Panasonic AF 42,5/1.7 G ASPH POWER OIS

I’ve had this lens for 3 years, and it has produced some of my favourite images from the m43 system. Don’t think of this as just a “portrait lens” (although it is excellent in that role) - it is so much more versatile. What is rarely mentioned in reviews is that this lens has great close focus ability, making it possible to capture small flowers, bees and butterflies with great bokeh. I don’t know of a full-frame prime that can do what this lens does so effortlessly.

This is my favorite MFT lens, small, light, fast and sharp. I use it for portraits with really nice results. I also use it for micro shots of flowers and similar, although it is not really a macro lens. Highly recommended!

Excellent image quality. Very fast aperture. Ultra fast and accurate AF performance with no focal plane issues. Very very nice focus ring. Little to no distortion/CA fringeing. I love the look of glass from the front when wide open. Very small lens and light weight. Has a very effective power OIS stabilization. I cant find a bad thing at all. Compare this to my sigma art 60mm f2.8 this one wins because of low light performance and ois stabilization. The sigma 60mm has a look of its own. Its got really good bokeh aswell. Id give this a 9 overall because nothing is perfect. I cant find anything that is bad about this lens. Its got metal mount aswell.

Good Points: Lens stabilisation; compact size; image quality; f1.7 aperture; filter thread. Improvement Points: Not as nice as Panasonic-Leica lenses for build quality and looks but perfectly serviceable; lack of weather sealing.

This was one of my favorite lenses in micro 4/3. It\'s light, fast, has very good sharpness across the frame and nice colors. Bokeh looks good, a bit less smooth than with the 45mm f/1,8 but not a big deal. The lens focuses down closer than the competition. It\'s not a true macro but it\'s definitely useful if you like taking close up of flowers or little objects. Thanks to this feature, it\'s very versatile and can serve for portraits, general use and close up/macro. The only thing I didn\'t like is that dust started to accumulate inside the optics very quickly. This happened to me 4 times with 3 different samples. On the other side, my 3 years old Olympus 45mm f/1,8 has immaculate glass. I tend to think Panasonic lenses are less sealed than Olympus ones...