Panasonic Lumix S 18mm F1.8 Review

Introduction

Ease of Use

The Panasonic Lumix S 18mm F1.8 is a small, compact and very light wide-angle prime lens, and measuring 8.2cm / 3.23inch in length, 7.36mm / 2.90inch in diameter and weighing in at a mere 340g / 0.75lb.

When mounted on the Lumix S1R mirrorless camera that Panasonic sent us for testing, the Lumix S 18mm F1.8 feels extremely well-balanced and suitable for both two-handed and one-handed use.

Build quality is very good. The Panasonic Lumix S 18mm F1.8 feels solid in your hand, even if it is mostly made out of plastic, with a metal lens mount.

It’s also weather-proof, being both dust and splash resistant and working all the way down to -10 degrees. We successfully used it in more inclement conditions with no adverse effects.

There is no built-in Image Stabilisation, though, with the lens instead relying on the camera body’s stabilisation system (if it has one).

In terms of controls, there is just one – a focus mode switch with the standard AF/MF settings.

The Panasonic Lumix S 18mm F1.8 lens has a fairly wide focus ring with a ridged, rubberised grip band.

There are no hard stops at both ends of the range, making it more difficult to set focus at infinity.

Polariser users should be pleased that the 67mm filter thread doesn’t rotate on focus.

When it comes to auto-focusing, the Panasonic Lumix S 18mm F1.8 is a fairly quick performer, taking around 0.15 seconds to lock onto the subject when mounted on the Panasonic S1R camera that we tested it with.

We didn’t experience too much “hunting”, either in good or bad light, with the lens accurately focusing virtually all of the time in the single AF-S mode.

The liner motor focusing mechanism is very quiet, in fact virtually silent, making this lens well-suited to video recording as well as candid stills photography.

The lens ships with a large, round, high quality lens hood (S-S18) with a lock button, but there’s no case included.

Focal Range

The Panasonic Lumix S 18mm F1.8’s 18mm focal length provides an angle of view of 100º degrees.

Chromatic Aberrations

Chromatic aberrations, typically seen as purple or blue fringes along contrasty edges, are only conspicuous by their almost complete absence from our Panasonic Lumix S 18mm F1.8 test shots.

Light Fall-off

With the Panasonic Lumix S 18mm F1.8 lens set to its maximum aperture of f/1.8, there is significant light fall-off in the corners. Stopping-down to f/4 virtually eliminates this.

Distortion

Barrel distortion is not at all evident.

Sunstars and Flare

The Panasonic Lumix S 18mm F1.8 is capable of producing quite nice sunstars when stopped-down to f/16, as shown below. The lens is prone to flare though, especially when shooting directly into the sun.

Macro

The Panasonic Lumix S 18mm F1.8 isn’t claimed to be a macro lens, but it does offer a useful minimum focusing distance of 0.18m / 0.59ft and a maximum magnification of 0.20x.

Bokeh

Bokeh is a word used for the out-of-focus areas of a photograph, and is usually described in qualitative terms, such as smooth / creamy / harsh etc.

In the Panasonic Lumix S 18mm F1.8 lens, Panasonic have employed an iris diaphragm with 9 rounded blades, which has resulted in very nice bokeh in our view for an ultra-wide-angle lens.

We do realise, however, that bokeh evaluation is subjective, so we’ve included several examples below for your perusal.

Sharpness

In order to show you how sharp the Panasonic Lumix S 18mm F1.8 lens is, we are providing 100% crops on the following page.