Probably my favourite twin lens combination. Lumix 20mm f1.7 and Olympus 50mm f2 macro. Two fast, light, high quality prime lenses. I took them out yesterday as a mild thaw took place and I could spend more than a few minutes outdoors without feeling that various parts of my anatomy were going to drop off from the cold.
LUMIX 20mm f/1.7 PANCAKE LENS
When I first got the Voigtlander 25mm f/0.95 Nokton and used it on my GH1, I wondered how it compared with this lens, since they are close in terms of focal and speed. I said that I felt that the Voigtlander was slightly sharper, but wasn't really sure. With the arrival of the GH2 I'm not much further along in resolving that issue and have decided that if they are that close then its not really that important.
The 20mm is better wide open, the 25mm is faster. The 20mm has AF, the 25mm is slightly better at optimum aperture. Swings and roundabouts really. I'm happy to have both to use.
OLYMPUS 50mm f/2 MACRO LENS
I used the Olympus lens with Auto Focus. After using it as a manual focus lens on my GH1 it is nice to have the AF function. Though it certainly isn't particularly fast. It goes through this routine of edging ever nearer the point of focus before deciding its there and snapping into sharp focus. Occasionally it misses. Its a frustrating lens in that way and spoils what is an incredible piece of optical engineering. Every shot with AF takes a few seconds to complete, so its not a lens for quick reaction shots.
After using these two lenses yesterday I've even more convinced that the GH2's metering is working in some kind of highlight protection mode. Both the jpg and raw files I'm getting from the camera are erring more towards underexposure than any other m4/3 camera I've used. This is happening in all metering modes. There are occasions when nothing can help such as the shot below, where any sensor would struggle.
But I do anticipate a few less problems with dynamic range using the GH2. It was a concern I had, as the sensor has more pixels in the same space, but Panasonic seem to have dealt with that issue, and certainly the problem is no worse than with the GH1 and from what I see, probably slightly better.
Words - David
Images - David and Ann