[Leica] Pana 20mm f1.7 on the GF 1

[cummer at netvigator.com (H&ECummer)]

> Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2009 06:44:52 +1000
> From: Geoff Hopkinson <hopsternew at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Leica] The Pana 20mm f1.7 on the GF 1
> To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
>
> Howard its an very effective environmental portrait. Bonus points for
> setting it up well for yourself too!
> I do see one fundamental characteristic of the innovative and  
> interesting
> four thirds systems that bothers me though. That is of course that  
> the crop
> factor forces the use of twice as  wide lenses as traditional 24x36.  
> By that
> I mean cropping the centre out of a 20mm shot on a 24x36 camera  
> frame in
> this case. Not unique to 4/3 of course and much more marked with  
> typical
> tiny P&S sensors as far as hyper DoF too.
>
> But I look at that neat little prime lens and think of it being  
> faster and
> much more compact than the typical zoom. I assume it ought to be  
> optically
> simpler and hence better corrected/sharper too? Those may all be due  
> to my M
> frame of reference perhaps which is not main stream.
>
> In this instance I think it works really well but Auntie Phylis et  
> al may
> not be so happy in the same seat, I guess.
> Maybe apples and oranges? Any thoughts out there?

Hi Geoff,
As several others have commented - when I put the 20mm on the GF 1 - I  
don't visualize its angle of view as a wide -
I just look at the screen and see an angle of view which is about the  
equivalent of 35mm lens in the 35 format.
What I like about the lens and the Panasonic 4/3rds system is that  
aberrations are programmed out by the software and
the final results look very, very good. How much of that is due to  
lens design and to software tweaking only Panasonic
knows for sure.  And I suspect they aren't telling. Thanks for the  
kind comment on the photo.
Cheers
Howard