Panasonic LUMIX G X Vario Power Zoom Lens, 45-175MM, F4.0-5.6 ASPH, MIRRORLESS Micro Four Thirds, Power Optical I.S, H-PS45175K (USA Black)

The Panasonic PZ 45-175mm f4-5.6 MFT lens (pleasantly!) surprised me. I had returned a Panasonic 45-200mm lens (that was relatively inexpensive and sharper than expected), which had, for me, an unacceptably high level of chromatic aberration problems. I hesitated buying this PZ ("power zoom") lens due to comments about a frequent problem with "double-imaging" at some shutter speeds with the lens used near 175mm, reportedly mediocre performance near infinity-focus, and the relatively higher price. When it appeared that new stock of the lens had arrived at Amazon (and with that, perhaps some "fixes" had been made), I decided to give it a try. I was attracted by its compact size (which doesn't change with either focusing or zooming), by its reportedly low level of CA, and by its having a power zoom lever (possibly useful while shooting video). What I found with the sample I received was that the image was sharp to the image corners even "wide" open at infinity-focus (and also at close-focus) throughout its zoom range, its distortion level was low, its CA level was also low, its illumination was quite even, and its resistance to flare and ghosting was high. I then checked it with many photos shot at 175mm in the potentially "offending" shutter speed range of 1/60th to 1/200th second. Only one of the photos was not sharp (but it did not show double imaging with in-focus high-contrast edges...). (BTW, this lens that I recently bought from Amazon had the firmware update version 1.1 already installed.) Next, for "fun", I tried some low-light photos at 175mm and f5.6 with the camera used hand-held for 1/10 and 1/15th second exposures at ISO 1600 with the G5. MUCH to my surprise, some of the photos were quite sharp, even when viewed at 100% - and they even looked good otherwise! (I'm still getting over this surprise!) This turned out to be a VERY good lens! I tried adding a Nikon 3T achromatic close-up lens to the front of the zoom (I needed a 46mm-to-52mm step-up adapter ring to do this), and found that this turned the 45-175mm zoom into a useful and sharp macro zoom lens! (BTW, this Nikon 3T achromat also works well on the Panasonic 14-45mm zoom lens without an adapter.) I then tried stacking the 3T and a 5T, which both have the same power) to double the power (I adapted the 5T to the front of the 3T with a 52mm-to-62mm step-up adapter ring). This also worked very well, and it resulted in very high magnification with the zoom set at 175mm. I then tried shooting video with this lens. The G5 is unusual for a camera of its type in having an on-body zoom lever for use with the couple of Panasonic "PZ" lenses available, of which this is one. These PZ lenses have zoom levers, but I found it easier to control zoom smoothness (while keeping the camera steady) if I used the zoom lever on the camera rather than using the one on the lens. The G5 also has (in its menus) additional zooming speed-rate selections making it possible to have the very slow zoom rate that I prefer to use while shooting video. But, this lens is not parfocal (it changes focus with zooming), and there have been a couple of problems resulting from this and with the lens aperture changing with zooming. I will see if I can find ways around these problems, and if successful, I will report my findings here. An additional note: a rattle can be heard as the lens is tilted. This is normal when the power is off (it is not indicative of a fault). I am VERY happy with using this lens for still photography, and I'm hoping to find ways of using it while zooming during the shooting of video. Recommended! UPDATE: I found that by using "Continuous-Focus" set to "On" in the video menus, and with the auto 23-segment AF focus pattern selected, I can get much smoother exposures with zooming while shooting video while using the on-body (G5 and G6) zoom toggle. --DR

I have just gotten into micro 4/3. I was impressed by the reviews of newer micro 4/3 bodies. I am an old 35mm user and I previously had an E-volt 410 which I really liked. But I wanted something smaller and that would capture video. There are some great point and shoots. But I wanted faster focus, crisp and fast shooting, and to have access to a wide variety of lenses and creative control. I also wanted something that took good video. But I also wanted to go light and compact. So here is why in my opinion someone wanting a telephoto for their m43 should consider this over the 45-200. Light and compact. That had to be one of the reasons you went for m43. This weighs I believe 210 grams compared to 380. It is also remarkably compact. It takes astounding video. Probably you went m43 to also have good video capabilities. I watched many YouTube videos of the 45-175 in action compared to the 45-200. You can see a definite edge to the 45-175. It focuses faster when zooming in and out and is a much smoother zoom. The video quality is also professional quality. Well I can say outside I have gotten the best video I have ever shot from cameras and even stand alone camcorders. Panasonic calls these lenses 'HD' and they were designed with pictures AND video in mind. And it shows. Pictures are incredibly detailed and vibrant. I am using a DMC-G3 and outside there is a very fast focus. It locks quickly. I haven't noticed the problems of double images. This lens was shipped with firmware 1.1 so maybe that is why. I was concerned about that but ultimately even if it had been an issue I think the positives and the 95% of the time when it probably would not have been an issue were okay with me. There is good bokeh. I have uploaded a pic of leaves taken the day I got the lens on intelligent auto on the G3. I think pretty impressive. Is the lens perfect? No. Indoors it can hunt for focus and the video is good indoors but not superb like the outdoors. But I did not intend this to be my indoor lens. Don't get me wrong I have taken many good pictures and videos indoors trying out the abilities of the lens, it is just better suited to outdoors. Overall given how light and compact it is, the excellent picture results, and the even better outdoor video, I highly recommend this lens. I feel like I am getting a lens for the next 5 to 10 years of m43 use. I personally like taking video. Maybe because I have a 2.5 year old. So spending a little more for a nano-coated much more compact lens was worth it. Check out the YouTube videos. If video and picture quality is important as well as size and weight this is the definite zoom lens you should get for your m43.

I purchased this lens because I wanted to stay true to the 4/3 concept of being portable and lite weight but I needed a great zoom for wildlife. I use this on a GF3 that came with the 14-42 kit lens. I have to say that this lens is so much better than the kit lens that I just don't use it any more. It is less weight, the brightness and the colors are so much sharper that I even use it for indoor and portrait. I will say here that I have to back up further just like a prime lens I have to move to an angle and distance and the right light to create the right photo but it does work far better than the kit lens. The biggest problem is the focus in that whatever is closest will be focused and the rest will be slightly blurred. This creates wonderful shots if that bird you want to capture is up front but if back in the tree then the closest limb becomes your focus. It is tack sharp at maximium distance and everywhere in between. I do get the ocasional blurry shot but that is me and not the lens. The video is spectaculer with this lens and you need to remember one thing about pictures and video with this lens, it is an HD lens so by downloading to your computer if you do not have HD it won't look as good. I use an HD cable to my 60" HD TV and the pictures and video are the best I have ever taken and I come from a long time affiliatin with Canon DSLR cameras with many lenses. I chose to change because of the weight. I plan to buy the Panny 25mm lens, ( 50mm equivalant) and use this lens along with that one for all my photo and video needs. I don,t think any other lens will be needed and if I do need a wide angle, well I still have the kit lens for 28mm. I bought the camera on closeout and will upgrade somewhere in the future to one with EVF but the lenses will be fine for down the road, and as for the earlier ratings involving double imaging, well that doesn,t happen anymore if you have a recent camera with the firmwire upgrade. I find the little poorly reviewed GF3 to be a pretty darn good camera with this lens. If you doubt the ability of this lens and you have a pretty decent camera I urge you to give it a try as the images I pull up on an HD TV are are night and day between this and the kit lens.

Moved from full-frame to MFT, hoping to lighten my gear - mainly the telephoto lens. Using the OM3 with 12-45mm. So I tried the 35-100mm and 45-150 after reading good things, and returned both. I wanted to love the 35-100 - the silver version is a beautiful, tiny lens. But alas, the range was just not that handy, and the quality was sub par. The 45-150 was bigger and less pleasing to use, but offered more range. Alas, the quality was sub par. They both exhibited a lot of chromatic aberration and sharpness was lacking. I was weary of the 45-175 since I read the improvement in quality, if any, is insignificant and the price was double, and because of the zoom-by-wire. Well, let me tell you what I like about this lens: 1) Off the bat, I turned out to love the zoom-by-wire! Even though I only shoot stills, it is pleasing and relaxing. Zooming is smooth and kind of... limitless? Sounds funny, I know. But switching back to my pro 12-45 manual zoom lens is the hard part! It feels constricting in the boundaries and kind of jumpy, through no fault of its own apart from being a normal manual lens. The only bad part is that rarely my grip would catch the zoom lever and I'd have a moment of not being sure while it's not zooming like I wanted, but not really a bother. 2) As lightweight as the 45-150. Coming from full frame, I used to carry the nikon 75-150mm, about 500 grams - and that's as compact as they come in FF. The 45-175 gives me more than twice the reach (350mm eq.) for less than half the weight. 3) Does not extend with zoom - I love that in a lens. Both better for lens durability (mechanically and through dust getting through) and kind of reduces the toy factor of the two previous I tried. 4) Build is good, while both the others felt cheap. 5) Range feels enough. 6) It is sharp enough to crop X2. 7) ZERO chromatic aberration. All edges are smooth. 8) Good colors. 9) Bokeh - frankly, I love it, though sometimes it is not buttery smooth, it has character. It is not a pro lens, BUT when people say that about the 35-100 and the 45-150 it means something completely different from this one. The first two are both very obviously on a different level from pro. This lens, at least my copy, literally has no faults in image. It is not a pro lens "only" in the sense that it's not fast (aperture wise), build is not premium, no weather sealing, no buttons. And you will probably not fall over and fall in love looking at the photos and then want to use no other lens for a year. But for the weight class, that's more than good enough for me - since a pro, fast, premium lens of the same range would weigh 3 times as much and I would not bother carrying it on hikes. The images are worthy of being displayed alongside your images from the really good lenses and will not stand out as amateur quality. So what is there to complain about? Only the price. Though it is justified to pay more than the 35-100, 45-150, it is not so justified to pay more than a used eBay copy of the same condition, and I see it there for like 50$ less. The extra is just for using Amazon, but I couldn't be bothered to return and buy anew.

This lens got some bad press in the beginning regarding IS problems. Several users reported double images at certain shutter speeds. It sounded pretty ugly but I also found reports from several users that loved the lens and reported good results with no problems. I bought the lens reluctantly and had a "test program" worked out to thoroughly check the IS problems as well as the image quality. When it arrived, I upgraded the firmware to 1.1 and began to take pictures at all focal lengths and shutter speeds. I shot many, many shots at 1/160th second, which was reported as the worst single speed where IS failed. To the point, I have shot hundreds of pictures with this lens and have not had a single IS problem, not one! The quality of the images is as good, or better, than any zoom lens I have ever used. It seems especially sharp at max zoom. The lens is now getting good reports on the same forums where the IS problem was reported. This lens is light and handy, less than 1/2 pound, and is a perfect mate for the smaller m43 cameras. Image quality is excellent at all focal lengths and all shutter speeds. The power zoom lever is a nice feature, especially for zooming during video. IS on the lens is EXCELLENT and the view through the EVF is very smooth and stable. Anyone needing this sort of lens that has reservations due to the early reviews about IS, should be assured that the problem, if there was one, has been fixed. I'd recommend ordering the lens,upgrading the firmware, testing it, then enjoying it.

Got the 45-175 X to replace the 45-200. It is half the weight and the diameter is much smaller, which made it much easier to fit in the camera bag. Initial testing was good, but some images appeared very soft when they shouldn't be. After digging through some forums and reading up a lot, I found this lens has a vibration issue that causes a "double image". Some people attributed it to the OIS (stabilization) but that is not the case. I did some test photos with the shutter speed between 1/60th and 1/200th second. I know this isn't a safe shutter speed for the long end of the telephoto but you can tell the difference between motion blur and the double image problem. Taking 18 photos, at least 10 of them showed the double image. I took another 18 with OIS on and again 10 or so had the double image. This was after I updated the firmware to 1.1. I'm pretty positive that there is something wrong with the stabilization lens, such that it sometimes vibrates even with OIS off. I had the same issue with the 14-42X lens so it's going back as well. There goes my small kit! I initally thought the issue was only when OIS was on, which wouldn't matter to me on an Olympus E-PM1 as the stabilization is always off if there isn't a dedicated switch on the lens to turn it on and off. Unfortunately it always happens and will ruin a good percentage of your shots. I could not recommend this lens to anyone until Panasonic fixes the issue and new reports come out of people using and testing it successfully.

The overall picture quality is pretty good (contrasty and sharp), though not as punchy and crisp as Leica 12-60 at overlapping focal lengths. I think the results are similar to those produced by Lumix 45-150mm lens, though I conducted a limited test only at f/5.6 comparing the two lenses at various focal lengths. It does seem to be better at 150mm and it is still good at maximum 175mm, which the other lens does not offer. It is compact and light enough for travel, though it is a tad longer than the 45-150mm. The power zoom ring creates smooth zoom motion, and allows for zooming while filming video, which is something that 45-150mm cannot do, as its physical zoom ring is grabby. In order to complete an inexpensive and light-weight travel set, take along Lumix 25mm f/1.7 and Lumix 12-32mm kit zoom, both of which are amazing value considering their high level of performance.

I've been using this lens for the last couple of months with Olympus E-PM1 to great success. Very sharp wide open at all focal lengths even for distant objects. I have not experienced any OIS issues others have been reporting. OIS is disabled on Olympus bodies so I wouldn't know anyway. The lens is light and compact (46mm filter thread), the zooming is internal so the lens does not extend. Power zoom feature (optional) is very useful for video and also for stills. I find it very precise and superior to manual zooming. I use power zoom exclusively with this lens. The pace of zooming is control by how hard you tilt the toggle conveniently located on the left. Image quality is superb. Great color, contrast and sharpness across all focal lengths wide open, no need to stop down (it doesn't get visibly better anyway). My experience is in agreement with many reviews which said that the lens is optimized for wide open shooting. This is important because it is not a bright lens and one would have to watch the shutter speed so using apertures as large as possible is recommended. Compared to Olympus 40-150mm (I used to own one), Panasonic 45-175mm is better in every way: - Better optics. The lens is sharper especially for shooting at a distance (you would need to stop down Oly 40-150 to f8 to get acceptable corner to corner sharpness, plus Oly is not that sharp at full zoom) - Has noticeably better contrast and color - Slightly faster AF especially at full zoom but more so in lower light (tested on same body). The AF is significantly faster during video (C-AF) vs Oly 40-150mm (same E-PM1 body) - Internal zoom (IMO, all zooms should be like this, we're in 2012) - Power zooming (invaluable for video). Yet regular manual zoom is still there - Useful additional zoom range (175mm vs 150mm) - The lens is supposedly a little longer than Oly 40-150mm but it feels smaller due to much smaller filter thread (46mm vs 58mm) and feels much smaller in actual use due to internal zooming (Oly feels gigantic when extends and easily overwhelms small m43 cameras) - MUCH better build quality, rubberized zoom/MF ring, solid metal mount, made in Japan - Comes with a very nice and compact reversible hood, pinch lens cap (perfect for use with the hood) and a lens pouch