Review: the Panasonic Leica 12mm f1.4 ASPH for Micro Four Thirds

Here’s another one to add to the glut of high grade, fast aperture, Micro Four Thirds, prime lens reviews: the Panasonic Leica Summilux 12mm F1.4 ASPH lens. At first, I decided not to review this lens mostly because I prefer to work with longer focal lengths. Also, the Panasonic 12mm F1.4 lens has been around since 2016 and there are already several reviews available. The lens has been sitting in my camera bag for a while now, as I went along shooting on the streets. I’ve used it for certain shots – out of curiosity or when I needed a wide angle lens. Eventually, I’d used it enough that it made sense to review it – if for nothing else, but the sake of completeness.

It isn’t crucial to have wide apertures for very wide angle lenses since we generally want as much depth of field as possible. Even atn F1.4, it doesn’t yield that much subject isolation via shallow depth of field on a Micro Four Thirds camera. The only real advantage I can think of is in very dark conditions, when the wide aperture will help keep the ISO numbers down.  Having F1.4 gives you a lot of headroom to work with, compared to a typical F2.8 on standard zoom lenses such as Panasonic 12-35mm, or 12-60mm.

The Panasonic 12mm F1.4 lens and Lumix GH4 body were on loan from Panasonic Malaysia for review purposes only. Both the GH4 and the 12mm F1.4 lens have been returned to Panasonic at the time of writing. Neither myself nor Ming Thein are associated with Panasonic in any way, and this is an independent review. This is a user-experience based review and my approach and opinion in this article may be subjective.

Currently, the Panasonic Leica 12mm F1.4 lens is the only extra wide angle, large aperture prime lens available for Micro Four Thirds. The closest competition is the Olympus M.Zuiko 12mm F2 which lags behind by one full stop. This places the Panasonic 12mm F1.4 in a very unique position.

It is incredible how Panasonic has managed to control the size and weight (335g) of the lens. Hand-holding it on the Panasonic GH4 was comfortable and balanced. The lens construction consists of 15 elements in 12 groups, featuring 2 aspherical lenses, 1 ED lens and 2 UED lenses. The lens is weather-sealed against water splashes and dust, and the minimum focusing distance is 20cm, allowig magnification of 0.1x. The lens has dedicated aperture ring control but does not include image stabilization. For a full specification list, you can visit the official product page here. 

I used the Panasonic 12mm F1.4 mainly on the Panasonic GH4 body, but some images in this review were also shot with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II. All images were post-processed with Capture One Pro. You may view the images at larger size in the online gallery here. 

Panasonic GH4, F5.6, 1/500, ISO200

Panasonic GH4, F5.6, 1/3200, ISO200

Panasonic GH4, F4, 1/2000, ISO200

When I first used the Panasonic 12mm F1.4 lens, I wasn’t consciously shooting for a review. Therefore, I usually shot with it stopped down to F4 or F5.6 in order to get everything in focus. I was pleased with the output from the lens but I did eventually shoot with it wide open at F1.4 to test the image quality. After all, if you are getting an F1.4 lens, you would expect to be able to use it at F1.4.

The Panasonic 12mm F1.4 is very sharp at the center of the frame, even when shooting wide open. At F1.4, the lens renders images with high level of detail and good contrast. I was repeatedly pleased by the output of the lens – both for shooting subjects up close (a few meters away from the lens) and far away.

However, sharpness is not even across the frame. Sharpness is gradually lost toward the edges. Consequently, at extreme corners of the lens, it is visibly very soft. In order to get even sharpness, you may need to stop down as far as F4 or further. Some may argue that when shooting at F1.4 (in low light conditions, or to achieve subject isolation), corner sharpness is not a priority. While I do agree to a certain extent, I had hoped that the corner performance was better, especially with the premium you pay for such a lens.

Panasonic GH4, F1.4, 1/1300, ISO200

Panasonic GH4, F1.4, 1/800, ISO200

Panasonic GH4, F5.6, 1/640, ISO100

Extreme corner crop at F1.4

Extreme corner crop at F5.6

Panasonic GH4, F1.4, 1/500, ISO200

Barrel distortion is corrected automatically when shooting JPEG, and the lens profile is embedded in the RAW files and can be extracted for auto-correction (if your post-processing software allows for that). The lens and the software correction combination do a fantastic job at eliminating all traces of barrel distortion and leave only straight lines in their wake.

Chromatic aberration is an interesting topic to discuss with this lens. Obviously software correction is involved, but most of the time, the chromatic aberration is well controlled. In certain extremely complex scenes, the software correction may not successfully reduce purple fringing. For example, in very high-contrast images, the out of focus areas may exhibit severe purple fringing which are a pain to correct in post-processing.

There was this one particular image where the lens suffered purple haze at the center of the frame. I am not entirely sure why this or how this happened, but I haven’t been able to replicate it since. I reshot that particular image 5 times, and the purple haze showed up in all 5 frames. I moved away from that spot and shot the same subject from a different angle and the purple haze was gone.

Panasonic GH4, F1.4, 1/500, ISO200

Panasonic GH4, F1.4, 1/1000, ISO200 – Severe purple fringing

Panasonic GH4, F16, 1/320, ISO200 – Flare

Panasonic GH4, F1.4, 1/4000, ISO200 – Purple haze at centre of frame

Center crop from previous image to verify the subject was in focus

Panasonic GH4, F1.4, 1/3200, ISO200 – shooting at a different angle, the purple haze was gone.

Stopping down the lens to F4 or more eliminates flaws almost completely. In fact, compared to standard zoom lenses such as the Panasonic 12-35mm F2.8 lens, or the Olympus M.Zuiko 12-40mm F2.8, images from the Panasonic 12mm F1.4 have more contrast and punch in them, resulting in a livelier and more pleasing look. There is a “3-D pop” to how the lens renders images.

Flare is not a big issue with this lens, which was a surprise to me. Shooting the Panasonic 12mm F1.4 directly against strong source of light, the image appears clean of haze or ghosting. The few instances where flare occurs can be avoided by changing the angle of the shot slightly.

Autofocus is flawless on both the Panasonic and Olympus camera bodies. I managed to capture some quick action shots, which is important for me when dealing with fast moving subjects on the street. Much to my delight, I managed to capture some of my favourite shots from my recent street shooting sessions with this lens.

Olympus E-M1 Mark II, F6.3, 1/2000, ISO200

Panasonic GH4, F1.4, 1/8000, ISO200

Panasonic GH4, F4, 1/160, ISO200

Panasonic GH4, F4, 1/320, ISO200

Olympus E-M1 Mark II, F5.6, 1/1600, ISO200

The Panasonic 12mm F1.4 allows close up shooting with a 20cm minimum focusing distance. The maximum magnification of 0.1x is nothing to write home about, but if used creatively you can get interesting results shooting close up with a wide angle.

The bokeh (out of focus quality) is excellent with this lens. Scrutinizing the images at various aperture openings (F1.4 to F5.6) the background blur roll-off is very smooth and soft to look at. When shooting very close to the subject, isolation can be easily achieved, and the background just melts beautifully into creaminess. The bokeh balls remain round even when the lens is stopped down.

Panasonic GH4, F1.4, 1/200, ISO200

Bokeh comparison, F1.4, F2, F2.8, F4 – To view individual full images (no crop), kindly visit the gallery here. 

Olympus E-M1 Mark II, F4.5, 1/50, ISO200

Olympus E-M1 Mark II, F5, I/100, ISO200

Panasonic GH4, F1.4, 1/800, ISO200

What started out as a lens I was reluctant to review, became one that I actually enjoyed using tremendously.

Besides being a sharp wide angle lens, there is a pleasing quality to the way this lens renders the images. There is good amount of contrast and pop, creating a 3-D look which I normally do not see from wide angle lenses. Bokeh quality is excellent and autofocus works flawlessly. Nonetheless, the Panasonic 12mm F1.4 is not without flaws – the corner softness and chromatic aberration can pose serious problems. The corner sharpness is so bad that you need to stop down to F4 for decent results. Purple fringing is noticeable in high contrast areas, and software correction cannot account for this very well.

Despite these flaws there is currently no other alternative to a wide angle F1.4 lens. There really is no benchmark to compare to. Perhaps, it is a huge challenge to create a 12mm lens with such a large aperture opening.

If you absolutely need wide angle coverage and a F1.4 aperture, then this Panasonic Leica 12mm F1.4 lens is the only option you have currently. If F1.4 is not a priority, and you can get away with F2 or F2.8, there are more budget friendly alternatives, such as Olympus M.Zuiko 12mm F2 or the vareity of standard zoom lenses that Panasonic and Olympus offer, many of which start at 12mm for the wide end of the focal range.

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