Panasonic LUMIX Professional 12-60mm Camera Lens, Leica DG Vario-ELMARIT, F2.8-4.0 ASPH, Dual I.S. 2.0 with Power O.I.S, Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds, H-ES12060 (Black)

This is a fantastic, but expensive lens at about £800. If you are in the market for a new camera as well it makes much more sense to get this included. Eg I have just bought a new G9 camera and this was included as the kit lens. Taking into account the camera body only price made this lens cost £260. Or looking the other way around the camera body as well cost £400 instead of nearly £1000!

It's three weeks that I bought this lens. The first sample was a kind of disappointment as it was soft both at 12mm and 60mm full open, lacking micro contrast throughout the focal length. Then I swapped it for a fresh copy at the shop I bought it from and results have dramatically changed. On a pixel peep basis, the PanaLeica 12-60 is just a hair less sharp than the Olympus. Contrast and acuity though are excellent. As for the PanaLeica I haven't noticed any difference between 12mm at f2.8 and f4. Handling is superb, the lens is a pleasure to use with little-to-no flare/ghost. The difference of focal length between the PanaLeica and the Oly makes the rest: this lens won't any longer be detached from my Panasonic G80. It is that good with a perfect FL for all day used. Bokeh is smooth and pleasant. The Oly remains an exceptionally good lens and I clearly would have kept it had I bought the Oly 40-150 f2.8 to complement it, but compactness and quality is all micro 43 should be about. That's why I'm very, very pleased I swapped it for the PanaLeica. If you buy it and are not happy, tried a new copy. This little lens is absolutely a jewel.

Hochwertig wie ich erwartet habe.

Lo recibí con la caja algo deteriorada pero el interior parecía en perfecto estado así que me lo quedé. Tras varios meses de utilización puedo decir que es un estupendo objetivo, ideal como óptica "todo terreno" aunque tal vez un poco pesado para fotografía de calle pero, claro, está construido todo en metal; aun así es muy portable. Diseño minimalista pero agradable. La calidad del acabado es excelente transmitiendo la sensación de robustez y, a la vez, todo funciona de forma muy suave (hasta poner el parasol es una gozada). La calidad de la imagen es simplemente impresionante, muy buena nitidez (centro/esquina) en todos los rangos de focal i en todos los diafragmas hasta f-8 (a partir de ahí comienza a decaer pero es normal en las ópticas de m 4/3) teniendo su punto dulce entre f4 i f5.6, poca distorsión y en su extremo gran angular (12 mm.) i ninguna en el resto de las focales y prácticamente ninguna aberración cromática . Lo utilizo, sobretodo, en una Olympus PEN-F aunque también, ocasionalmente, en una Olympus E-PL8 sin ningún problema de compatibilidad. evidentemente el estabilizador de imagen MEGA-OIS no se suma al de las cámaras pero si las pone en un modo donde domina la estabilización del objetivo que, según mi experiencia, es superior al del cuerpo (ya de por sí magnífica sobretodo en la PEN-F). Una excelente compra, muy recomendable.

I began using 4/3 system cameras before the advent of micro 4/3. One of my favorite 4/3 lenses of that period was the Olympus Zuiko 12-60mm f2.8-4.0 SWD. The 24-120 (full frame equivalent) range is extremely useful, especially for traveling. Thus, I was intrigued in knowing if the new Panasonic-Leica 12-60 f2.8-4 would fill that gap again for me. I have also used the excellent Olympus 12-40 f2.8 as well as the Panasonic 12-35 f2.8. The Olympus 12-40 is a great lens, but sometimes it’s nice to have a little more reach. Although both Olympus and Panasonic have made cheaper lenses, whose ranges are useful (e.g., the Olympus 12-50 3.5-6.3 and Panasonic 12-60 f3.5-5.6), these lenses are slower and seem to be not up to the same quality standards as the Olympus pro lenses and the Panasonic-Leica lenses. In the first few weeks of use, I have been very impressed by the Panasonic-Leica 12-60 f2.8-4 image quality, sharpness, and color rendition. I have been using it on both the Panasonic GX 8 and the OMD EM1 Mark ii. It is nicely balanced on both cameras. Its image stabilization (IS) only works in sync with the newer Panasonic bodies, but not Olympus bodies. Nevertheless, the five-axis stabilization of the new Olympus OMD is outstanding, so I haven’t noticed any issues in using this lens on the Olympus body. The zoom is silky smooth, the lens is fast focusing, and its construction is very good and weather resistant, although it does not seem to have the more substantial build-quality feel of the Panasonic-Leica f42.5mm Nocticron lens, which is one of my favorites. The f2.8 is also nice to have at its 12 mm length, but it starts creeping up to 3.0 and ultimately 4.0 fairly rapidly when you begin to zoom in closer. In terms of size, it is nearly comparable to the Olympus 12-40 f2.8 (diameter 70 mm Oly vs. 68 mm Pan-Leica; length 84 mm Oly vs. 86 mm Pan-Leica). Both use a 62 mm filter thread. In terms of weight, the Pana-Leica is only 320 g compared to the Oly 12-40 at 382 g. When compared to the excellent new Olympus 12-100 f4.0 at 561 g, the Pan-Leica is considerable lighter, although without the tele-zoom reach. I considered the new Olympus 12-100 mm, but the Pan-Leica is about $300 cheaper and more compact, with a faster aperture at the wide range. The lens is also purported to be very good for video, although my primary purpose in using it is for stills. I intend to use this lens particularly for travel purposes and some street photography. Overall, I find it to be a nice compromise between the Olympus 12-40 f2.8 and the Olympus 12-100 f4.0 both in size, range, and price. You won’t regret have any of these lenses, but I am, thus far, pleased with my choice as I am also trying to reduce the total number of lenses I use.

so good love it

I bought this lens to do videography for my outdoors Youtube channel on my Panasonic Lumix G9. It fits this use-case excellently with a 12mm wide angle with an effective 5X optical zoom. If you utilize the Ex. Teleconv feature on recent Panasonic cameras you can get an effective 7X lossless zoom for free. If you shoot landscapes and mostly static subjects like I do, then a camera with a sensor shift hi-res mode can increase your range even further than that. Image quality at 12mm is very sharp in the center with some barrel distortion at the very far corners. At the wide end, don't expect perfectly sharp images across the entire scene - this is a trade-off to be expected in a wide to medium tele. I see a largely clean, distortion free image about 18-20mm and beyond. In the video world this is less of an issue than for photographers. The range you get for size make it worth it to me for the range that you get. Aperture reduces immediately to f/2.9 at 13mm and continues down from there until you hit f/4 at about 55mm. Since I am mostly shooting landscape in video in 4K, I rarely use f/2.8 - however this does come into play in vlogging shots. I find that f/2.8 is the sweet spot for walking & talking on camera in order to produce the ideal amount of background blur while avoiding focus breathing. I find the bokeh at f/2.8 to be pleasing with circular bokeh balls thanks to the 9 bladed aperture. Defocused backgrounds look smooth to me. I am usually at f/5.6 to f/7 when shooting landscape at 12mm and around f/8 to f/11 when closer to 60mm; you will notice diffraction kicking around f/11 but it's not so bad as to be unusable. Chromatic aberration is largely corrected for but you will see some green & magenta tinting with sun flares. This is better to me than having full-on sun flares in the shot. Another plus is the weather sealing. This lens does not see a ton of foul wet weather but living and shooting in the desert I enounter a lot The only major con I have come across is that (1) this lens is heavier than the cheaper plastic counterparts; though to me this is a pro adding durability. I am happy with the images this lens produces; I believe this lens is suitable for someone who normally would carry a wide lend and medium telephoto who wants to reduce weight and complexity of their setup. This is probably going to be as close as you'll get to a do-it-all lens on the M43 system.