LUMIX G LENS, 42.5MM, F1.7 ASPH., MIRRORLESS MICRO FOUR THIRDS, POWER OPTICAL I.S., H-HS043K (USA BLACK)

Took this lens out for the first time to shoot a college cheer team at a football game and I am in love with it. The game was in the evening and it did fantastic in low light. Crystal clear and at 1.7 the bokeh is stunning. I am not a professional and did the shoot as a favor, the team and coach loved the results. The only thing I found lacking was that at 85mm M4/3 equivalent you won't be getting great close-ups unless you can move in close to your subject, luckily I had free reign to move around as they cheered. Getting whole-team pictures also meant going way up into the stands or switching lenses. This is not the lens' fault, just a friendly FYI to help you pick the right lens for your application. This is a great mid range lens that takes beautiful run and gun portraits when you have to be fast and everyone is constantly moving. Very glad I bought this lens and the price is a bargain for what you get.

This is a great lens - it's small, is good in low light, and is well built. It's one of my favorite lens for my GH3 and produces fantastic images. I tend to shoot with the aperture more open due to m4/3 larger depth of field. In anecdotal use, I haven't noticed any corner softness or vignetting. I'm not sure how well it will hold up in a lab but that's for a professional reviewer to determine. It's a good lens for video as well. Autofocus is fast enough for slower moving items (again, GH3 so no DFD tech). Its reach is long enough to get a tight shot without being too close to the subject.

I've been very impressed by this lens so far. I use it on my Panasonic LUMIX DMC-GM5 . For me it's more of a "specialty" lens. If I'm going on vacation, or doing portraits, etc., then I'll use it. If it's just another day, commute across campus or whatever, then it's too large for my needs. I prefer a pancake lens for general purpose. Anyway, for the price, it's a great performer. In the video the lens was at minimum focusing distance, ~12 inches. No hood attached. Tripod mounted. The subject here was a large brown carpenter bee. I wonder if he may have been exhausted or sick. Eventually, he flew away. Hope he's OK.

It's no surprise that dpreview chose this the "Best prime / single focal length lens (for portraits)" among its few "Best lenses for Micro Four Thirds." It's certainly one of my all-time favorite lenses, and is always with me, usually as the lens mounted on my small M43 camera body in a jacket pocket. Astonishingly, it's significantly smaller than Panasonic's 25mm f1.7, which itself is quite compact. The accompanying images show results from this lens, as well as my beloved old 200mm f4 Micro-Nikkor mounted on a glassless M43 adapter, and my two killer workhorse zooms, the Panasonic 45-175mm f4-5.6 and the Panasonic Leica 12-60mm f2.8-4. I made the images of different blooms at different times and days, under widely varying lighting combining light from a table lamp sometimes with daylight through a window, with no post-processing except for the minimum needed to put them in reviews of these outstanding lenses. I prefer Panasonic Lenses and bodies because of (1) the Power OIS integrated between camera and lens, often providing 6.5 stops of IS, and (2) the great short focusing distances. These get me frame-filling shots of flowers and butterflies without macro gizmos and tripods. often making the difference between getting a great shot and no photo at all.

I've meandered around buying this f1.7 version and the f1.2, but settled on 1.7 as I thought that I could also use it on another m4/3 camera in the arsenal if I really wanted the f1.2 later. However, I was pleasantly surprised by this lens, though by now I probably should not be. I've worked with the Panasonic 15mm f1.7, 25 f1.4, and the 20mm f1.7, all of which deliver a great deal of quality in their images. It has a very minimalist style to it with almost nothing except the focal range and lens hood alignment dots written on the lens body. The front of the lens body flange can be removed and in its place the lens hood can be attached. This is similar to the Panasonic 15mm 1.7 lens does, but without the 15mm's aperture ring in the way (if you have large fingers) I'm surprised that this tiny lens delivers optical OIS in the lens body, but the images from the lens are very good. A wee bit soft at f1.7, but still quite nice. It has a minimal focal distance at around 12 inches which makes it decent for "macro" inspired shots. The part that I'm really concerned about is the attachment of the lens to the camera. While it is indeed a micro four thirds attachment, the issue that I have is that the lens's mount seems to "grate" against the camera mount, seemingly rubbing the metal points of both -- giving me the feeling I get when my own nails are scratching a blackboard. I find myself wondering if this is an issue of quality in the lens build itself-- which does not have the Leica logo on it and is mostly a durable plastic. I also wonder whether or not the eventuality will be that metal bits from the lens mount might fall into the sensor. This compares unfavorably then to the attachment of the 20mm f1.7, which does not have this grating/attachment issue (and is also not Leica logo-ed). Unlike the 20mm 1.7 though, the lens is virtually noise less. The 42.5mm does not have the AF focusing noise of the 20mm and is much faster at focusing on the subject than the 20mm. All-in-all the experience is good and the lens is a fine addition to the m4/3arsenal. The small stature I feel lends it very well to the smaller bodies of the m4/3 lineup, though still works very well on larger bodies like the GX-8. I don't have the 42.5 f1.2, but I could imagine that the body of the f1.2 would be much hardier and probably metallic. This smaller f1.7 is quite lite, void of menacing doodads on the actual lens body and stylish enough to just throw onto your camera and head out the door.

Good lens. Arrived late as is typical these days. Annoyingly didn't come on time. Ordered specifically for the fact Amazon sh9wed it would arrive on a certain day. So, yeah... annoyed by that. But good lens for portrait photography.

Lens received with rare and front cap along with lens hood. The mount is metallic but the rest of the lens is plastic but seems to be durable. Used as portrait lens, produced very sharp, contrasty and saturated colours. It is quite sharp at f1.7 & produced beautiful blurred background. The focus is instantaneous, even in poor light. Videos were good, specially when shot in good light. Excellent buy, price is reasonable. Thanks.

I researched this product a lot before buying. It is a photography game changer. It creates such a great look to images - nice subject focus with beautiful background blur. Love it. It has improved my overall photography standard massively. It is also a very good price considering how great it is. It is basically as good as everyone says it is.

Great lens ...

Good product

Best product