Panasonic Leica DG 42.5mm f/1.2 Nocticron lens

see also:

• a catalogue of Micro Four Thirds lenses
• portrait lenses
• 45mm "portrait" lenses for Micro Four Thirds
• Olympus mZD 45mm f/1.2 PRO lens
• wide aperture 85mm field of view portrait lenses

• premium quality portrait lens
• specs officially announced Jan 2014, available March 2014
• a bit heavier and much more expensive than the superb Olympus m.ZD 75mm f/1.8 lens
• it has the widest f ratio of any AF lens designed for Micro Four Thirds system
• inevitably it will be compared with:
  • Fuji XF 56mm f/1.2 R:
    • slightly shallower depth of field (DOF) as eq. to 85mm f/1.8 lens on full frame but no image stabiliser
    • close focus is 0.7m
    • bayonet style hood
    • surprisingly, the Fuji is a touch smaller and lighter - perhaps it will have more vignetting:
      • filter 62mm
      • 405g, 73mm diam x 70mm long
    • $US999

• 42.5mm f/1.2 = 85mm f/2.4 lens on a full frame camera in terms of fov and depth of field (DOF)
• 14 elements in 11 groups including one ED lens, one UHR lens, two aspherical lens
• lens manufacture uses a novel method to remove onion bokeh which has been a problem with modern aspherical lenses - see http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2014/05/02/the-end-of-onion-ring-bokeh-panasonic-beats-the-curse-of-aspheric-lenses
• aperture ring (only functions on Panasonic cameras not Olympus cameras)
• silent screw integrated stepping AF motor
• internal focus
• nano coating to reduce ghost and flare
• POWER OIS
• metal barrel
• 9 circular blades
• close focus 0.5m giving 1:10 macro covering an area of 173 X 130 mm = 6.8 X 5.1 inches
• 67mm filter
• 74mm diam x 77mm long
• 425g
• includes thumb-screw style hood
• £1,399, $US1599

• ePhotozine preview
• cameras.reviewed.com preview
  • bokeh appears buttery smooth although wide open, OOF highlights become ovoid near the periphery as with most fast lenses
• camera labs image samples
• LensTip review
  • centre and corners reasonably sharp wide open and by f/2 it is matching the Olympus m.ZD 75mm f/1.8 lens - as centre becomes much sharper at f/2 and extremely sharp at f/2.8-4, corners sharpest at f/4
  • some longitudinal CA but flare, ghosting, distortion, lateral CA, spherical aberration, coma and astigmatism are well controlled - should be a very nice lens for wide field astrophotography to give nice star images across the frame
  • fairly severe vignetting wide open which is also evidenced by the oval shaped out-of-focus highlights in the corners but this resolves as lens is stopped down to f/2.5.
  • very accurate AF
• SLRGear review
  • “a phenomenal lens; one of the best we've ever tested”
• Admiring Light review comparison with Fuji 56mm f/1.2
  • Wide open, the Panasonic Leica has notably higher contrast straight out of camera. It really has remarkable contrast for an f/1.2 lens.
  • The Fuji exhibits some spherical aberration wide open, which may show as a glow with high contrast subjects such as white text on a black background. The Panasonic Leica exhibits extremely minimal spherical aberration.
• Admiring Light review
• DxOMark lens test