GH2 vs GH3 AF during video comparison

When the Panasonic GH1 was launched in 2009, it had an easy claim to fame: Being the only consumer interchangeable lens mirrorless camera that could autofocus (AF) during video recording. Since this time, the GH2 improved upon the predecessor in many ways, while retaining the same form factor. The Panasonic GH3 has a pro photo form factor, and further improves upon the GH2.

Autofocus during video is still an important feature. That, and continuous autofocus with moving subjects, have been problem areas for Micro Four Thirds. High end DSLR cameras handle continuous autofocus, e.g., for sports and wildlife, very good. This is due to using PDAF technology. Micro Four Thirds cameras, with the exception of the Olympus E-M1 so far, only use CDAF, not PDAF.

Achieving efficient autofocus during video with CDAF is a matter of having fast image processing capabilites, combined with good algorithms for interpreting the data. GH3, being the newest and most powerful of the GH-line, of course has the best potential here.

Here is a video comparison of the GH2 and GH3 both doing AF with the Sigma 30mm f/2.8 DN lens mounted. The Sigma 30mm f/2.8 is a reasonably compact, inexpensive and very good lens. Read about how the test was done below.

Are Panasonic fooling us?

The new ultra compact Lumix GM1 is marketed with a record breaking 1/16000s maximum shutter speed. That surely sounds impressive. The camera also has a brand new shutter module, using a stepper motor rather than a conventional spring actuated shutter curtain.

But is this an improvement? Let's compare the specifications with other similar cameras:

Camera	Lumix GM1	Lumix GX7	Lumix GH3	Olympus OM-D E-M1	Nikon 1 V2
Maximum shutter (mechanical)	1/500s	1/8000s	1/4000s	1/8000s	1/4000s
Flash sync speed	1/50s	1/320s	1/160s	1/320s	1/250s
Maximum shutter (electronic shutter)	1/16000s	1/8000s	1/4000s	None	1/16000s
Electronic shutter readout speed	1/10s?	1/10s?	1/10s	None	1/80s
Flash sync speed (electronic shutter)	Not possible	Not possible	Not possible	None	1/60s
Body

Upcoming lenses

Micro Four Thirds was the first mirrorless camera system launched, and now has an impressive lens lineup. Still, more lenses are arriving. Here are some news to look forward to:

Kipon HandeVision IBELUX 40mm f/0.85

The lens with the strangely capitalized name is to be released late February 2014, and, according to the marketing, it will be the fastest lens ever. That is probably not true, as, for example, the Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm f/0.7 used by Stanley Kubrick to record the movie Barry Lyndon is still faster. But it will certainly by one of the fastest lenses available.



The lens is completely mechanical, requiring to be focused manually. The price will be quite stiff, just north of US$2000. It will be released for the Micro Four Thirds, Sony NEX, Fujifilm X and Canon EOS M mounts. The lens weights no less than 1.2kg, illustrating just how much glass there is in it.

GoPro Hero 3+ Black Review Part 1

Nowadays, the most selling camera unit is an action camera, the GoPro Hero 3+. This can be commented in many ways:

• The compact camera and consumer camcorder markets are shrinking. This is due to competition from below with smart phones, and competition from above with compact, but advanced mirrorless system cameras. Why buy a compact camera, if your smart phone can do just as well? Due to the shrinking traditional camera market, this action camera has become dominating.

• There is little competition in the action camera market. In test after test, the GoPro Hero 3+ Black Edition is crowned the king. Even as Sony and Panasonic launches competing cameras at a lower price and with interesting additional function, e.g., optical image stabilization, they cannot dethrone the GoPro Hero.

Here is the GoPro Hero 3+ Black Edition camera unit, with the waterproof housing.



In the picture above, I have used an optional tripod mount adapter, which allows you to put the camera on a normal tripod with a 1/4'' stud.

What framerate to use in videos?

Excellent video is one of the reasons to use Micro Four Thirds cameras, especially the ones from Panasonic. Some come with different framerate choices, so which to use?

First, here's an overview of the existing alternative framerates. I have outlined the choices for full HD 1920x1080 resolution only. For lower resolutions, there may be more framerate selections available:

Framerate	Panasonic	Olympus
24 fps	GH3, GM1, GX7, G6	None
25 fps	All PAL area cameras	None
30 fps	All NTSC area cameras	All
50 fps	PAL area cameras: GX7, GM1 (only interlaced), GF6 (only interlaced), G6	None
60 fps	NTSC area cameras: GX7, GM1 (only interlaced), GF6 (only interlaced), G6	None

As you can see from the table above, Panasonic gives you much more choice in terms of which framerate to use. All current Olympus cameras only have one single choice: 30 fps.

Focus breathing with Leica 25mm f/1.4

The Lumix G 20mm f/1.7 is a classic M4/3 lens in the true sense of the word: It was the first prime lens offered by Panasonic. And it was very successful, due to the small size and the impressive sharpness.

However, it has a flaw: The focus mechanism is the old style which moves the whole lens assembly back and forth. This is slow and noisy. Modern cameras like the Panasonic GH3 overcome the slowness quite well, making the lens more usable even for autofocus during video. It still fair to say that it is a slow focusing lens.



Leica Summilux 25mm f/1.4 and Lumix G 20mm f/1.7

The Leica Summilux 25mm f/1.4 is a more recent lens with a promise to fix this: It has the more modern internal focus design. This means that only one lens group moves inside the lens when focusing. This is much faster, and generates less noise. Plus, it makes the lens more solid, as it has no moving parts on the outside.

But, can you believe it, there is a snag anyway. The internal focus design has a drawback: It causes the focus breathing effect. This means that the focal length changes as the focus distance changes.

Overview of Olympus cameras

Following up my overview of Panasonic cameras, here is a presentation of the Olympus cameras, with a summary of their main features and differences.

While Panasonic released the very first Micro Four Thirds camera, the Lumix G1, back in 2008, it was Olympus who first made a real impact with their retro styled E-P1. Olympus have always drawn on their legacy by calling their compact M4/3 cameras "PENs", referring to the Olympus Pen half frame cameras from the 1960's and onwards. Also, their SLR styled cameras are called "OM-D", referring to the compact, reliable and successful series of film based Olympus OM SLR cameras from the 1970's.

These two lines of cameras make up their current offerings:

Camera	Olympus OM-D E-M1	Olympus OM-D E-M5	Olympus PEN E-P5	Olympus PEN E-PL5	Olympus PEN E-PM2
Price	$1500	$1000	$1000	$600	$400
Announced	Sep 10th, 2013	Feb 8th, 2012	May 10th, 2013	Sep 17th, 2012	Sep 17th, 2012
Dimensions	130 × 97 × 63mm	122 × 89 × 43mm	122 × 69 × 37mm	111 × 64 × 38mm	110 × 64 × 34mm
Weight	497g	425g	420g	325g	269g
Style	SLR	SLR	Compact	Compact	Compact
EVF	Yes	Yes	Optional	Optional	Optional
Tilt LCD	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
PDAF	Yes	No	No	No	No
Focus peaking	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Built in flash	No	No	Yes	No	No
In a nutshell	Weatherproof, pro ergonomics, 4/3 lens compatability	Weatherproof, retro design	Enthusiast friendly, but expensive	Compact, useful features	Very compact, more stripped of features
Body

Is the Leica 25mm a portrait lens?

Portrait lenses have traditionally had a focal length of around 85mm on the classic 135 film format. On a Four Thirds sensor, that corresponds to about 42mm, which explains why most kit zoom lenses stop at 42mm.

In addition to the focal length, though, the portrait lenses typically also have a fast aperture, at least f/1.8. The Olympus 45mm f/1.8 comes very close, and is in fact the first real portrait lens for Micro Four Thirds. It is a very good lens, and at an affordable price.

However, some may want an even faster aperture, for better background blur and bokeh. So it may be tempting to turn to the Leica 25mm f/1.4. After all, it is currently the fastest (in terms of aperture) autofocus capable Micro Four Thirds lens.

Olympus 45mm f/1.8 and Leica 25mm f/1.4

To test how these lenses perform as portrait lenses, I have tried to photograph a static face, a statue. The statue has natural proportions, i.e., the size of the head is the same as for a genuine human. I focused on the eyes, which is the common thing to do for portraits. Here they are:

Olympus 45mm f/1.8 at f/1.8, focus distance about 1m, 3 feet	Leica 25mm f/1.4 at f/1.4, focus distance about 0.6m, 2 feet

To better see the differences, I have superimposed both images into one animated GIF:

What we see here is that at 25mm, and at a closer focus distance, the face becomes distorted: The chin and nose looks bigger, and the eyebrows look a bit asymmetric.

Review: Porsche Design Mikado Pen

This article deviates from what I normally write, since it is not primarily about photography. However, I have included some details about photography here as well. For example, methods for product photography, and the effects of diffraction. If you are mostly interested in photo, you could skip to these section at the end of the article.

It is quite common to see owners of high value brand names to licence them out to other manufacturers. From photography, one of the most common examples is Leica. They are allowing Panasonic to produce cameras and lenses with the Leica brand name. This helps Panasonic sell more photographic equipment, while allowing Leica to capitalize on their brand name. Everybody wins. See the Panasonic Leica 25mm f/1.4 below as an example of Leica branding of premium Panasonic lenses:



In the premium car world, we see the same with many high end brands. For example, Ferrari is licensing their name to toys, electronic products, clothes and more. This surely generates a lot of short term profit for them, but risks lessening the perceived value of their brand.

Porsche is doing the same with their Porsche Design series. However, unlike Ferrari, they are mostly putting out high quality premium items. One example is their pen series, which is produced by Faber-Castell.

Overview of Panasonic cameras

It was Panasonic who released the very first Micro Four Thirds camera, the Lumix G1, back in 2008. While it was a very ergonomic camera with photography oriented functions and one of the best kit zoom lenses in its class, it never made much impact. It was not until Olympus released the retro looking E-P1 that the format took off.

Since this time, they have released a number of cameras. Here is an overview of the current models.

Camera	Lumix GH3	Lumix G6	Lumix GX7	Lumix GM1	Lumix GF6
Price	$1000	$600	$900	$750	$500
Announced	Sep 17th, 2012	April 24th, 2013	Aug 1st, 2013	Oct 17th, 2013	April 9th, 2013
Dimensions	133 × 93 × 82mm	122 × 85 × 71mm	123 × 71 v 55mm	99 × 55 × 30mm	111 × 65 × 38mm
Weight	550g	390g	402g	204g	323g
Style	SLR	Compact SLR	Rangefinder	Compact	Compact
EVF	Yes	Yes	Yes, tilting	No	No
Tilt LCD	Articulated	Articulated	Tilting	No	Tilting
Flash hotshoe	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Focus peaking	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
IBIS	No	No	Yes	No	No
In a nutshell	Weatherproof, pro ergonomics, the best video	Compact, value for money, good on features	Retro rangefinder style	Very compact, retry style	Compact, enthusiast friendly
Body

Lumix Leica DG Summilux 25mm f/1.4 Review Part 2

In the first instalment of my review, I talked about the basic stuff, like the focus speed, sharpness and bokeh. Here, I take a closer look at other aspects of the lens.

Focus breathing

The Leica 25mm f/1.4 features internal focusing, like most other autofocus Micro Four Thirds lenses. This makes the focus fast and virtually noiseless. However, there is a downside: The field of view changes as the focus is shifted. This gives rise to the focus breathing problem: As the focus moves, objects in the frame appear to change size, to be breathing.

Lumix Leica DG Summilux 25mm f/1.4 Review Part 1

Back in the 1960's, when SLR cameras started to become available to the general public, one could essentially only buy prime (non-zoom) lenses. The cheapest lenses were the ones which were short, but still long enough, in terms of focal length, to be constructed without a complicated retrofocal design.

The cameras generally had a register distance of around 45mm, which means that any lens shorter than this will be more expensive to make. Hence, a popular segment became lenses around 50mm. These could be made fast, i.e., with a large maximum aperture, fairly inexpensively. For this reason, many bought their camera with a 50mm lens lens, which became known as the normal lens. It was the kit lens half a decade ago.

Wide angle lenses would require a retrofocal design, which was expensive. And longer lenses would require larger lens elements, again keeping the price high. So the 50mm lens was the most common (normal) lens to use on SLR cameras, simply because it was inexpensive.

At that time, to have a zoom lens which covers a range of focal lengths would be an unbelievable luxury. Today, it is the other way around. It is the zoom lens which has become the normal lens, the lens people buy in kits with their camera. While the 50mm (equivalent) prime lens has become the luxury item.

That is the case with Panasonic Lumix G Micro 4/3 LEICA DG SUMMILUX 25mm f/1.4 Leica Aspherical Lens. With the 2x crop factor of the Four Thirds sensor size, this lens corresponds to 50mm on a traditional film SLR camera, in terms of field of view. It has been co-branded with Leica, to underline the luxury, premium value of the lens.



Lumix 20mm f/1.7, Lumix Leica 25mm f/1.4, and Sigma 30mm f/2.8 DN

Product news

At this time, there are some important trends in the camera industry:

• Mirrorless cameras replacing DSLR systems
• On-sensor PDAF detectors, for better autofocus with moving objects, and with legacy lenses
• Removing the low pass (anti-aliasing) filter, for better pixel-level sharpness

We see many of these trends in the recently announced cameras. Here is a summary, as I see it:

Olympus OM-D E-M1

From a Micro Four Thirds point of view, the big news is of course the Olympus OM-D E-M1. It cleverly supersedes both the Olympus OM-D E-M5 and the Olympus E-5 Four Thirds DSLR.



It does this by employing on-sensor PDAF (Phase difference autofocus) detectors. That way, it can focus even older Four Thirds lenses at a usable speed. Micro Four Thirds camera have previously not been able to focus non-CDAF optimized lenses fast, like for example the Olympus 50mm f/2 1:2 macro lens. Focusing this lens on the Panasonic GH2 camera takes around five seconds, see my test here.

Video AF comparison, Lumix 25mm f/1.4 vs 20mm f/1.7

The Lumix Leica DG 25mm f/1.4 and Lumix G 20mm f/1.7 pancake are quite similar. Both are fast normal lenses. Still, they are different:



On both lenses, I am using 46mm to 37mm step down rings as lens hoods. If you go down the same route, you will also need a 37mm front lens cap.

Beyond the size difference, the 25mm lens features internal focusing, while the 20mm lens has an old style focus mechanism, where the whole lens array moves back and forth. The internal focus achieves faster focus, and makes less noise. The Lumix 20mm lens on the other hand is known to focus slowly, and for making more noise.

In this article, I aim to see if the difference in focus mechanisms make the Lumix Leica DG 25mm f/1.4 better suited for continuous autofocus during video.

What fisheye for fireworks video?

When recording fireworks from a moderate distance, it pays to have a wide lens to capture the whole view. Generally, fisheye lenses tend to be the widest afforable lenses. In this article, I compare two fisheye lenses for video recording fireworks from a close distance.

The camera systems I used were:



Left: Sony NEX-3N with Yasuhara Madoka 180
Right: Panasonic GH3 with Samyang/Rokinon 7.5mm f/3.5

Comparison at 140mm

A number of zoom lenses include the 140mm focal length. I have tested five of them here. They are laid out below:



The second row: Lumix G 100-300mm f/4-5.6, Lumix G 14-140mm f/4-5.8 and Lumix G 45-200mm f/4-5.6
The first row: Lumix X PZ 45-175mm f/4-5.6 and Lumix G 14-140mm F3.5-5.6

E-M1 and GH3 comparison images

In a camera store, I was able to take some example photos with the Olympus OM-D E-M1, the most exciting camera news this autumn. The camera was apparently set up to take medium quality JPEG images only, around 3MB, and had the Olympus M.Zuiko 17mm f/1.8 lens.

I used my GH3 with the Lumix X 12-35mm f/2.8 for comparison, and was able to take photos under the same lightning conditions. Both cameras were set to Aperture Priority, ISO 200, f/2.8. I used the face detection feature, and kept a distance of about 1 meter to the subject. The shutter speeds were around 1/50s.

Olympus OM-D E-M1	Panasonic GH3

Bokeh part 2

I previously wrote about bokeh, describing what it means (the nature of the rendering of out of focus areas), how it is commonly used, and I also looked into how the aperture setting affects the out of focus areas in the picture.

This time, I want to look more closely at how the bokeh differs by lenses. I've tested some common fast lenses from the Micro Four Thirds lens lineup, laid out here:



Second row: Olympus 45mm f/1.8, Leica Lumix 45mm f/2.8 macro, Lumix X 12-35mm f/2.8
First row: Lumix G 14mm f/2.5, Lumix G 20mm f/1.7, Sigma 30mm f/2.8 DN and Sigma 19mm f/2.8 DN

Fireworks video recording with the GH3 and Samyang 7.5mm fisheye

I've previously used the Panasonic GH2 for recording fireworks, and found that at the maximum video ISO 3200, I still needed to set a very slow shutter speed of around 1/10s to get sufficient exposure. The Panasonic GH3 supports video recording at ISO 6400. When using the Samyang/Rokinon 7.5mm f/3.5 fisheye lens wide open, I can use a shutter speed of 1/25s, and get a normal PAL 25fps framerate.

Here is the video I made, more information about how it was done follows below:

180 degree shutter

One could say that video is just like photos, the only exception is that there is a series of still images composing the video stream. This works well for central concepts like focus, selective focus and background blur (bokeh), sharpness and so on.

However, there are some important differences too. One is focus pulling, to change the focus distance during video recording.

Another important video concept is the 180° shutter. Put shortly, this means that the shutter speed is twice that of the frame rate. So if you are in an NTSC country, e.g., USA, you would set the shutter speed to 1/60s when recording at 30 frames per second.

The name "180 degree shutter" comes from the construction of early film cameras. The shutter in these cameras was simply a rotating disc, with an opening that exposed each film frame. When using a disc with a 180° opening, i.e., a half disc, the film would be exposed half the time.

Why 180° shutter?

The point of the 180° shutter is to create motion blur. When you have movement in the scene, you'll want the movement to be slightly blurred. Using a faster shutter speed would yield stuttered motion, where the moving objects appear to be in different spots in each frame.

Hoods for prime lenses

One of the big advantages of the Micro Four Thirds system is the small prime lenses available. Many of these don't come with any hood supplied in the box. I don't think that using a hood with these lenses is a big deal from an optical perspective, but many people like to use hoods anyway. For lenses like the Lumix G 20mm f/1.7, I have noticed that some like to use a Leica like 46mm screw in hood.

Personally, I think the barrel shaped screw in hoods are a bit too bulky for the small pancake lenses. So I prefer to use a 46mm to 37mm step down ring as a compact hood.

Below is a picture of the Sigma 19mm f/2.8 lens with the original hood (left), and 46mm to 37mm step down ring as a hood (right):

Sigma 19mm f/2.8 with original hood	Sigma 19mm f/2.8 with 46mm to 37mm step down ring as hood

But for keeping out light, which is better?

Induro BHD1 ball head - Not recommended

Having a tripod with a good ball head is a necessity for anyone interested in photography. For a couple of years, I have used the Benro B2 ball head. While it is a cheaper knockoff of the Arca Swiss type ball heads, it still works fine.

However, the big locking knob stuck, so I was looking out for a replacement. The Induro BHD1 looked fine, with a similar layout of knobs, a large ball, and ergonomic grip surfaces on the knobs:



It has some flaws, though, which sadly makes it useless for me. One minor issue is that using the tripod tightening screws locks up the panoramic function. Most tripods have three locking screws that can be tightened when the head is mounted, to avoid accidentally unscrewing the head. You can see the tops of the screws in the picture of the Manfrotto 190XPROB tripod, a very good budget tripod, below:



If these screws are tightened while having the Induro BHD1 ball head mounted, the ball head does no longer rotate when opening the panoramic knob. Now, this is not an uncommon issue: I have noticed the same with other ball heads as well. It can be solved by tightening the screws only very little.

A far bigger issue is that when mounting a camera and framing a subject, tightening one of the locking knobs dislocates the camera slightly. This makes the tripod ball head very frustrating to use. It is pretty much impossible to frame your subject the way you want with a long lens, and it is even problematic with a shorter lens.

New manual focus wide angle prime from Samyang

News has surfaced that Samyang will release an very wide prime lens, specified as 10mm f/2.8. So is this finally the compact wide angle prime that I have been waiting for?

No, it isn't. It is far from compact, as illustrated by the following comparison table:

Lens	Samyang 10mm f/2.8	Lumix G 7-14mm f/4	Olympus 12mm f/2
Length	106mm	83mm	43mm
Diameter	86mm	70mm	56mm
Weight	710g	300g	130g
Minimum focus distance	0.25m	0.25m	0.20m
Lens elements/groups	14/10	16/12	11/8
Filter thread	NA	NA	46mm

Both the Lumix G 7-14mm f/4, which is extremely wide, and has a zoom, and the Olympus 12mm f/2, which is one stop faster, are much smaller and lighter than the upcoming Samyang lens.

So why are Samyang making the lens so large and heavy?

Mirrorless camera systems

Micro Four Thirds

While Micro Four Thirds was the first and only mirrorless camera system back in 2008, the competition is now fierce. All major camera producers have launched their mirrorless systems by now, with Pentax/Ricoh being one of the notable exceptions, still sticking to digital single lens reflex (DSLR) systems.

The major players here are OM System (previously Olympus), and Panasonic with their Lumix G line. They used to have full lineups starting with basic, affordable cameras, up to professional level kits. With the decline of the camera market, in the sense that the bottom end has almost completely been replaced with smartphone usage, only the higher end cameras are left now.

For OM System, the niche they have been going for is relatively compact sports and wildlife kits. With the 2x crop factor, tele lenses can be made much smaller and lighter than for fullframe systems. This helps explain why they have aimed for this market: People who don't want to carry a lot of weight can get good tele performance for bird and wildlife use.

The OM-1 camera is a good choice, and is know for very good weather proofing, high framerate and very good continuous autofocus for capturing birds in flight. A typical lens is the OM System Olympu 300mm f/4, which gives a 600mm equivalent field of view at a relatively compact size.

Panasonic, on the other hand, have gone for the high end video niche: With the GH series, currently at Lumix GH6, they have been pushing the limits for what small form factor cameras can do. Other manufacturers have to some degree caught up now, but I would say that the GH series is still class leading in terms of video capabilities.

A popular lens to use is the Lumix 10-25mm f/1.7. This is a high end wide angle zoom lens with a very bright aperture, and it corresponds to 20-50mm in fullframe field of view. Optimized for video production, it features a staggering amount of video specific features, like clickless aperture selection, easy switching between manual and automatic focus, and the optical design avoids focus breathing and brightness shifts while zooming.

Here is the original content:

Back in 2008, Panasonic launched the first consumer mirrorless system camera with the Panasonic G1. Since this time, a lot of competitors have introduced their systems. I take a look at the competition, to summarize what they are all about.

Sony NEX, E-mount

Headline comments: Small cameras, large lenses.

Crop factor: 1.5x

The first Sony NEX cameras introduced were truly strange: No built in flash, a minimum of buttons, no touch screen interface, a non standard flash connector. The cameras were slim, but also had a fairly poor grip and ergonomics. Later, a camera like the Sony NEX-6 appeared to take the system in a more traditional direction, with a proper flash shoe, better grip, built in flash, and even a built in EVF on the side, to give it a range finder appearance. The Sony NEX-6 looks and feels more like a normal camera.



Sony NEX-6

Lumix G HD 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6 review

When I first bought into Micro Four Thirds, it was with the GH1 and the kit zoom lens, the Lumix G HD 14-140mm f/4-5.8. In the beginning, I was thrilled with the superzoom lens, my first, and it was also a lot better than the previous Pentax lenses that I used. However, after some time, I was quite disappointed with it, since it is not very sharp in the short and long ends, and it is very large and heavy. So it mostly sat unused.

It was not surprising for me, then, that Panasonic announced a new, revised version of the lens called Lumix G HD 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6. Then new lens comes at a smaller size, it is lighter, and has a faster aperture range. It even has a lower list price than the old version. So, I was very curious to see how they compare.

They are shown below, with the new version to the left:

Focus pulling with the GH3 touch screen

Focus pulling is a cinematic technique often seen in movies and TV series. Quite simply, this is to change the focus distance during recording. This is often seen during dialogue, for example, where the focus could change between the persons speaking to highlight the reactions.

When done by a professional film crew, the focus pulling is done by manually turning the focus ring. Manual focus is possible with Micro Four Thirds cameras as well, of course, but there are a couple of reasons why it might be hard to do this during video recording:

Lumix X PZ 14-42mm vs NEX PZ 16-50mm

Panasonic and Sony have released two surprisingly similar lenses: The Lumix X PZ 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 and Sony E 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 PZ. Both are shown below:



Note that in the picture, I have modified their appearance slightly by adding "lens hoods". On the Lumix lens, to the left, I added a 37mm stand off ring to the front lens thread.

On the Sony lens, to the right, I screwed a 40.5mm to 52mm step up ring into the front lens hood. For the Sony lens, I also need a new 52mm front lens cap.

While I don't think these small rings do a significant job as lens shades, I think they keep the front lens element better protected against objects touching it accidentally, and that gives me more peace of mind.

Lens	Lumix X PZ 14-42mm	NEX 16-50mm PZ
Announced	Aug 26, 2011	Sep 12, 2012
Image stabilization	Yes, optical	Yes, optical
Lens elements/groups	9/8	9/8
Weight	95g	116g
Diameter	61mm	65mm
Length	27mm	30mm
Filter thread	37mm	40.5mm

New 14-140mm: Smaller, faster, sharper

Since writing this first impressions article, I have made a more thorough review. Most likely, this is what you want to read.

When I first bought into Micro Four Thirds, it was with the GH1 and the kit zoom lens, the Lumix G HD 14-140mm f/4-5.8. At first, I was thrilled with the superzoom lens, my first, and it was also a lot better than the previous Pentax lenses that I used. However, after some time, I was quite disappointed with it, since it is not very sharp in the short and long ends, and it is very large and heavy. So it mostly sat unused.

It was not surprising for me, then, that Panasonic announced a new, revised version of the lens called Lumix G HD 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6. Then new lens comes at a smaller size, it is lighter, and has a faster aperture range. It even has a lower list price than the old version. So, I was very curious to see how they compare.

They are shown below, with the new version to the right:

Lens	Lumix G HD 14-140mm f/4-5.8	Lumix G HD 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6
Announced	Mar 3, 2009	Apr 24, 2013
Weight	460g	265g
Diameter	70mm	67mm
Length	84mm	75mm
Filter thread	62mm	58mm
Minimum focus	0.5m	0.3m
Maximum magnification	0.2 x	0.25 x
Lens elements/groups	17/13	14/12
Product code	H-VS014140	H-FS014140

Product news

Here is a summary or recent interesting product news, and my comments to them.

Panasonic GX7

Of course, the big news right now is the Panasonic Lumix GX7, which was announced on August 1st.



To better understand what the fuss is all about, let's look a the key features of the GX7, compared with other premium mirrorless cameras:

Camera	Crop factor	Tilt LCD	EVF	IBIS	PDAF	Flash	Compact	Focus peaking	Price
Lumix GX7	2x	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	$900
Olympus E-M5	2x	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Medium	No	$900
Olympus E-M1	2x	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Medium	Yes	$1400
Olympus E-P5	2x	Yes	Optional	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	$950
Lumix GH3	2x	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	$1100
Lumix G6	2x	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Medium	Yes	$750
Sony NEX-6	1.5x	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	$650
Sony A7	1x	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	$1700
Sony A7R	1x	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	$2300
Fujifilm X-Pro1	1.5x	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	$1200
Fujifilm X-E1	1.5x	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	$800
Fujifilm X-E2	1.5x	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	$1000
Canon EOS M	1.6x	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	$300
Nikon 1 V2	2.7x	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	$800

Distorted images

With the development of photographic equipment over the last decades, we have been able to capture more accurate representations of the reality than ever before, and at a higher resolution and lower cost. Some are obsessed with the sharpness of lenses, and closely read MTF tests to find the best. And there is a trend now that sensors have a weaker anti-aliasing (AA) filter, or even gets rid of it completely, to reveal even more details.

Still, there are some who go in the opposite direction, and use the camera not to accurately depict the reality, but to deliberately distort the reality in various ways. One example is the "Instagram" trend, in which filters are often applied to images to distort the colours, add dark corners, add film grain noise, and so on.

In this article, I look at some methods for creating images that are not natural looking.

Meike/Neewer macro rings: Highly recommended

I have previously tested a number of low cost solutions to macro photography. Mostly, they are quite hard to use, for example because they don't support changing the aperture or focusing. I think I had the most impressive results with a reverser ring, however, the working distance becomes very short, and there is no aperture control or focus possibility.

Finally, macro extension rings with electronic contacts are available at a low price. They are marketed as Meike, Skyblue, Neewer, and probably more names, and one pack includes two rings: One 10mm thick, and one 16mm thick. My rings look like this:

Smaller lenses, smaller apertures

Panasonic recently launched their third tele zoom lens, the Lumix G 45-150mm f/4-5.6. It is impressively compact considering the specifications:

Lens	Lumix G 45-200	Lumix X 45-175	Lumix G 45-150
Max aperture	f/4-5.6	f/4-5.6	f/4-5.6
Announced	Sep 12, 2008	Aug 26, 2011	Jul 18, 2012
Length	100mm	90mm	73mm
Diameter	70mm	62mm	62mm
Weight	380g	210g	200g
Filter thread	52mm	46mm	52mm
Front lens element diameter	37mm	32mm	27mm

So, how can Panasonic design a smaller lens with a smaller front lens diameter, and still retain the same aperture range, f/4-5.6? The answer is simple: They cheat.

Well, "cheat" may be a bit too strong word, as the aperture range is indeed f/4-5.6 for all of them. But what the specifications don't tell you, is that the aperture between the short and long ends is different. This diagram sums up my point:



If you took the average aperture over the focal length range, then you would see that the newer lenses have a smaller average aperture. Hence, while the specifications look the same, the smaller lenses are giving you a smaller aperture on average. I guess there is no way to avoid this: Panasonic cannot cheat the laws of physics. If they make a smaller lens, then the aperture must be smaller.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-3D1 review

The Panasonic 3D1 is one of the very few twin lens compact 3D cameras available. It is shown below with a Seiko diver's watch for scale:

Nowadays, many cameras feature 3D in their specifications, but they achieve this by letting you swipe the camera horizontally while shooting several images, and then stitching the images together for a 3D effect. While this does indeed give you a 3D effect, it is not a true 3D capture in the sense that the same image is captured at the same time from two different angles. Rather, if there is movement in the image while you are sweeping, you may be capture different images for the left and right frame, which will look bad. Also, this technique does not support video recording.

The Panasonic Lumix 3D1 has got two separate, identical lenses, each covering a 12.1 MP sensor. Sliding down the front cover reveals the lenses, and also powers on the camera:

In my review, I will focus mostly on the 3D features of the camera. When used as a 2D camera, it is nothing special at all, and I cannot imaging that anyone would buy this camera for 2D shooting anyway.