Product Description

The Lumix G VARIO 45-200 mm f/4.0-5.6 fromPanasonic lets you see further while lightening your load. This telephoto zoom lens is compatible with Micro 4/3-formatsensors - equivalent to 90-400mm (35mm) - and is extremely compact at nobigger than 10 cm long. The Lumix G VARIO 45-200 mm f/4.0-5.6 incorporatesPanasonic's Mega O.I.S. stabiliser, which makes it easy to shoot crystal-clearshots in all kinds of lighting conditions, and removes blur caused by handshake. Broaden your horizons with the superb Lumix G VARIO45-200 mm f/4.0-5.6 from Panasonic.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12428 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Panasonic
• Model: H-FS045200E
• Released on: 2009-05-17
• Dimensions: .84 pounds

Features

• The Lumix G VARIO 45-200 mm f/4

Manufacturer's Description
The Lumix G VARIO 45-200 mm f/4.0-5.6 from Panasonic lets you see further while lightening your load. This telephoto zoom lens is compatible with Micro 4/3-format sensors - equivalent to 90-400mm (35mm) - and is extremely compact at no bigger than 10 cm long. The Lumix G VARIO 45-200 mm f/4.0-5.6 incorporates Panasonic's Mega O.I.S. stabiliser, which makes it easy to shoot crystal-clear shots in all kinds of lighting conditions, and removes blur caused by handshake. Broaden your horizons with the superb Lumix G VARIO45-200 mm f/4.0-5.6 from Panasonic.

Box Contains
1 x Lens

Customer Reviews

Very good lens!
Considerably heavier than the camera it's designed to work with and those with chubby fingers may have problems as the lens body comes very close to the hand grip. However, the images produced are very good and I was surprised at the quality on maximum zoom, better than similarly priced Sigma lenses for DSLRs in my opinion but then the G1 produces excellent images anyway!!! Compliments the kit 14-45 lens and the image stabilisation works well. It's worth noting that if you own a blue or red G1, the lens is only available in black AFAIK!

Great Lense
Designed specifically for the Lumix G1 camera this lense features Optical Image Stabilisation which appears to act extremely well. Taking full zoom shots of a lighthouse some 6 or 7 miles away produced images far better than expected.
The lense is very expensive but then so is the camera but together they work extremely well.

Very good image quality - better than I'd hoped for!
I normally use a Nikon D700 SLR but for when I want to go ultra light I swap to my Panasonic GF1. The 20mm lens with that camera is great for general purpose but not good for distant detail.

So I bought this lens - at £249 I didn't expect amazing image quality but I was plesantly surprised!

I compared it to my partner's Fuji s8000 super zoom and also my Nikon D700 with 70-300mm lens. The Fuji's max zoom is around the same as this Panasonic lens - 400mm. The results from the Fuji are appalling! Soft image even in the centre of the image. The Panasonic was nice and sharp in comparison. However the Nikon cleanly beat both of them with a phenomenal image quality - very, very sharp.

However my Nikon is 2000g in weight with the 70-300 lens - the Panasonic + lens just 750g - I know which one I enjoy carrying on a long hike!

I also compared image stabilising - the Panasonic's is nowhere near as good as the Nikon's but still better than nothing. The Nikon stabilising lets me shoot 3 stops lower - I find the Panasonic its just 1 stop on the whole. Its also a very quiet lens - which I appreciated when shooting some nervous deer recently and got some acceptable shots with the Panasonic lens.

So while this lens may not beat a top SLR it does produce images far better than a compact SuperZoom camera and a worthy addition to your camera bag.