{"id":4892,"date":"2015-04-20T17:22:05","date_gmt":"2015-04-20T22:22:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/?p=4892"},"modified":"2015-04-22T20:51:25","modified_gmt":"2015-04-23T01:51:25","slug":"review-panasonic-lumix-35-100mm-f4-5-6-ois","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/review-panasonic-lumix-35-100mm-f4-5-6-ois\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Panasonic Lumix 35-100mm f\/4-5.6 OIS"},"content":{"rendered":"

This past fall, Panasonic made several announcements in advance of Photokina, but one that flew under the radar a bit was the addition of a very compact 35-100mm f\/4-5.6 lens. The new 35-100mm is a slower option that sits alongside the excellent 35-100mm f\/2.8 from Panasonic. This new lens, which gives the same field of view as the classic 70-200mm telephoto zooms on 35mm cameras, is exceptionally small, making it an ideal choice for inclusion in super-lightweight travel kits. If you’re like me, though, such a lens is only really a useful option if the optics are good as well. Let’s find out how good small can be.<\/p>\n

\"Panasonic<\/a>
Panasonic 35-100mm f\/4-5.6 OIS on the Lumix GX1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you\u2019re not familiar with my reviews, I review from a real world shooting perspective. You won\u2019t find lens charts or resolution numbers here. There are plenty of other sites that cover those. I review products on how they act for me as a photographic tool.<\/em><\/p>\n

Construction and Handling<\/h3>\n

The first thing that strikes you when you first see the new 35-100mm f\/4-5.6 is its size. The lens is almost impossibly small. Most telephoto lenses, by necessity, are relatively long lenses. The smaller 4\/3 sensor size has allowed many telephoto options for the Micro 4\/3 system to shrink the overall lens size, but none compare to the miniaturization that the 35-100mm achieves.<\/p>\n

The lens is a collapsible design, and when collapsed, it’s no larger than the collapsible 14-42mm kit zoom from Olympus. It’s the same diameter as the Micro 4\/3 lens mount and only about 1.5 inches in length. As such, the lens works extremely well on any of the Micro 4\/3 bodies, and seems geared towards the smaller cameras such as the Panasonic GM1 and GM5 or the Olympus E-PL7. I used the lens on both the OM-D E-M5 and the Panasonic GX1, and it felt great on both bodies.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The 35-100mm is a collapsible design that extends during use<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The lens isn’t a high-end lens with regards to construction, but it’s fairly well assembled. The 35-100mm has a metal lens mount and lightweight metal exterior. The inner lens barrel, which extends when put into shooting position, and extends further when zooming towards 100mm, is made of plastic. The inner tube can wobble a bit if pressure is applied, but there’s very limited play in general use. The zoom ring opens the lens into shooting position, and is well damped for zooming through the focal range. There is a semi-hard stop at 35mm to let you know you’ve reached the end of the zoom through. Proceeding past this stop will collapse the lens. The focus ring operates smoothly, but is only lightly damped.<\/p>\n

The extremely small size makes this lens an ideal travel companion, and it fits in very well with lenses such as the Olympus 9-18mm and the Panasonic pancake zoom 12-32mm. In fact, all three lenses together weigh less than 400g and would cover an incredible range from ultra-wide angle to medium telephoto.<\/p>\n

Autofocus and Image Stabilization<\/h3>\n

The 35-100mm f\/4-5.6 focuses very quickly and accurately. The autofocus motor is virtually silent and the lens was sure and confident in focusing on both camera bodies used for testing.<\/p>\n

The lens also features Panasonic’s optical image stabilizer, dubbed Mega OIS. The OIS on the 35-100mm is surprisingly effective, especially sing the ‘Mega OIS’ moniker is Panasonic’s standard level IS system. The ‘higher-end’ stabilization is named ‘Power OIS.’ The optical stabilizer allowed me to achieve sharp images consistently at around 1\/15s, which equates to a shutter speed around 3.5 stops slower than what normally is needed for sharp shots.  Like many stabilizer systems for Micro 4\/3, you do need to watch when using the optical stabilizer at speeds around 1\/60s, as it can be prone to some blurring due to shutter shock around that speed.<\/p>\n

Continue: Image Quality<\/a><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Image Quality<\/h3>\n

The size of this lens makes it a tempting addition to a small camera kit, but a focus on small size often leads to compromises in other areas. One obvious compromise is in lens speed. The maximum aperture of this lens is variable, and moves very quickly from f\/4 to f\/5.6 as focal length increases, which will limit the amount of background separation one can achieve. Luckily, one of the compromises that isn’t made is optical quality.<\/p>\n

Sharpness<\/h4>\n

The 35-100mm f\/4-5.6 is a surprisingly sharp lens. Given the design priorities on the lens, I expected good, but not excellent performance in this area, and I’m happy to report the 35-100m handily exceeds my expectation in this department.
\nThe lens is very sharp over the central 85% of the frame right from the maximum aperture at all focal lengths. The edges and corners have some slight softening, but are still very usable. Shooting around f\/5.6-6.3 is the sweet spot for the lens, and stopping down beyond doesn’t gain additional sharpness and has a minor detrimental effect due to diffraction, but overall, I feel confident using this lens at any aperture. Designing such a sharp lens that is this small is no small feat.<\/p>\n

\"Goose<\/a>
Goose – Olympus OM-D E-M5 with Panasonic 35-100mm f\/4-5.6 @ 100mm, f\/5.6<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"100%<\/a>
100% Crop of image above (click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bokeh<\/h4>\n

Well, if sharpness isn’t compromised, then surely bokeh has to be poor, right? Again, This too is wrong, as the 35-100mm puts in a very good showing with regards to out of focus rendering as well. In the vast majority of situations, the lens produces background blur with a relatively creamy character. Specular highlights are round and evenly illuminated, and what generally small amount of background blur you can achieve is very pleasing. See the image below for an example, taken at 100mm and f\/5.6.<\/p>\n

\"Tulip<\/a>
Tulip – Olympus OM-D E-M5 with Panasonic 35-100mm f\/4-5.6 @ 100mm, f\/5.6<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Contrast, Color and Chromatic Aberration<\/h4>\n

In this department, the 35-100mm does fall about where you’d expect a consumer grade lens to fall. Contrast is even and fine, but the images are lower contrast out of camera than what one might get with some of the top-tier Micro 4\/3 lenses. Color is fine, but also unexceptional.<\/p>\n

The lens does put in a nice showing with regards to chromatic aberration as well. At most shooting apertures, the amount of CA is minimal, though it increases somewhat as the lens is stopped down. Still, a very nice showing all around here.  Note that when shooting JPEG or in most major RAW converters, the minimal CA that is present will be automatically corrected.<\/p>\n

Distortion, Flare and Vignetting<\/h4>\n

The 35-100mm features automatic distortion correction built into the RAW files, but when examining the uncorrected images, I found very little distortion anyway.  The lens is corrected very well optically in this department.<\/p>\n

The 35-100mm shows a mixed performance with regards to flare.  In some instances, minimal flare can be observed, but put the sun towards the edges of the frame and you are rewarded with a multitude of ghosts and significant veiling flare reducing contrast significantly.  It’s worth keeping an eye out in the viewfinder when shooting with bright lights in the frame.  Vignetting is very well controlled, with no field-relevant corner shading visible, even at wide apertures.<\/p>\n

Overall, the lens is very good optically. It’s a slow lens, but it’s great to know that the lens can deliver excellent results, even at the maximum aperture.<\/p>\n

Continue: Conclusion and Image Samples<\/a><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n

Pros:<\/h4>\n
    \n
  • Extremely small and lightweight lens<\/li>\n
  • Well constructed for the price<\/li>\n
  • Excellent image sharpness over the vast majority of the frame right from maximum aperture<\/li>\n
  • Very pleasing bokeh<\/li>\n
  • Fast and accurate autofocus<\/li>\n
  • Optical image stabilizer works to 3.5 stops<\/li>\n
  • Low vignetting<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Cons:<\/h4>\n
      \n
    • Only average with regards to color and contrast<\/li>\n
    • Small maximum aperture limits depth of field selection<\/li>\n
    • Flare can severely impact images in certain situations.<\/li>\n
    • Price<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      The Panasonic 35-100mm f\/4-5.6 is a surprisingly good little lens that doesn’t give up much optical while emphasizing small size. The lens is very sharp and has great bokeh, while keeping other optical attributes on a good level. The lens is a bit pricy for a consumer grade lens at $400, but given the excellent performance, I think the cost is worth it. If you’re a Micro 4\/3 shooter and often want a small and light lens with a bit of telephoto reach, the 35-100mm f\/4-5.6 is a fantastic lens to add to your kit. Highly recommended.<\/p>\n

      You can support Admiring Light at no extra cost to you by purchasing your gear through the B&H Link below:<\/em>
      \n