N°1009089 · Family detail
PanasonicCinema·MICRO 4/3 mount
Panasonic Lumix G 12-60mm F/3.5-5.6 ASPH Power OIS
Specifications01
MountMICRO 4/3
Focal length12-60mm
Max aperturef/3.5
TypeCinema · Zoom
Weight210 g
Filter size58 mm
Physical length71 mm
Min focus distance0.2 m
Max magnification0.3333
Aperture blades7
Optical elements11
Groups9
Lens hoodpetal shaped, supplied
Additional Info02
Category["Micro-Four-Thirds"]
Keywords["Micro-Four-Thirds","Panasonic","Standard","Zoom"]
Review AuthorKlaus
Review Rating5.5
Equiv Aperturef/7-11.2 (full format equivalent in terms of depth-of-field)
Other Featuressplash/dust-proof, image stabilizer
Review VerdictThe Panasonic Lumix G 12-60mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH Power OIS is a jack of (almost) all trades but a master of none. So from a user perspective it doesn't really have pronounced weaknesses but it doesn't excite either. The center resolution is great at 12mm and the borders/corners are quite decent for standard zoom lens. The results soften towards the 60mm but remain easily usable. Panasonic uses auto-correction to hide some optical weaknesses thus distortions and vignetting are well controlled unless you leave the sandbox. An original distortion of 6.5% at 12mm is a bit over the top in our book just to mention again. Lateral CAs are no issue. The build quality of the Panasonic lens is pretty good. Rather than just using a plastics, Panasonic used a metal/plastic combination for the body based on a metal mount. The inner lens tube doesn't wobble even when fully extended to 60mm. The weather sealing is certainly a very welcome feature as well. Most modern Panasonic lenses provide a high speed AF and this also applies to this one. AF operations are also silent (and accurate anyway). The Power OIS (image stabilizer) is efficient albeit a little inferior to -say- Canon or Nikon. However, at least Panasonic GX8/85/80 users can take advantage of dual IS (body+lens IS). The question remains where this leaves us in the grand scheme of things. In terms of quality the lens doesn't really offer anything over the basic kit lenses and not too much over the more extreme 14-140mm zoom lenses in the overlapping range. To be fair - the Panasonic lens shares this characterization with many similar lenses (in different systems) but as such it's also a missed opportunity once again. So it's a good lens but nothing special either.
Review Criteria{"Build Quality":7,"Optical Quality":5.5,"Price / Performance":6}
Review Published2016-08-06T13:19:00+00:00
Equiv Focal Length“24-120mmmm” (full format equivalent)
Optical Construction11 elements in 9 groups inc 3x aspherical and 1x ED element
Field Notes02
Micro Four Thirds zoom lens (12–60mm) with variable aperture f/3.5–5.6 and Power OIS stabilization, intended for general-purpose shooting and video/cinema use.
AI-assisted summary — verify against linked sourcesSources03
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Other Mounts03
No alternate mounts are indexed for this family yet.