Review on PANASONIC 14 45MM F3 5 5 6 MIRRORLESS H FS014045 by Erin Johnston

So this is my second native MFT lens and I'm comparing it to a Leica 25mm f/1.4 and a forced 18-35 Sigma. I hated this lens because it looked too sharp for video for my liking, even with sharpness set to 0. At f/3.5, this lens is still super sharp in the center but falls off quickly towards the edges. the edges. At 8:1 it's very cloudy compared to other lenses. It also has strong chromatic aberration from f/3.5 to f/4.8. Once you stop down to f/5.6, the aberration disappears. Excellent micro-contrast and decent color reproduction. Can I recommend this lens as a good kit lens? Yes of course. For maximum sharpness and clarity, stop down to f/8, at f/11 diffraction will start to show, and at f/16 you'll wish you never went beyond f/8. In general I like the 14mm, it seems to me quite wide compared to my forced 18-35 Sigma, which becomes 13-26 f/1.2. Not as sharp as a Sigma in all areas, and it holds detail well too, but with minimal barrel distortion and fairly good backlight control AND 1/10th the cost of a Sigma combo with a Metabone, this is a KILLER semi-wide autofocus zoom . An absolute no-brainer for the price. Clearly the Leica gains sharpness at 25mm, followed by the accelerated Sigma and then the 14-45, but still the zoom range outweighs that fact in terms of usability. Highly recommended if you don't mind shooting mostly at f/5.6 and deaberting at f/3.5. The attached photo was taken with a Panasonic GH5 camera with a focal length of 45mm f/5.6 and 1/2500 high-speed sync at ISO 200.