A roll of the dice: A possibility glitchy Panasonic 20mm f1.7 lens

A roll of the dice: A possibility glitchy Panasonic 20mm f1.7 lens

I've taken a bit of a chance on this one. A while ago I picked up a Panasonic Lumix GF1 micro four-thirds mirrorless camera. I was actually looking for a used Ricoh GRiii, but this camera was one-tenth of the price and it has a really good reputation, even 15 years after its release. Besides, it would go nicely with my other Olympus Pen series mirrorless cameras. 

I have a fair number of lenses for my mirrorless cameras now, from kit zoom lenses to 'lens cap' fixed aperture lenses, and even the definitely lo-fi Experimental Lens kit and old Pentax Auto lenses, but what I was after was a dedicated lens that I can use with this camera.

The lens that I really wanted was the Panasonic 20mm f1.7 pancake lens. I've read a fair bit about this lens, both good and bad, but it was definitely the one I preferred. The biggest snag mind you was the price. Even in poor condition, the 20mm f1.7 goes for well over €150 and that was just far too much for me. Enter my  friends from the Kamerastore website. I was casually surfing the 'Not Passed' category when I came across an interesting item, a 'Panasonic 20mm f1.7 ASPH. G' lens for the amazing price of €69. Sure, I thought, but it's in the not passed category. What's going to be wrong with it?

Generally, 'Not Passed' lenses are filled with fungus or haze, so will that be the case with this one? 'The aperture mechanism doesn't work properly', read the description, 'it randomly selects aperture instead [of] the one chosen by [the] user'. In addition, 'the focusing also hunts occasionally quite a much', which I think is a reference to the really slow focusing of this lens, and I am aware this is a common problem but certainly not a deal breaker. The description concluded with the cheery: 'Otherwise it is in working condition!' Which to me suggested there was no fungus or haze inside the lens.

The randomly selecting aperture gave me pause for a while, but then I came across a thread on a micro four-thirds forum where other people reported a similar issue and how they overcame it. I also figured that I might update the firmware of the lens and hopefully,  if the issue wasn't mechanical,  it might resolve the issue. In addition, in my search for a less than perfect aesthetic I thought that this glitch might help rather than hinder. So I took the plunge and ordered the Panasonic 20mm f1.7 lens. 

Let's just take a quick look at this lens. The Panasonic 20mm f1.7 ASPH. G was released in 2009. It was replaced with the model ii in 2013, which is essentially the same lens but slightly lighter. It is an autofocus prime lens with an equivalent field of view to a 40mm lens on a full frame camera. The lens has 7 elements on 5 groups, with a minimum focus distance of 20cm, and a filter thread of 46mm.

I waited for the arrival of the 20mm f1.7 with a mixture of apprehension and excitement. I've read a lot of great things about this lens, and most vloggers on YouTube just rave about it. But still, was I wasting my time? When it came the 20mm f1.7 was in great shape, the lens was clear, the contacts on the lens mount were clean, and there were no obvious signs of damage or misuse. 

I mounted it onto the Panasonic Lumix GF1 and it clicked securely into place. This is the mark I version, the lens that would have come with a new GF1 back in the day, so this arrangement felt ... natural. I put the camera into Program mode and snapped off a few shots around the room. They looked fine. Different exposures but mostly at the widest aperture, but they were fine.

A better test would be out in the field, I thought. So I reckoned that a walk around the block was required. I took several images, on Program mode, Aperture priority mode, and Shutter priority mode ... and I couldn't tell which was which,  the lens behaved perfectly. I even tried afew close up images, and the blurred background at the widest aperture was, frankly, spectacular. 

Actually,  all of the images were spectacular and this camera and lens combination is hard to beat. I was previously looking for a Ricoh GRiii with the 40mm lens and went for the Panasonic Lumix GF1 instead. Coupled with the 20mm f1.7 lens, I think I've got a bargain for a tenth of the price.

Naturally I'll be taking this camera and lens out again soon, just to make sure that it was really too good to be true. I'm not sure if the faults showed up because it was an 'old' lens being tested at Kamerastore in a newer body, or what, but I'm sure of one thing: I'm smitten with the Panasonic 20mm f1.7 lens. 

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