Panasonic Lumix G80 + 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH O.I.S. (DMC-G80HEG-K) Digitalni fotoaparat s objektivom Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera

ZNAČAJKE:

The Panasonic 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH POWER OIS LUMIX G VARIO is an update to Panasonic's previous compact long-zoom Micro Four Thirds lens, the 14-140mm f/4.0-5.8 ASPH MEGA O.I.S. LUMIX G VARIO HD. This new lightweight compact zoom lens provides a 35mm equivalent field of view of 28-280mm, making it a very versatile single-lens option for Panasonic, as well as Olympus users. This lens is squarely aimed at users looking for a lightweight, compact do-it-all lens for general walk-around use and who don't want to carry lots of additional lenses. The built-in optical image stabilization system makes up for not-so-fast apertures, and helps with low-light situations as well as with video.

The new model has been updated with a stepper motor, redesigned optical formula including 3 aspherical elements and 2 ED lenses, and has Power O.I.S. over the previous model's Mega O.I.S. optical stabilization system that Panasonic claims is twice as effective at steadying large, slow movements. It also features a faster maximum aperture with f/3.5 at the wide end over f/4 in the older model, and f/5.6 over f/5.8 at the long end. Other improvements on the physical side of things include an overall smaller size (with a smaller filter size, as well) and a lighter weight.

Sadly, it's not all good news with this lens, as we ran into a very odd, and repeatable, issue with this lens relating to motion blur caused by the shutter actuation at certain shutter speeds. Despite testing the lens with IS turned off and on a ~250 lb. studio tripod, we observed noticeable motion blurring at slower shutter speeds at the longer focal lengths. See our in-depth explanation further down.

The Panasonic 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH POWER OIS LUMIX G VARIO is currently available for a price of around $699 and ships with a lens hood, front and rear lens caps and a soft pouch.

Sharpness
When not shooting at vibration-inducing shutter speeds, the new Panasonic 14-140mm lens produces very sharp images. While the new models improves on corner sharpness, the centers did look a bit sharper in the older model, however. It's not a drastic difference, and the new lens is still quite sharp through the entire zoom range, with some softness wide open at the longer focal lengths. At very small apertures like f/16-f/22, we saw a little diffraction-limiting softness come into play, but it's very well controlled. Even stopped down to f/11, throughout the zoom range, it displayed really sharp images.

Chromatic Aberration
This new Panasonic lens actually shows a bit more chromatic aberration compared to its predecessor, although it's only a minor difference, and overall CA is very well-controlled. The amount of CA varies up and down throughout the zoom range, and the new model seems to show the same varied behavior that we saw with the older one. At 14mm and 140mm, we saw a larger difference in average CA (CA visible throughout in the image) and the maximum CA, seen in the corners. At most focal lengths, CA increases slightly as you stop down. Interestingly, at 69-70mm, we saw very low CA, both average and maximum values throughout all apertures.

Shading (''Vignetting'')
With the older version of this lens, we were unable to test vignetting using our software due to a camera issue. We subsequently upgraded our Micro Four Thirds test camera to a Panasonic GX1, and we are able to test vignetting properly with this new camera. Overall, vignetting on this lens is not very severe and fairly average for a long-ratio zoom lens, with the wider focal lengths showing more vignetting when shot wide open. At 14mm, we saw just a little under 0.75 EV of light falloff in the corners at f/3.5, which then quickly dropped to below 0.25 EV once we stopped down to f/8 and beyond.

At focal lengths wider than 97mm, it displayed around 0.25 EV of light loss wide open, and subsequently dropped well below 0.25 EV (think 0.125 EV and less -- barely noticeable) around f/8. At the longer focal lengths of 97mm-140mm, wide open at f/5.6, we saw a little more vignetting in the corners -- around 0.5 EV of light falloff. Vignetting decreased to around 0.25 EV at f/8, but then dropped to near-zero at f/16-f/22.

Distortion
Though not as consistent as the older model, the new Panasonic 14-140mm shows very little distortion. At 14mm, there's a very slight amount of barrel distortion on average (around 0.25%), which is quickly eliminated by zooming to 19mm, where the average distortion is almost zero. The average barrel distortion rises ever so slightly when zooming out to 46-97mm, and then drops off just a bit when hitting 140mm. By comparison, the older model showed a similar amount of barrel distortion between 14-18mm, but then all distortion was completely gone between 18-140mm.

Autofocus Operation
The electronic autofocusing system on this Panasonic 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6 lens is very fast, taking well under one second to autofocus from minimum to infinity focus. The lens is an internal-focusing lens, and the front element of the lens does not extend, nor does it rotate, during focusing.

The high-speed stepper motor autofocusing system allows for focusing to be smoother and nearly silent, which is great not only for stills but for video recording as well. The lens' focusing system is also specially designed to take advantage of Panasonic's high-speed contrast AF system, as found in the GH3 and G6 cameras. Panasonic states that the lens is able to adjust focus up to 240 times per seconds for quicker, smoother focusing.

Manual focusing is also available via a focus-by-wire focusing ring. There's no manual focus switch or focus ring clutch to engage manual focusing -- it's all controlled by the camera body. Even with AF enabled, you still have manual focus override by half-pressing and holding the shutter button and then rotating the focus ring to adjust focus manually.

Macro
Macro performance with lens is quite good (the same that we saw with the previous model), with a maximum 0.4x magnification rating (1:2.5 ratio). The minimum close-focusing distance is 50 cm (a little over a foot and a half).

Build Quality and Handling
This is a very well-built lens that feels quite solid, with a smooth, sturdy telescopic zooming front element. The outside lens barrel feels to be constructed out of metal, though Panasonic doesn't explicitly mention this, and has a shiny black finish. The lens mount is also constructed of metal. The barrel and front element telescope outwards as you zoom to the longer focal lengths, and this interior barrel is constructed of tough, polycarbonate plastic.

In terms of optical construction, this lens has a new optical layout with 14 elements in 12 groups, including 3 aspherical and 2 ED elements. It does however keep a 7-bladed circular aperture that was seen in the older model.

The zoom and focus rings are sandwiched next to each other and are both covered in raised plastic ribs for a nice textured grip. The zoom ring is about 5/8 of an inch wide and is very smooth to rotate with just enough resistance to prevent lens creep and keep the lens zoomed to where you want it. The focus ring is further out from the camera and is about 1/4 of an inch wide. The focus is also very smooth to rotate and easily adjustable with a single finger, whereas you'd need two fingers to rotate the zoom ring. Being an electronically-controlled focusing system, there are no stops to the rotation and the ring will rotate forever.

The lens is otherwise pretty sparse in terms of exterior features. There's a single switch for enabling or disabling the Power O.I.S. image stabilization system. The zoom ring has a series of labeled focal lengths of 14, 18, 25, 35, 50, 70, 100 and 140mm. There is no focus distance window, however. (Depending on the model of camera used, you are shown an approximate distance scale and/or magnified view in the rear LCD or EVF to help with critical focus while manually focusing.)

The included petal-shaped lens hood mounts bayonet-style with a nice, soft-yet-firm click, and the hood extends along with the telescoping barrel. Panasonic has reduced the diameter of this new lens, and it now takes 58mm filters, which attach via plastic filter threads.

UKLJUČUJE:

Panasonic Lumix G80 + 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH O.I.S. (DMC-G80HEG-K) Digitalni fotoaparat s objektivom Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera