Camera Labs

Hi all...
I'm in the market for an L1 & have been looking up lenses for the four-thirds system accordingly & although there's a lot of the Olympus Zuiko's that seem appealing, I'd like to stick to the Aperture-Ring enabled PanaLeica D range.

Now the kit 14-50 has been verified by many sources (including Gordon here) as a fantastic kit lens albeit an expensive one.

The 1:3.5-5.6/14-150 all purpose zoom (effectively 28-300mm) has long been overdue by the good folks at PanaLeica & as such, even though it's available now (for a hefty $1200 on average) there are far too few objective reviews on this beauty comparing it to other 10x zooms out there (for both the 4/3s & standard mounts)

So I was hoping that maybe some of you may have experience with this lens & would be willing to share that experience preferably with some samples/examples of how well this lens works for you. If not, maybe you have come across some reviews in journals/magazines or photography websites that you might like to share?

And finally, I would also request Gordon to review (or share some remarks a'least) for both this & the seemingly flawless Leica D Summilux 25mm f1.4. If for no other reason then simply because these Leica optics, being as expensive as they are & carrying the Leica heritage if not the "Made in Germany" tag really ought to be the best of their league & it would be of great interest to 4/3rds users to see how well these chalk up against Canon or Nikon or Sigma or Olympus... alternatives.

So cheers & regards to all,
I look forward to hearing all your views on the matter!

I'd love to review it, but Panasonic aren't in any hurry to send me one - I think they may be in pretty short supply down here in NZ...

That's a shame...
But it does seem that even after so many months of having been officially released, the lens remains conspicuously hard to find.

Well I look forward to hearing your review for this whenever it does happen, but in the meantime I hope that some existing 4/3rds users here are willing to share their experiences with it!

Hi Jacen,

As far as I've heard, the PanaLeica 14-150mm is the BEST superzoom lens ever made by any manufacturer. Nothing even comes close to it. I saw some thread on another forum where the lens was used to compare to the ZD12-60mm (well known for its edge to edge sharpness) and the PanaLeica did well against it.

It's also the most expansive superzoom lens in the market but it worths the every penny. Google it if you want to find more info.

I look forward to reading the review from you Gordon.

Cheers,
Tony, Fourth Thirds user

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GALLERY

Will this lens work on any four thirds DSLR?

I know that it works flawlessly with Olympus except for the aperture ring. Will it work on the newer G1s? Seems like an awesome superzoom.

It should work on any Four Thirds DSLR, BUT the aperture right will probably only work on Panasonic DSLRs. I can't vouch for the G1, but suspect the ring won't work on it either. You'd have to check about contrast-based AF - I have a link on my G1 review...

Remember Panasonic is launching the GH1 with a superzoom, so if you're planning on using it on a M4/3 body, you'd be better off waiting for that one I think...