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Panasonic S lenses take the two top spots in Petapixel's worst lens of the year

Here ya go. Full resolution. Pixel peep to your hearts content, I'm actually overseas on holiday at the minute, I've just done a real quick and dirty raw to jpeg conversion on a portable monitor, so ignore any weird looking colour/WB.

 
Lsake said:
I’d heard that when you are focusing it doesn’t bring up the on screen digital focus scale that you get with other native L lenses. This is really useful when the lens doesn’t have a scale printed on it.
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And there we have it. You haven't even touched one, or taken a photo with one, yet feel totally qualified to tell us what we should or should not be able to purchase with our own money.
 
xaviergut said:
I don't know if you are refering to focus peaking or 20x magnification, but you get both with the 26mm.

Like Markus says, this Lens is a "fun" Lens, and since I started using it I am having fun with other manual lenses, like the Voigtlander 40 mm f2 or with af lenses like the 50mm f1.4 pro and its focus clutch.

View attachment 8230
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That says it all, I understand it and you might even get your best one with it. I don't understand criticism, it'd drama... The 26mm does what it does, a best photo competition would show the photographer and not the equipment. I reckon it'll be a cult in 2050 :p
 
Here ya go. One more, full res. Yeah, I know, the lens is not weathersealed, and f8 is not optimum for deep DOF landscape shooting, but I quickly shot this wandering back to the house in the rain. Pixel peep to your hearts content :)
 
I don’t have any experience with the 26mm f8, but I can see from @Markuswelder ’s pics that it’s definitely sharp. TBH, that’s unsurprising - a 26mm f8 prime should be sharp.

My complaint about it is the price and comparing it to other FF pancakes. For the £220 Panasonic are asking, I can also buy a Nikon Z 28mm f2.8. Not only is it 3 stops faster, but it’s AF and has a proper focussing ring and a filter thread. And if I want something longer, I can get a 40mm version too. Both are small and light pancakes, only marginally bigger than the LUMIX lens.

But add onto all that the fact that Panasonic brought us the 14mm f2.5 and 20mm f1.7 pancakes for m43 and both are great lenses. Why such a shitty offering for FF? And why launch the PDAF-equipped S9 with an MF lens?

These are the reasons why it deserves to be criticised. Can it produce great images? For sure. Is it a useful tool in the right hands? Yes, of course. Is it a lens to congratulate Panasonic for making; for bringing something innovative and attractive to the market? Is it worth £220 compared to its rivals in other systems? Absolutely not. That’s why Jordan and Chris put it top of their “worst lens” ratings. Not because it isn’t sharp!

If I had an S9, I could be persuaded to buy the 26/8, but I wouldn’t pay more than £50 for it. At that price, I think we could just call it a body-cap lens and be done.
 
pdk42 said:
I don’t have any experience with the 26mm f8, but I can see from @Markuswelder ’s pics that it’s definitely sharp. TBH, that’s unsurprising - a 26mm f8 prime should be sharp.

My complaint about it is the price and comparing it to other FF pancakes. For the £220 Panasonic are asking, I can also buy a Nikon Z 28mm f2.8. Not only is it 3 stops faster, but it’s AF and has a proper focussing ring and a filter thread. And if I want something longer, I can get a 40mm version too. Both are small and light pancakes, only marginally bigger than the LUMIX lens.

But add onto all that the fact that Panasonic brought us the 14mm f2.5 and 20mm f1.7 pancakes for m43 and both are great lenses. Why such a shitty offering for FF? And why launch the PDAF-equipped S9 with an MF lens?

These are the reasons why it deserves to be criticised. Can it produce great images? For sure. Is it a useful tool in the right hands? Yes, of course. Is it a lens to congratulate Panasonic for making; for bringing something innovative and attractive to the market? Is it worth £220 compared to its rivals in other systems? Absolutely not. That’s why Jordan and Chris put it top of their “worst lens” ratings. Not because it isn’t sharp!

If I had an S9, I could be persuaded to buy the 26/8, but I wouldn’t pay more than £50 for it. At that price, I think we could just call it a body-cap lens and be done.
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Yeah, I get that. I've got no issue with that. Except I think it would cost Panasonic a bit more than £50 to produce.
But there's a very big difference between not liking it (which I have zero issues with) and calling for it to be banished from history, and not available for purchase. A very big difference.
Apparently, it's actually an f4 aperture lens, with an f8 aperture disc stick over it. What would have been cool, is if Panasonic had made a switch/lever to switch between the two apertures. I'm not fussed in the least about manual focus myself, I actually really enjoy it. On that style of lens.
I'll say it again, I've got no issue with people hating the lens. But keep it in perspective a bit, no one is forcing anyone to buy it, Panasonic are not hiding anything in the design or features, it's all spelled out plainly and clearly, it's not hurting anyone by simply existing.
 
pdk42 said:
My complaint about it is the price and comparing it to other FF pancakes. For the £220 Panasonic are asking, I can also buy a Nikon Z 28mm f2.8. Not only is it 3 stops faster, but it’s AF and has a proper focussing ring and a filter thread. And if I want something longer, I can get a 40mm version too. Both are small and light pancakes, only marginally bigger than the LUMIX lens.
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Not going to argue with any of that. But, I honestly do think that Panasonic did not have that in mind when they brought out this lens.
I also have the Canon 40mm f2.8. Yes, it has variable aperture. Yes, it has autofocus. Yes, it's small and light. It also has excellent image quality. But what it doesn't have, is that fun factor the little 26mm does. For me. I'm not fussed about two or three extra stops of light. That's not what I pick it up, and go shoot with it for. It's the "deficiencies" and what's lacking, that make it enjoyable. It makes you work to achieve a result, that's not just your run of the mill snapshot. Sure, you can just shoot it like an oversized phone, it has about the same field of view and DOF as your typical phone camera, but the fun of in getting something more out of it. Without resorting to take blur etc etc. Well, that's just how I see it anyway.
 
pdk42 said:
My complaint about it is the price and comparing it to other FF pancakes. For the £220 Panasonic are asking, I can also buy a Nikon Z 28mm f2.8. Not only is it 3 stops faster, but it’s AF and has a proper focussing ring and a filter thread. And if I want something longer, I can get a 40mm version too. Both are small and light pancakes, only marginally bigger than the LUMIX lens.

But add onto all that the fact that Panasonic brought us the 14mm f2.5 and 20mm f1.7 pancakes for m43 and both are great lenses. Why such a shitty offering for FF? And why launch the PDAF-equipped S9 with an MF lens?
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I am sure Panasonic have their reasons and I sincerely doubt that they are deliberately trying to be mean, cheap, shitty or just plain stupid. Maybe they were intending to launch the S9 with both the 18-40mm and 26mm lenses but that the former got delayed for whatever reason and they decided to proceed with the launch of the S9 anyway with only the 26mm lens. Or maybe they just felt for the S9, a simple and small lens was the way to go. Whatever the reason, I assume they are trying to be successful at what they do whether I understand their approach or not.

pdk42 said:
Is it worth £220 compared to its rivals in other systems? Absolutely not. That’s why Jordan and Chris put it top of their “worst lens” ratings. Not because it isn’t sharp!

If I had an S9, I could be persuaded to buy the 26/8, but I wouldn’t pay more than £50 for it. At that price, I think we could just call it a body-cap lens and be done.
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To be fair, the 26mm f/8 lens was provided at no cost to those who purchased S9. I think that deal is still available. That's how I got mine.
 
Lsake said:
Because, for £220, I think Lumix owes you, the consumer, a better product. I think they could have done better with this lens for what they are asking.
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This is basically it. No-one is saying it's not capable of taking good pictures, simply that for the price Panasonic are asking for it it should do a lot more - have AF, a filter ring and a maximum aperture of f/4 at the very least. It may well suit some people who only ever want to use it in good light but with it's limitations it's only suited to a very, very narrow set of use cases and very few people are willing to spend that money for such a lens. Add in that it's existence and price make Panasonic look bad and I can fully understand why it's people's worst lens of the year. And all that while having good image quality.
 
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