Review on PANASONIC 7 14MM MIRRORLESS THIRDS H F007014 by Carrie Goldberg

I'm not the type to print big prints or spreadsheets at 100% resolution but you can find this crap online. Of course, whether you need this lens or not depends on your needs. Here are mine: I'm a casual photographer, a notorious equipment genius and a former photojournalist. A few years ago I realized I had a lot of great DSLR gear that I never used unless I felt particularly guilty about not using it, so I got rid of it and reevaluated my needs. The camera is only as useful as how often you actually take it with you, so I knew I would have to take less than the 1D. And while I sometimes crop frames wider than my 1.3x or 1.6x plus 70-200 could achieve, I found I wanted to frame the frame wider a lot more often. Since an ultra-wide lens would never go far enough, I made the decision to buy a new system based on one criterion: who had the best ultra-wide lens in a body smaller than a DSLR? My research (in 2010) led me to the following: Lens: Panasonic 7-14mm and associated Micro Four Thirds system. The GF1 with a 20mm pancake lens was almost pocket-friendly, and an effective 14-28mm field of view with this budget zoom seemed like the right fit for me, so I ventured (May 2010) to a total of 1700-1800 dollars . I'm happy to tell you that I haven't regretted it for a second. The 7-14mm lens is a reasonable size and weight, produces fairly sharp, high-contrast images, and controls flare well given its field of view. Build quality is what I expected at this price point: a slight step up in quality, although I wouldn't use it to pound tent pegs in a hurricane like I would with pro gear. I've used many third-party ultra-wide lenses that were useless indoors or rotated 180 degrees to the sun due to their flare and ghosting. I've also used many of the Canon L-series, which I believe are the ones where most of the 'professional' segment marks the bank. For my everyday, candid, or touring purposes, this lens works with the best. The field of view is incredibly wide at 7 mm (14 equiv.). So wide that I have no problem photographing people who are normally camera shy because they see me pointing far enough to the side and assume they are no longer in the frame. It's a pretty valuable quality when you're trying to act like a documentary in close proximity to people. The latitude you get with this thing makes hip shooting possible, and the fast autofocus and wide depth of field work together well enough to hold focus. Of course, it's not all peaches with sauce. When you're shooting in large rooms, your FOV always catches some of those 1000-watt lightbulbs on the ceiling and their highlights. When you get that wide distortion at the edges, it becomes a reality, although it can often be used to your advantage. It does focus very closely, but a focal length of 7mm at F4 on a 2x crop sensor will never give you a super defocused background unless the distance between the subject and the background is significant. All in all, if justified by your needs, this lens is worth every penny. Photography became interesting and exciting again for me and I would probably pay a lot more for it.