Panasonic Leica DG 42.5mm f/1.2 Nocticron lens

introduction

premium quality portrait lens
specs officially announced Jan 2014, available March 2014
a bit heavier and much more expensive than the superb Olympus m.ZD 75mm f/1.8 lens
it has the widest f ratio of any AF lens designed for Micro Four Thirds system
inevitably it will be compared with:
- Fuji XF 56mm f/1.2 R:
  - slightly shallower depth of field (DOF) as eq. to 85mm f/1.8 lens on full frame but no image stabiliser
  - close focus is 0.7m
  - bayonet style hood
  - surprisingly, the Fuji is a touch smaller and lighter - perhaps it will have more vignetting:
    - filter 62mm
    - 405g, 73mm diam x 70mm long
  - $US999

42.5mm f/1.2 = 85mm f/2.4 lens on a full frame camera in terms of fov and depth of field (DOF)
14 elements in 11 groups including one ED lens, one UHR lens, two aspherical lens
lens manufacture uses a novel method to remove onion bokeh which has been a problem with modern aspherical lenses - see http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2014/05/02/the-end-of-onion-ring-bokeh-panasonic-beats-the-curse-of-aspheric-lenses
aperture ring (only functions on Panasonic cameras not Olympus cameras)
silent screw integrated stepping AF motor
internal focus
nano coating to reduce ghost and flare
POWER OIS
metal barrel
9 circular blades
close focus 0.5m giving 1:10 macro covering an area of 173 X 130 mm = 6.8 X 5.1 inches
67mm filter
74mm diam x 77mm long
425g
includes thumb-screw style hood
£1,399, $US1599

ePhotozine preview
cameras.reviewed.com preview
- bokeh appears buttery smooth although wide open, OOF highlights become ovoid near the periphery as with most fast lenses
camera labs image samples
LensTip review
- centre and corners reasonably sharp wide open and by f/2 it is matching the Olympus m.ZD 75mm f/1.8 lens - as centre becomes much sharper at f/2 and extremely sharp at f/2.8-4, corners sharpest at f/4
- some longitudinal CA but flare, ghosting, distortion, lateral CA, spherical aberration, coma and astigmatism are well controlled - should be a very nice lens for wide field astrophotography to give nice star images across the frame
- fairly severe vignetting wide open which is also evidenced by the oval shaped out-of-focus highlights in the corners but this resolves as lens is stopped down to f/2.5.
- very accurate AF
SLRGear review
- “a phenomenal lens; one of the best we've ever tested”
Admiring Light review comparison with Fuji 56mm f/1.2
- Wide open, the Panasonic Leica has notably higher contrast straight out of camera. It really has remarkable contrast for an f/1.2 lens.
- The Fuji exhibits some spherical aberration wide open, which may show as a glow with high contrast subjects such as white text on a black background. The Panasonic Leica exhibits extremely minimal spherical aberration.
Admiring Light review
DxOMark lens test