weather-sealed and freeze-resistant, so can brave the elements when shooting outdoors, although should be expected on a lens at this price. The focus ring offers a good amount of resistance to not be overly sensitive, essential in precise macro focusing. There is a noticeable lack of switches and buttons on the lens, although with no O.
But with other brands adding more custom function buttons to their lenses, it is a shame not to see at least one here. Image quality is very good across the frame, especially as you go up through the aperture.
Panasonic Lumix S 100mm f/2.8 Macro Review
Focusing was nice and snappy when used at a distance, with the new Dual-Phase Linear Motor being near silent in operation, the Lumix S mm combined with the Lumix S5 IIX body had no issue locking on and tracking subjects across the frame during stills shooting and also in video. Autofocus was also very accurate, very few of my shots I had to discard due to missed autofocus.
Panasonic has claimed the new lens motor is faster than its previous incarnation — although I didn't notice any dramatic difference in speed driving focus from near to far than with other Panasonic lenses — although this might just be a testament to Panasonic's other lenses. However, there were occasional struggles when it came to close focusing, with the lens sometimes hunting for focus when used close up to a subject before eventually locking on.
This was occasional but unfortunately happened more frequently than I found ideal, although I am not sure how much responsibility to share between the camera and the lens — and this is something that could be improved with firmware down the line.
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Image stabilization is also hugely effective in video, and Panasonic's S5 IIX already provides the most gimbal-like image stabilization system I have used yet, with remarkably less jello-like effects than other brands' cameras. This gets more challenging the longer the focal length, but the mm lens performs very well in static handheld shots, and slow pans, although is susceptible to showing up movement more vigorous than that — although nothing unusual there.
All shots are JPEG photos directly from the camera with only minimal editing to correct exposure. We run a range of lab tests under controlled conditions, using the Imatest Master testing suite. Photos of test charts are taken across the range of apertures and zooms where available , then analyzed for sharpness, distortion and chromatic aberrations. We use Imatest SFR spatial frequency response charts and analysis software to plot lens resolution at the center of the image frame, corners and mid-point distances, across the range of aperture settings and, with zoom lenses, at four different focal lengths.