The Greatest Nifty 50 Made! Panasonic 50mm f1.8 S Overview

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I’m an enormous fan of Panasonic’s smaller lenses. And I feel Panasonic has rather a lot to show the remainder of the picture business. A working example is the Panasonic 50mm f1.8 S. It checks off all of the wants one may have and does so at an reasonably priced worth. What’s much more thrilling is that it does this higher than every other model in the marketplace. And in the event you’re going to purchase any lens for the L-mount, that is the completely important one. In reality, it may in all probability be the lens that makes you swap techniques.

Editor’s Word: I purchased the Panasonic 50mm f1.8 S of my very own accord. And belief me, I’m glad I did! We declare this to let everybody know we aren’t paid by producers, and our critiques are trustworthy. We’ll additionally obtain an affiliate fee on the purchases made utilizing our hyperlinks.

Too Lengthy, Didn’t Learn

The Panasonic 50mm f1.8 S is an unimaginable lens. It’s reasonably priced, focuses shortly, has nice picture high quality, is climate sealed, light-weight, and useful. Panasonic has taken the nifty 50 and actually stepped it up. The remainder of the business ought to acknowledge this.

Professionals and Cons

Professionals

Lovely picture qualityFast focus to get the primary targetWeather sealingSmall sizeLightweightIncredibly reasonably priced for what it’s

Cons

I want it had been metalNot so improbable and dependable autofocus monitoring, however good for one shot. When it hits, it nails it

Gear Used

We examined the Panasonic 50mm f1.8 S with the Leica SL2s and a Flashpoint flash.

Tech Specs

Specs desk taken from LensRentals.

35mm-Equal Focal Size
75mm
Angle of View
47°
Aperture Blades
9, Rounded
Autofocus
Autofocus
Model
Panasonic
Compatibility
Full Body
Diameter
2.9″
Further Low-Dispersion Parts
1
Filter Measurement
67.0mm
Fluorite Parts
22
Focal Size
50.0-50.0
Teams/Parts
8/9
Hood Included
Sure
Picture Stabilization
No
Merchandise Kind
Lens
Size
3.0″
Lens Kind
Regular Vary and Regular Vary
Max Aperture
1.8
Most Magnification
0.14x
Mfr. Mannequin Quantity
S-S50
Minimal Aperture
22.0
Minimal Focusing Distance
1.5feet
Mount
L Mount
Extremely Excessive-Refractive Index Parts
1
Weight
0.7 lb.

Improvements

Whereas not essentially progressive, Panasonic has made the primary 50mm f1.8 underneath $500 that boasts climate sealing. In comparison with the remainder of the business, there’s no compromise right here. Sony’s 50mm f1.8 doesn’t have climate sealing and has a number of points. Canon’s doesn’t have climate sealing both. Nikon’s has climate sealing however is pricier. And Sigma and Leica don’t make a nifty 50. Within the full-frame digicam world, Panasonic is educating the masterclass on the nifty 50.

Ergonomics

The Panasonic 50mm f1.8 S has a 67mm filter thread within the entrance. So, after all, this isn’t an enormous lens.

Right here’s a view of it from the facet. The one management is the change on the facet. In fact, there’s additionally the focusing ring that’s lined in ridged rubber.

Right here’s one other view from the highest. The lens has a totally plastic physique, and the one main management is the focusing ring. It additionally offers quite a lot of the grip wanted for the lens.

Construct High quality

Right here’s the place I’m barely torn. First off, I want the Panasonic 50mm f1.8 S had a steel exterior and climate sealing. I’ve obtained private qualms with plastic and the setting. However I do know that the business strikes like a mummified sloth. So I’m not going to carry that towards Panasonic.

By way of and thru, the Panasonic 50mm f1.8 S is climate resistant. So that you’ll have few worries about that. We took it within the rain, obtained splashes on it in the neighborhood backyard, and it saved working. You possibly can’t ask for something extra, actually. Then within the arms, it’s small and light-weight. The rubber ring offers greater than sufficient grip. And even on the heavy Leica SL2s, it feels balanced. Severely, I can’t complain right here.

Ease of Use

In fact, this can be a nifty 50. So it’s straightforward to make use of. Put the Panasonic 50mm f1.8 S on any L-mount digicam, and it ought to carry out very effectively. There’s a focusing change on one facet. So, be sure to don’t unintentionally hit this. However in all my time utilizing the lens, that didn’t occur.

Autofocus

Right here’s the place I’m tremendous impressed. The Panasonic 50mm f1.8 S focuses extremely fast. It outperforms even Panasonic’s 50mm f1.4 Lumix S Professional lens. Relating to nailing a shot the primary time round, it does an incredible job. The place it begins to journey up a bit is with monitoring a topic. The Leica SL2s is a reasonably succesful digicam, however even this combo has a number of points.

I didn’t check it on Panasonic digicam our bodies. However for what it’s value, the Leica SL2s has a few of the most superior and finest autofocusing for photojournalism within the L-mount. And I do know I’m not alone on that although. I just lately shipped my Leica SL2s to Reviewer Brittany Smith, and he or she mentioned it ran laps round different cameras. 

Talking when it comes to photojournalism, I can’t complain in regards to the Leica SL2s with the Panasonic 50mm f1.8 S. Mixed with the face/physique detection mode, it does an incredible job.

Picture High quality

The Panasonic 50mm f1.8 S excels in just about each class of our testing. It could supply good bokeh, lovely coloration, and sharpness. It doesn’t have character per se, however it additionally doesn’t exhibit something that people nowadays would think about to be flaws. Once more, we used the Panasonic 50mm f1.8 S with the Leica SL2s in vivid mode. 

Bokeh

The Panasonic 50mm f1.8 S has 9 aperture blades. And naturally, that’s greater than sufficient to offer it creamy bokeh. Is it the creamiest 50mm? No. I’ve seen creamier for positive. However I feel that for a 50mm f1.8, it’s greater than usable.

Above is a photograph from the Panasonic 50mm f1.4 Lumix S Professional. That lens has 11 aperture blades. And it’s far creamier in relation to bokeh. Under is the Leica 50mm f1.4 SL. Once more, the f1.4 lenses are creamier. However what else would you anticipate?

Coloration Rendition

The Panasonic 50mm f1.8 S renders lovely, vivid colours. Mixed with the vivid coloration rendering of the Leica SL2s, you’ll be pleasantly stunned at how lovely they’re. This transfers into the ProStandard ICC profile in Seize One. There’s going to be a lot extra info so that you can edit if you want.

Lens Character

This lens has no points with fringing or main distortion issues. However on the similar time, it additionally doesn’t have any character to it the way in which a Leica lens would. It doesn’t have a particular “look” to it.

Sharpness

The picture of this eggplant was shot with a flash bouncing off of the soil to light up it from under for a extra balanced shot. As you’ll be able to see, the Panasonic 50mm f1.8 S could be fairly sharp when a flash is added to the scene. That is nonetheless one thing that LEDs can’t do.

Further Picture Samples

From day one, The Phoblographer has been enormous on transparency. Nothing from this evaluation is sponsored. Additional, numerous people will put up critiques that present numerous enhancing within the pictures. The issue then turns into that anybody and everybody can do the identical factor. It’s not exhibiting what the lens can do. So we’ve a bit in our Further Picture Samples space to indicate edited and unedited pictures. From this, you may make a choice for your self.

Edited

Unedited

Conclusions

Likes

Small sizeLightweightFast focusingBuild high quality – it’s climate sealedImage high quality is sweet!Fairly reasonably priced for all the pieces they’re stuffing in right here 

Dislikes

I want it had a steel physique.

The Panasonic 50mm f1.8 S is a reasonably apparent selection for the Editor’s Alternative award. Panasonic has executed what a great deal of producers have refused to. They’ve made a 50mm f1.8 that’s underneath $500 and boasts all of the bells and whistles doable. The one different weather-sealed 50mm f1.8 is from Nikon, which is extra expensive for arguably worse efficiency. However Panasonic did it! This factor has all the pieces. It focuses shortly for photojournalism work (however not essentially for road images with sufficient reliability). It’s weather-sealed and light-weight. And most of all, it delivers good picture high quality. 

For $449, you actually can’t complain. That’s why I’m giving this lens 5 out of 5 stars and the Editor’s Alternative Award.