Lumix G 14mm f/2.5 Asph. (2018), Lens Review

An ultra-compact, pancake wide-angle prime for MFT (Micro Four Thirds) cameras, with a 35mm-equivalent focal length of 28mm, an ideal lightweight choice for street, travel, and environmental portrait photography.

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Had a nice leisurely Sunday morning walk recently, with the age-old Lumix G 14mm f/2.5 Asph. a compact pancake prime lens for Micro Four Thirds cameras, equivalent to a wide-angle 28mm lens on a full-frame camera.

Though released as far back as 2010, the lens remains popular among enthusiasts for its portability and wide-angle performance in landscapes, street, and indoor shooting.

This lens features 6 elements in 5 groups, including 3 aspherical lenses for sharp, low-distortion optics. It offers a maximum aperture of f/2.5, a minimum focus distance of 0.18m, a 46mm filter thread, and weighs just 55 grams, with a slim length of only 20.5mm.

While it has a focusing ring for use in manual mode, autofocusing and aperture controls are by wire; the front element of the lens is non-rotating.

The lens was mounted on an Olympus Pen 'Mini' Olympus E-PM2, a follow-up to the E-PM1, one of the smallest mirrorless digital cameras on the market when it was first launched in 2011. Introduced in 2013, the E-PM2 measures 110 x 64 x 34mm and weighs only 269 grams.

The camera features a 460,000-dot 3-inch fixed touchscreen LCD, sensor-shift image stabilization, and contrast-detection AF with 35 points. Designed for entry-level interchangeable-lens users, the E-PM2 includes 12 Art Filters (like Pop Art and Grainy Film), Live Bulb/Time modes, and HDR backlighting.

Square Cuts

A wide-angle 28mm lens, which can occasionally be found with a wide 1.8 maximum aperture, is one of the most popular focal lengths for city and landscape photography. The focal length is capable of capturing images without introducing obvious distortions.

A 28mm lens is also a good focal length for maintaining a balanced perspective between close subjects and the background. The lens is almost as versatile as a 35mm lens and is also often used for architectural photography and group portraiture.

The lens is extremely fast. Mounted on the Olympus E-PM2, the lens took less than a second to traverse its range of focus. As there is little to move inside the lens when focusing, minor focal length changes are equally fast.

Giving the images the square cuts, or in the 1:1 image aspect ratio, helps accentuate the balance and dynamics of the composition.

The feature of the walk was to document images of the Saloma Link, a 69-meter pedestrian bridge linking the vicinity of the Petronas Twin Towers, in Kuala Lumpur City Center, to the residential district of Kampung Bharu across the Klang River. The city-side access to the bridge is also accessible to bicyclists and terminates at a free-standing view platform on the other side of the river.