So my new Panasonic Leica D Summilux 25mm F1.4 ASPH lens (and Four-Thirds to Micro Four-Thirds lens mount adaptor) came in the mail from Japan yesterday. I popped them both on my GH1 and ran around the house for a half hour snapping madly away. Wow. Wow. Wow. Now I get why 1.4 lenses are so fun. This lens is amazing at 1.4.
Low light stuff (forgive the poor framing; I was excited):
And shallow depth of field for selective focus for storytelling:
Focusing (even “manual”) makes a lot of whirring noise, so this could be a problem shooting movies… But will work on this and report back.
Hi Dan,
Your camera seems capturing the night view quite nicely.
My Panasonic Leica Lumix FC33 performs great in day views, but can hardly capture the night lights (blurring…)
thought maybe you could offer some help since we are using the same brand…
BTW, thanks for the “intro” of Common Craft…
Hi Phy,
Thanks!
The reason your DMC-FX33 does not take as good night photos (i.e., they are blurred) is because of the lens. At the wide end of your lens (28mm) the rating of your lens is F2.8. And at the zoom end of the lens the rating of your lens is F5.6, i.e., not very good in low light. My camera has interchangeable lenses and the lens that took the photos above (Leica D Summilux 25mm F1.4) goes down to an F1.4 rating–which is great for low light non-flash photos.
cheers!
Dan
Oh, so does that mean the zoom end of the lens allowing 50% less light per unit to reach the image plane?
Is this a standard restriction of a normal DC?
Is F1.4 the best we can get?
***************
Love Kyoto…will definitely go back…
Hello,
Deos this lens is motorized and does the automatic focusing works with the official panasonic micro4/3 to 4/3 adapter please ?
Or do you have to manual focusing ?
Best regards,
Hi Alex,
The lens needs
a)the official Panasonic Micro4/3 to 4/3 adaptor
and
b)manual focusing. But the good news with manual focusing is that, when you focus, the lens does a zoom/punch-in (perhaps to 7x?) during the focus, to really help you get, e.g., your subject’s eyes sharply focused. Once you push the shutter half way down, the focus-assist punch-in stops and you can see your proper framing.
cheers,
Dan
Thanks for your answer, I’ve got a manual M mount vogländer nokton f1.4 35mm with my GH1 and I’m looking for an automatic one.
I use the focus-assistant loop and I find this very usefull, but a bit difficult to use sometime.
I thank that all 4/3 lens can be motorized with the official adapter, so I was wrong. Thank you.
Best regards,
hi dan, so will the lens autofocus thru the 4/3 to micro 4/3′s adapter?
cheers
btw, how much did you pay for the lens in HK?
zane
Estou pensado em escrever um artigo sobre este assunto e gostaria de saber se posso linkar seu blog e usar parte do artigo.
Carla, OK, no problem.
[...] Snaps from Panasonic Leica D Summilux 25mm F1.4 ASPH on my new Panasonic GH1 Indie 2.0 read this including comments …. i get the impression its only manual focus ….could that be right? [...]