Panasonic G X VARIO 12-35 mm f/2.8 ASPH. P.O.I.S review - Introduction

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Panasonic G X VARIO 12-35 mm f/2.8 ASPH. P.O.I.S

18 March 2013

Szymon Starczewski

1. Introduction

24-70 mm and 70-200 mm lenses with a fixed f/2.8 aperture are classic journalistic zoom devices. When the 4/3 system was launched on the market, featuring a sensor two times smaller than the dimensions of full frame, its creators faced a challenge to offer their users an equivalent of journalistic zooms as well. You can say they did very well. We had an opportunity to test both models, so the Olympus Zuiko Digital ED 14–35 mm f/2.0 SWD and the Olympus Zuiko Digital 35–100 mm f/2.0 and we could only praise them.

When the Micro 4/3 system was introduced to the market, it was obvious that its constructors would have to deal with the same task. What’s interesting, in that case it was Panasonic which made the first move – in 2012 they presented two lenses: the G X VARIO 12–35 mm f/2.8 ASPH. P.O.I.S and the G X VARIO 35–100 mm f/2.8 P.O.I.S. They don’t feature f/2.0 aperture like their 4/3 system equivalents but, after all, it is understandable. Mirrorless lenses are aimed at a different type of users, here the emphasis is on small dimensions so attaching such big instruments as e.g. the Olympus 35-100 mm f/2.0 doesn’t tally well with the idea of the whole system. That’s why the constructors decided to apply f/2.8 and, as a result, the camera and both lenses still fit into bigger jacket pockets or a small photographic bag.

Not so long ago, courtesy of the Fotozakupy.pl shop we have been sent the Panasonic G X VARIO 12-35 mm f/2.8 ASPH P.O.I.S. so we got a splendid opportunity to check its performance. In the next chapters we described our impressions – happy reading!

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