Panasonic Lumix S 14-28mm F4-5.6 MACRO Assessment

Introduction

Ease of Use

The Panasonic Lumix S 14-28mm F4-5.6 MACRO is a small, compact and really mild wide-angle zoom lens, measuring 8.98cm / 3.54inch in size, 8.4cm / 3.31inch in diameter and weighing in at a mere 345g / 0.77lb.

It is notably smaller and lighter than the comparable Lumix S PRO 16-35mm F4, which at 500g and nearly precisely 100mm in size is already a diminutive lens.

When mounted on the Lumix S5II mirrorless digital camera that Panasonic despatched us for testing, the Lumix S 14-28mm lens feels extraordinarily well-balanced and appropriate for each two-handed and one-handed use.

Observe that this new lens doesn’t lengthen when zoomed from the minimal 14mm focal size to the 28mm focal size because of its inner mechanism.

Construct high quality is excellent. The Panasonic 14-28mm F4-5.6 MACRO feels strong sufficient in your hand, even whether it is largely made out of plastic, with a steel lens mount.

It is also weather-proof, being each mud and splash resistant and dealing all the way in which right down to -10 levels. We efficiently used it in additional inclement situations with no hostile results.

There’s additionally a a fluorine coating on the entrance lens component to assist repel water, oil, and another contaminants, in addition to making it simpler to scrub.

There is no such thing as a built-in Picture Stabilisation, although, with the lens as a substitute counting on the digital camera physique’s stabilisation system (if it has one).

By way of controls, there is only one – a spotlight mode swap with the usual AF/MF settings.

The Panasonic 14-28mm F4-5.6 MACRO lens has a reasonably slender focus ring on the finish of barrel with a ridged, rubberised grip band.

There aren’t any onerous stops at each ends of the vary, making it tougher to set focus at infinity.

Polariser customers ought to be happy that the 77mm filter thread would not rotate on focus.

Relating to auto-focusing, the Panasonic Lumix S 14-28mm F4-5.6 MACRO is a reasonably fast performer, taking round 0.15 seconds to lock onto the topic when mounted on the Panasonic S5II digital camera that we examined it with.

We did not expertise an excessive amount of “searching”, both in good or unhealthy mild, with the lens precisely focusing just about the entire time within the single AF-S mode.

The linear motor focusing mechanism may be very quiet, in actual fact just about silent, making this lens well-suited to video recording in addition to candid stills pictures.

The lens ships with a big, petal-shaped, prime quality lens hood (S-R1428) with a lock button, however there is no case included.

Focal Vary

The 14mm focal size supplies an angle of view of 114 levels.

14mm

The 28mm focal size supplies an angle of view of 75 levels.

28mm

Chromatic Aberrations

Chromatic aberrations, sometimes seen as purple or blue fringes alongside contrasty edges, aren’t an issue for the Panasonic Lumix S 14-28mm F4-5.6 MACRO lens, even in areas of very excessive distinction.

14mm

28mm

Vignetting

With the lens set to its most aperture, there may be some apparent mild fall-off within the corners particularly on the wider focal lengths, requiring you to cease down by at the least 3 f-stops to fully stop it.

14mm

28mm

Distortion

The Panasonic Lumix S 14-28mm F4-5.6 MACRO reveals some barrel distortion, as you may see within the images beneath, which can it’s good to right in post-processing.

14mm

28mm

Sunstars and Flare

The Panasonic Lumix S 14-28mm F4-5.6 MACRO is able to producing very good sunstars when stopped-down to f/22, as proven beneath, and the lens would not exhibit very a lot flare even when taking pictures instantly into the solar, offered that you’ve got the equipped lens hood fitted.

14mm

28mm

Macro

The Panasonic Lumix S 14-28mm F4-5.6 MACRO provides superb close-up efficiency for such a wide-angle zoom lens, with an in depth focus level of 0.15m / 0.49ft from the sensor aircraft via its whole zoom vary and a most magnification of 0.25x at 14mm and 0.50x on the 28mm focal size.

Bokeh

Bokeh is a phrase used for the out-of-focus areas of {a photograph}, and is normally described in qualitative phrases, equivalent to clean / creamy / harsh and so forth.

Within the Lumix S 14-28mm F4-5.6 MACRO lens, Panasonic have employed an iris diaphragm with 7 rounded blades, which has resulted in pretty good bokeh in our view for an ultra-wide-angle lens.

We do realise, nevertheless, that bokeh analysis is subjective, so we have included a number of examples beneath on your perusal.

Sharpness

To be able to present you the way sharp the Panasonic Lumix S 14-28mm F4-5.6 MACRO lens is, we’re offering 100% crops on the next pages.