Panasonic G3 + Switar 26mm f1.1

Next year i’m bringing Sora to the Zombie walk – he’ll be perfect!

Panasonic G3 + Voigtlander 25mm f0.95 Nokton

Panasonic G3 + Switar 26mm f1.1

This won’t be a review – just a short intro / initial thoughts. For a quick conclusion – I believe this lens, coupled with the G3 with its improved sensor and EVF, is a big part of the reason why I’m now going to invest in M43rds as my primary system for digital. The specifics of that topic are for another day but as far as the Nokton go, I love it. It doesn’t have as much character as the Switar 26mm (still the finest portrait lens I’ve ever used on any system), is not as small or practical as the Panasonic 20mm f1.7 and doesn’t provide as shallow a depth of field as the actual Noctilux 50mm f0.95 (when mounted on a Leica)… Instead, it is a blend of all three of these lenses in a package that is affordable (compared to the Leica), practical (compared to the Switar) and allows you to push the photographic boundaries (compared to the Panasonic). This lens, mounted on a G3 (or any M43rds) is a serious, serious piece of gear.

In terms of sharpness, it’s v good. Not superb as soem of the dedicated M43rds primes when shooting wide open, but given the sorts of images that wide open at f0.95 produces, you can’t really tell the differnece in a practical sense. This is something you don’t see from lens charts – there you’ll see lens resolution numbers but when you consider what a portrait (for example) looks like at f0.95, so much of it is out of focus (by design) that it’s the difference on sharpness that your eyes see, not the absolute sharpness. This of course is only true to an extent so you still need the lens to be very good / excellent, which it is. Here’s an example;

(straight out of the camera, f0.95, 1/120s, ISO 200)

Stopping down brings it into ultra sharp territitory if you want a more classic image such as a landscape / architecture / etc.

(straight out of the camera, f5ish, 1/1000s, ISO 160)

Its biggest weakness optically is some heavy purple fringing when shooting wide open into high contrast areas. The lens had to make some tradeoffs when it was built from either a size or cost perspective and this was probably it. The CA can be fixed by either stopping down, fixing in post or converting to BW. Bokeh is beautifully smooth. Not so creamy that you’d mistake it for a Leica Noctilux but on par with some of the more expensive L’s I’ve used for my Canon EOS series for example.

(f0.95 processed in CS4)

Physically the lens is beautiful. Focus operation is smooth and accurate, it’s minimum focusing distance is surprisingly close and it has a beautifully solid feel. I think it’s best suited when mounted on a camera like the GH2 or G2 / G3 due to its slightly heavier weight and their handgrips, but it’ll be fine on any M43rds camera. I am able to focus the camera by using just the LCD, but I prefer to use MF assist on the G3 to focus confirm. An interesting conversation to be had is around the depth of field. Due to the cropped sensor of M43rds, the Nokon 25mm f0.95 gives an equivalent field of view of a 50mm f1.9 (on a full frame camera). I mention this mostly to underscore the fact that the while it has the same lens specs as the Noctilux, it won’t produce the same ultrarazor thin depth of field images. So the interesting part is that while this puts the system at a disadvantage from a shallow DOF perspective (compared to larger format cameras), when shooting in really low light (when you actually need a speed of f0.95), you actually get a little depth of field than you normally would, in situations where focusing is the hardest, so I consider that to be an advantage. Here’s an example shot at IS 2500 in near darkness. This shot would have been harder to focus had it been a ‘true’ f0.95 depth of field.

(straight out of the camera, f0.95, 1/120s, ISO 2500)

(straight out of the camera, f0.95, 1/120s, ISO 1250)

One thing to note is that the G3 has a max focusing speed of 1/4000s. To shoot in good light at f0.95, you’ll likely exceed the max shutter speed. So you’ll need to either stop down or buy a ND filter. I recommend B+W. An interesting option is that you can buy a filter that fits either the lens directly, or the hood that comes with it. By coincidence, I own a 64x ND filter that happened to fit the hood and I personally prefer that option.

I was able to get the most out of this lens for almost any subject. However in a world where convenience is valued, remember that this is a manual focus lens and that may be the biggest consideration if you’re thinking about getting one, but I’ve so far used it successfully for portraits, street photography, landscape / architecture and everything in between. Only had it a week so far but I will always remember the day that the Nokton turned my G3 from a compact system into a serious cotender.

Adorama currently has the Nokton in stock. You can buy it here.

I’ve provided some high res samples for download on my portfolio site. You can access clicking on the below image.

Panasonic G3 + Voigtlander Nokton 25mm f0.95

I have a new obsession – it arrived tonight. This f0.95 aperture lens … and it’s a beauty.

Panasonic G3 + Switar 26mm f1.1 (first shot taken by Akuri)