Panasonic Lumix S 40mm f/2 review

I’m pleased it is good, and I’m pleased it is a lot better than the price suggests. I can’t think of a clever ‘nifty fifty’ kind of nickname that rhymes with forty, but this is something of the bargain standard lenses that can be found in some other systems, but it is quite a lot better than those, in build and in its performance - particularly wide open. The Lumix S 40mm f/2 is a lovely little lens, and I think a lot of Lumix S users will enjoy its company.

Love It Not for Me

Pros

• Very natural angle of view
• Small and lightweight ‘standard’ lens
• Fits Lumix, Leica and Sigma cameras
• Nice alternative to the 50mm ‘standard’
• Low price

Cons

• No optical image stabilisation
• 7-bladed iris doesn't create best looking out-of-focus highlights

Panasonic’s almost-pancake 40mm makes an interesting alternative to the standard lens for Lumix users who like to travel light, says Damien Demolder

What is the Lumix S 40mm f/2

• Price: £349/$399/€349
• Mount: L-Mount
• Good for: Travel, Street, General

In a drive to keep its full frame system as small as possible Panasonic keeps releasing tiny, lightweight lenses. This fast slightly-wider-than-standard 40mm is designed for the Lumix S series, and is aimed particularly at the equally small and light Lumix S9. It fits, however, on any Lumix S camera, or indeed on any of Leica’s L-mount cameras and the Sigma BF. Tradition has it that the 50mm lens is ‘normal’ for full frame cameras, but in actual fact the diagonal of a full frame sensor measures 43.2mm, so the ‘standard’ should be more like 43mm. Consequentially, this 40mm will deliver a very natural perspective and produce pictures that take in the breadth of view that most people will see with their eyes. It sits neatly between the 50mm focal length that can sometimes feel a bit long, and the 35mm, which can sometimes feel a bit wide.

It has a plastic body to keep it lightweight, but a metal mount to fit it on the camera body, and that f/2 maximum aperture is considered pretty fast. While not an f/1.4 it still lets in a lot of light and should be good for shooting at night as well as inside without flash.

Lumix S 40mm f/2 Specification

The Lumix S 40mm f/2 is a lens designed for Leica L-mount cameras, and offers a 57° angle of view that’s slightly wider than the 47° we get with a ‘standard’ 50mm lens on full frame cameras. The maximum aperture is a very decent f/2, and the lens uses a 7-bladed iris system to close that down to a minimum setting of f/22. The closest focus distance is 30cm – the length of a ruler – at which point we can expect the magnification to be 0.17x. None of the 6 groups of elements inside the lens deals with image stabilisation – we have to rely on the camera for that – but we do get three aspherical elements to help keep the image corners sharp. There’s a total of seven elements in all.

The lack of image stabilisation (OIS in Panasonic-speak) isn’t so much of a concern in a lens like this, as a 40mm is less likely to give us camera shake

The lack of image stabilisation (OIS in Panasonic-speak) isn’t so much of a concern in a lens like this, as a 40mm is less likely to give us camera shake. The in-body stabilisation systems of the Lumix S series bodies is excellent anyway, and on most occasions will be more than sufficient to counteract regular camera shake.

The front filter thread is smaller than many other of the lightweight fixed focal length f/1.8 Lumix S lenses, which tend of use a 67mm thread – this one is 62mm in common with some of the smaller zooms, like the 18-40mm f/4.5-6.3. At 40.9mm in length this 40mm lens is slightly longer than that 18-40mm, but considerably shorter than the Lumix S f/1.8 series models.

The 69.4mm diameter of the barrel at its widest point is part of the attraction as most photographers appreciate carrying smaller and lighter kit, whether the difference is felt in the hand or the bag – the 144g weight is a big deal. It means if you take it out for the day and don’t end up using the lens it doesn’t matter too much, so you don’t have to think twice about carrying it on the off chance.

Panasonic says it has designed to avoid focus breathing and that a micro-step motor controls the iris to ensure smooth exposure changes when we need to have the aperture changed during filming. Probably the least appealing element of the specification is that 7-bladed aperture. Fewer than 9 blades rarely reassures me that out-of-focus highlights will look attractive.

Lumix S 40mm f/2 Features

This is a pretty straight-forward looking lens at first sight, as it has just a focus ring, one button and one switch on the barrel. The button though is a function button, which by default activates the camera’s autofocus but which can be programmed in-camera to perform a whole range of tasks. There are over twenty items users can assign to this button from the Lumix menu system, including AF lock, shifting the focus to a further/closer point (to shoot through a window for example) or even to activate modes not related to focus, such as exposure compensation. The switch on the barrel has a simpler life – autofocus on or off.

As most users will keep the autofocus active the majority of the time Panasonic allows us to re-commission the focus ring to provide services we might actually need. Even though this 40mm lens has a fixed focal length, Panasonic’s Crop Zoom feature means we can use the focus ring as a zoom ring to effectively crop into the image, creating a zoom-like effect. This ‘zoom’ delivers a slightly lower resolution still image, but in video fewer pixels are needed so 4K and FHD video can be captured at a range of ‘focal length’ settings.

As with many Lumix lenses we can determine the direction of rotation we want to bring the focus closer or further away when shooting in manual focus mode, and we can decide if we want consistent motion or whether a short quick spin will make the focus distance jump a long way.

Outdoor shooters will be pleased to know that the Lumix S 40mm f/2 is sealed against the elements and will withstand a degree of bad weather. Panasonic claims it’s dust, splash and freeze resistant, with seals to keep out moisture and environmental particles, and that it can operate at temperatures down to -10°C. The fluorine coating on the front element should also make it easy to clean as well.

Lumix S 40mm f/2 In Use

Unless you are also a Micro Four Thirds user and shoot with Panasonic’s 20mm f/1.7 the angle of view of this lens will feel a little unusual. It’s neither wide nor standard, but at the same time it feels very natural and remarkably comfortable to look through. I have to say I like this focal length very much, as I did Pentax’s 43mm for film and full frame cameras many years ago. It feels quite alternative, but not just for the sake of it, and it offers a view not many others are shooting.

On the camera the lens feels comfortable and natural, and its weight ensures we are never off balance. I used it first on the Lumix S9, which I suspect the designers had in mind at the time. The lens isn’t so small you can’t use it to hold the camera with the left hand, and the two look rather good together. I also used the S 40mm f/2 slightly more extensively on the Lumix S1ll and S5ll bodies and found it works really very nicely on these larger cameras as well. Sometimes small can feel out of place on non-small cameras, but that isn’t the case here.

Neither focus acquisition nor tracking seem inhibited by the lens’ internal mechanism, and I found this 40mm performs in much the same way I’d expect of the f/1.8 S series models.

Lumix S 40mm f/2: Optical Quality

This isn’t an expensive lens. In fact it is priced really very nicely, and I suspect accessibility was a greater priority than premium optical quality when it hit the drawing board. However, I have few complaints about the optical quality, and found that in everyday shooting the lens performed really rather well, turning out some extremely nice images. My preference for wide-open apertures was not punished with soft images at f/2, but perhaps widest aperture is f/2 instead of f/1.8 or f/1.4 because the optical design and the price would not accommodate dramatically wide apertures. The size of the lens would also have been a factor here, but actually f/2 is good enough for most things and is still wide enough to deliver some pleasing shallow depth-of-field for those who like that sort of thing.

As one might expect, image detail becomes finer as we close down, and certainly by f/4 we begin to reach the best the lens can offer, with f/5.6 and f/8 giving equally good resolution. In fact, things don’t really become softer until f/22, but on a 24MP sensor or a 10x8in print even that can look quite acceptable. Fans of sun stars will be pleased to learn that this lens delivers a very attractive one when closed all the way down.

Corner shading is a minor characteristic in natural subjects at the wider apertures but it all but disappears by f/4 and never approaches an irritating level. For critical subjects some correction will be needed, but the in-camera compensation works pretty well – as it does with distortion.

Out-of-focus areas and highlights are not quite a creamy and dreamy as they could be, and thus leave this lens out of the ‘exceptional’ category, but they are certainly nice enough that they don’t distract from the subject when we’re working at wide apertures, and I think most people will be very happy with the look. I wrestled with it in my head for a while and decided that the convenience of the smaller lens, and it’s equally small price, more than compensate for the slightly disruptive background detail. I wonder if 11 blades instead of 7 would have given us really fabulous optical characteristics rather than just ‘nice’.

Lumix S 40mm f/2: Verdict

I have to admit to being quite excited when Panasonic messaged to say there was a 40mm on its way to me, and between the message and the arrival of the lens I anticipated what it would be like to use. I had to cast all expectations aside once the lens arrived so I could approach it with a clear head, but I quite quickly realised that this was going to be a lens I’d enjoy using. I’m pleased it is good, and I’m pleased it is a lot better than the price suggests. I can’t think of a clever ‘nifty fifty’ kind of nickname that rhymes with forty, but this is something of the bargain standard lenses that can be found in some other systems, but it is quite a lot better than those, in build and in its performance – particularly wide open. The Lumix S 40mm f/2 is a lovely little lens, and I think a lot of Lumix S users will enjoy its company.

For more information see the Panasonic website