Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-140mm F3.5-5.6 ASPH. Power OIS Review

The Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-140mm F3.5-5.6 ASPH. Power OIS ($699.99) features an ambitious 10x zoom range, but doesn’t suffer from the extreme distortion issues that often plague similar designs. It is compatible with Micro Four Thirds cameras, and offers integrated optical stabilization. The stepping motor delivers quick, silent focus that can adjust a 240fps rate, which makes it an ideal choice for the video-centric cameras produced by Panasonic. Olympus shooters can disable the stabilization via a toggle switch and take advantage of the 5-axis in-body stabilization found in its E-M5($749.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) and E-M1($1,099.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) cameras.

Due to the size of the Micro Four Thirds sensor, the lens( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) acts like a 28-280mm in full-frame terms. It’s a good wide-angle to telephoto range, making the lens an appealing option for traveling light or for outdoor use when you don’t want to worry about changing lenses in the field. Its small size and weight (3 by 2.6 inches, 9.4 ounces) balances with compact Micro Four Thirds cameras, although it may be a bit big if you pair it with a body as small as the Panasonic GM1( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window).

It accepts 58mm front filters and ships with a reversible hood. It can focus to about a foot, which gives it a decent 1:4 magnification rating when zoomed all the way to 240mm. At that working distance you’ll be able to create a shallow depth of field in shots if desired, despite the rather modest f/5.6 aperture. The build is solid; the zoom ring sits close to the base of the lens and has a textured finish and smooth operation. There’s a manual focus ring directly in front of it; the focus ring is on the skinny side, but quite useable.

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I used Imatest(Opens in a new window) to check the sharpness of the 14-140mm when paired with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF6($1,499.98 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window). At 14mm f/3.5 it exceeds the 1,800 lines per picture height we use to deem an image sharp, scoring 2,028 lines on a center-weighted test. That sharpness holds up at all but the very outer edges of the frame, where it drops off sharply to 1,213 lines. This is the only focal length at which distortion is an issue; there’s 1.6 percent barrel distortion in photos, which will cause straight lines to render with a slight outward curve. This can be corrected using software, but will result in a slightly narrower field of view. The similar Olympus M.Zuiko ED 14-150mm f4.0-5.6($1,497.50 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) is a little sharper at 14mm (2,240 lines), but it shows more distortion (2.2 percent).

Zooming to 25mm eliminates the distortion, without hurting sharpness. It scores 2,046 lines at the maximum f/4.2 aperture that it manages there, with outer edges that are quite good at 1,808 lines. Stopping down to f/5.6 bumps the center-weighted score to 2,240 lines with edges that record more than 1,900 lines. At 46mm aperture narrows to f/4.9 and sharpness holds up (1,853 lines). The very outer edges soften here to 1,546 lines, but stopping down just a bit to f/5.6 improves performance (2,014 lines center-weighted, 1,677 lines at the edges), and at f/8 the lens is sharp from edge to edge.

Image quality starts to drop off a bit around 100mm. At 97mm f/5.4 its center-weighted score is 1,739 lines, and the performance dips to 1,584 lines as you move to the halfway point between the center and edges, and 1,389 lines at the outer edges. Stopping down to f/8 isn’t a bad idea here, as it bumps the center-weighted score to 2,176 lines with edges that are quite good on their own—1,814 lines. At the maximum 140mm f/5.6 length the performance is just about the same as it was at 97mm f/5.4, but it tops 2,000 lines when set at f/8.

The Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-140mm F3.5-5.6 ASPH. Power OIS is one of the better all-in-one zoom lenses we’ve seen for any camera system. It keeps distortion under control, and while it shows some of the edge performance issues that many zooms do, image quality is acceptable throughout the range. The Olympus 14-150mm is a little less expensive and sharper, but it lacks in-lens stabilization and isn’t quite as quick to focus. If you’ve got a Panasonic camera without in-body stabilization you’ll benefit greatly from optical stabilization, especially at longer focal lengths, and Olympus shooters may find that this long zoom is a better choice due to its quick, silent focus motor and slightly wider aperture at 14mm.