PanasonicLUMIX H-H020AE-K 20 mm Micro Four Thirds Camera Lens - Black

best value fast lens in the mft system. small light and sharp. love it. also a pancake lens and goes well with the oly pen cameras. the image staboilization on these camers imprive sharpness. the 40 mm equiv field of view uits my style.

**Not a professional photographer alert**Fantastic little lens. Compared to the 14-42mm stock on my GX1 this is a world apart. As small as you can get, very bright, and decent auto focus. So far I've not noticed the loss of image stabilisation in my other lenses. I use this for family shots with small (and fast) kids, often in low light domestic situations so it's tough on any lens to cope with everything. This works as a great all-rounder. Home shots, days out, landscapes, portraits. All come out clear and fine. I generally shoot with the GX1 in auto mode and aside from a few shots with the aperture a little too wide, or depth of field too tight, this has worked very well. Auto focus is fast and good, manual focus is quick and responsive. Body is plastic which feels a little off compared to the quality of the body and the other Panasonic lenses I've used, but easy to overlook at such a good price.

I've owned both this and the original version of the lens. Image quality is top drawer with no significant flaws. It's tiny and has no need for a hood in my varied experience. It hunts a little in low light and AF is on the slow side as well as noisy, but it nails focus nevertheless. I've never seen any reviews regarding the bulbous glass on the lens, but I notice you get off centre sunbursts from bright light sources when they're in the corners of the frame. It's a little odd. Tack sharp at f/1.7 across the frame with some vignetting (correctable with software).No difference in AF speed/noise compared to original version, but this one has a nicer look and finish, and the prices are comparable.Highly recommended as a walk around/street lens.

In this review I show the good and not so good aspects about this lens and by the time you have read this review you will most likely know if this lens is for you. The camera used for this review is the Panasonic GF6.First a word of caution, be aware of grey imports of this lens: I first ordered this lens via a seller which was `Fulfilled by Amazon' (i.e. Not Amazon's own stock); when it arrived I found that the lens came in a plain white box, with no documentation, or warranty card and without the lens storage bag that is stated in the product description. It was obviously a grey import and I felt I had no option but return it for a full refund. I then ordered the item form Amazon's own stock, this time it came in the proper Panasonic box with all the documentation. Recommendation: only order directly from Amazon's own stock, if you order from another seller I would advise that you contact them first to make sure that it is genuine UK stock and not a grey import.O.k. lets take a look at what's good about this lens:-The overall build quality is good and it looks good on the camera body.The lens has a large f/1.7 aperture; it lets in loads of light in so that one can take pictures in low light whiteout having to resort to using the camera's flash, or having to bump up the ISO which introduces noise and degrades the image and in this respect it's miles better than the standard 14-42mm kit lens.The lens has a metal mount, instead of plastic of the kit lens, so it should last for years of regular use, with greater reliability.The lens is compact and doesn't stick out too much on the camera's body, which is more convenient and less obtrusive and one doesn't need a large camera bag.Optically, the lens is very good and sharp, even at the f/1.7 maximum aperture setting. The 20mm focal length of this lens makes it ideal for general purpose use such as: street photography, group shots, landscape scenes and so on. it's not a zoom lens so your feet will have to do the job instead. Recommendation: The front lens element is very close to the top of the lens so to protect it from the elements and ones fingers, get a 46mm UV protective filter and make sure that it is the multicoated type (the multicoating helps prevent unwanted reflections and ghosting appearing in your images).Let's mow examine what is not so good about this lens:-Auto-focus performance is on slow side and the auto-focus motor inside the lens emits more audible noise during operation than compared to the standard 14-42mm kit lens. What this means is that trying to photograph ones children running around in your living room, the auto-focus is not fast enough to keep up and so one will end up with mostly out-of-focus shots. If one is shooting video in continuous auto-focus mode, the auto-focus again isn't fast enough to keep up and one also hears the noise of the auto-focus motor operation in the audio of your video. It should be noted that for most types of photography and subjects the speed of the auto-focus isn't critical and using this lens shouldn't be a problem and one can also use single-focus mode when shooting video; in the end it depends on what one will use this lens for and this is something one will need to consider before making a decision whether to buy, or not.Although continuous auto-focus is available in video mode it is not available in photo mode; the software version of the lens does not permit this operation on my GF6. The focusing speed of this lens makes it unsuitable for continuous auto-focus; however, for most types of photography this will not be an issue as single auto-focus, or manual focus modes would be used. If continuous auto-focus is essential for your photographic needs, then this lens will not be suitable.Although the front element does not rotate during auto-focus (and that's a good point), it does move in and out slightly during the auto-focus operation. This is not a problem, but care should be taken not to bump the front of the lens during use, as doing so could potentially cause damage to the lens.There is no optical image stabilization built into this lens, however, the large f/1.7 aperture more that compensates for the lack of VR, with one exception that is for hand-held video, where VR has a real positive benefit. Some four-thirds camera's models have VR built into the camera body and if this is you then this will not be an issue.The lens does not have Nano coating so it is prone to flare under certain conditions and there is no lens hood attachment to help minimize flare. Personally, I think Panasonic ought to have included Nano coating, especially when you consider the high price that they sell it for; in my view, this lens is overpriced by as much as £100.Other considerations:-This 20mm lens is not a zoom lens and your feet will have to the the zooming by moving closer, or further away from your subject.The bokeh (the out of focus areas of the image) produced by this lens is limited: This is not a fault with the lens, it's simply the law of physics; with the focal length of the lens being 20mm and the size of the four-thirds sensor being much smaller than the full-frame 35mm format, it results in something like a two stop disadvantage in bokeh performance over the 35mm format. Because of this, the lens isn't really suitable for tight head `n' shoulder portraits, the 20mm focal length falls between a wide angle and a standard lens and cannot therefore give the flattering perspective needed for portraiture; for this one needs a longer focal length lens in the region of 45mm.Final Word:-Despite the limitations and shortcomings of this lens, I like it a lot; It's nice and sharp, even wide open and works a treat in low light. The ability to use this lens in low light without ramping up the ISO, or having to use the camera's flash is really great and is an absolute must for any budding photographer. I taken off a star because of the slow and noisy auto-focus performance, but make no mistake, this is still a great lens and it has become my main lens for my GF6.

Excellent prime lens, with an unbeatable value for money for M43. I use it exclusively for photos, not for video, and it's an exciting lens. Versatile, small, excellent for manual focus, fast AF in normal situations on my GX80, even in low light conditions when there are no moving subjects. Very sharp, great image quality across the aperture range, and no CA or vignetting signals.In a word: recommendable!

Having tried both Panasonic 20mm and also the Olympus 17, I found Panny20 is better - sharper and with lively colours. focussing can be slower but in practice this is no big deal as manual focussing is much easier than the Oly17, where you have to pull a ring back and focus. On Panny this is just a one step smooth process. makes Olympus OMD10 compact and pocketable. I think it is perfect match for Olympus OMD10. Just makes the camera so portable and easy to carry and handle!!

A beautifully made lens with a large aperture that gives lovely shallow depth of field and superb low-light capabilities. It's small, solid and fairly heavy, but feels lovely in use. In low light, and particularly with close-ups the autofocus takes a little longer to lock-on - just a minor point that's outweighed by everything else.

It's a great lens. Unfortunately it arrived in a small unmarked cardboard box, in a bit of bubble wrap and without any documemtation or the protective case. This is really unacceptable and so the item had to be returned. I spoke to Amazon who said they would investigate but they don't seem to have done so. Very disappointing.