Panasonic 14-50mm f/2.8-3.5 OIS Four Thirds Lens for Panasonic Digital SLR Cameras

Lens is as good as new, both cosmetically and mechanically, sharp in the tradition of LEICA'S beautiful Summicrons, Elmars and Elmarits of yore, a pleasure to work with, a bit heavy , but built like Tank!Seems to de sought after, hard to find, if you have an Olympus or Panasonic 4/3 mount camera body,(Not Micro) and are in need of a basic zoom lens, I think there is none better lens for the money than this German designed work of photo equipment art!

I have a Panasonic GF1.... It's a Micro 4/3 camerathis lens is a for 4/3 camerasSo just be aware that you need a DMW-MA1 Mount Adapter to fit this ring on an micro 4/3.I must admit that it is my fault but a focus on this possible problem would have been apreciate.I ordered the Adpator... so didn't have time to use the lens.. but I'm confident

Probably the best thing about this lens is that it is almost up to par with Olympus. At best, it is sharp, with beautiful bokeh, etc, etc. Typical quality we expect from Leica-like optics (this isn't really a leica lens, but as close as you can get from Panaasonic's factories.) The bad thing is that it is not nearly as well built as Olympus. No moisture protection, so with an E-3 not a great fit. Also, it suffered from the all-too-typical "Zoom Lock" problem. A screw gets loose and it won't zoom past 25mm or so. It was a fairly easy fix, but not for everyone. A little irritating for a lens costing this much. If you suffer from this problem, please search out on the internet for the repair instructions. The fix is available for the brave ones out there. That having been said, I do like this lens. Just not as much as my spectacular 12-60mm or 11-22, which are almost bullet-proof.

I purchased the Panasonic 14-50mm f/2.8-3.5 OIS Four Thirds Lens to replace the 14-50mm f/3.5-5.6 that came with my Lumix L10 camera. Besides needing a faster lens, I needed the focus range indicator and the manual f-stops for situations where I need to use manual focus and for difficult and special lighting. The lens is very sharp and the auto-focus is quick and acquires subjects accurately. The contrast is excellent and color rendition true. The zoom function on the f/2.8 is much more compact than the f/3.5 lens, extending the lens housing only about 1/2 inch from 14mm to 50mm; this was a pleasant surprise, as the lens that came with the camera extended 2+ inches from 14mm to 50mm. The short zoom extension makes the lens much easier to handle when making quick changes in the zoom, plus the lens isn't sticking out an extra 2 inches to catch on things when I leave it 50mm. I am very happy with this lens and recommend it to anyone with a four thirds camera that needs a faster, more compact 14-50mm zoom.

This is a lens that adheres nicely to the Leica tradition. It's larger and heavier than other lenses that cover similar focal lengths, but it is faster and sharper than those lenses also. This is my new lens of choice for my G2.

The clarity of this Leica-Panasonic lens can't be matched by Canon or Nikon. I can say that because I conducted head-to-head tests (not scientific, I'm sure) with this lens against the professional Canon and Nikon series lenses and cameras. My wife and I could both easily see how much clearer the photos are with the Panny-Leica. This holds true for pure Panasonic branded lenses, too, because Leica and Panasonic created a joint venture and a state-of-the-art Panasonic manufacturing plant to produce the Lumix lenses. The 14-40 kit lens with the Lumix GH2 was equally clear.Three drawbacks with this Leica lens - 1) the autofocus takes about 2 seconds - terribly slow. Still works for me. Does not allow continuous focus or even quick focus for videos or action photography. That said, I've taken any number of HD videos with the GH2 and this lens, zooming and focusing to the main subject distance and videoing usually only around that distance. One of my family said of a video I showed on a big flat-screen, "It looks like the News." And it does!2) There are numerous web reports that this lens' zoom may suddenly fail and hang up at ~22mm, apparently due to one or more screws coming loose inside the barrel. I bought the lens in 2011 hoping that this problem had been resolved by that time. Well, mine just failed, in Oct 2014. I was unable to repair it using the DIY instructions I ran across on the web, so I sent it to Panasonic, expressing a bit of disappointment, and expecting a >$150 repair bill, per the blogs. Panasonic responded by quickly repairing and returning my lens at no charge, despite being well out of warranty!3) Because of the barrel length, the onboard flash will leave a rounded shadow, making the it far less useful for primary lighting. When used with this lens, the flash may be used for fill flash. The short-barrel kit lens or a hot shoe flash would likely work well.I'd also like to shout out to Eldar and Jack at PhotoCraft, in Burke, VA, which sells the Lumix line and sold me my equipment. They are excellent, worked with my special needs, and got me exactly what I want for a reasonable price. I love my Lumix system, guys.THIS FIVE STAR RATING IS PRIMARILY DIRECTED TO PANASONIC, FOR THEIR GREAT SERVICE AND FOR THE NUMEROUS GREAT PRODUCTS I STILL HAVE FOR MANY YEARS. EXCELLENT COMPANY - THANK YOU!

everything about this lens is awesome. if you are thinking about it for your kit, it is clean, crisp, and well made. however, don't buy the lens on its own, it's cheaper to buy it as part of the DMC-L1 bundle!! i don't understand the pricing of this lens as a standalone. right now on amazon the amazing DMC-L1 (which is comparable to the Leica Digilux 3) is available for around 800 bones and comes with this exact lens. i know!!

I just took the Leica 14-50 out on a two day photo shoot in New Mexico. I use the lens on my Olympus e-410. I was totally impressed with the corner to corner sharpness. The image stabilization works well. Is this lens worth the money? The answer is yes if you want the best!