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BEST REPORTAGE LENSES

#8 #7

NIKON PANASONIC

NIKKOR 50mm VARIO-SUMMILUX

f/1.4G £375 10-25mm f/1.7 £1799

A GREAT COMPACT, BUDGET- PANASONIC HAS MANY GREAT
friendly lens that’s renowned for its fast-aperture primes, however
sharpness, this Nikkor optic is one another interesting prospect is this
that has a place in any reportage excellent zoom lens. With a wide
kit bag. It has a compact, lightweight 20-50mm 35mm equivalent focal
body that tips the scales at only length and amazingly wide f/1.7
280g, as well as eight elements aperture, it covers all aspects of
in seven groups that do a great job traditional documentary lenses.
of keeping distortion and chromatic It’s a well-built optic that gives
aberration to a respectable Above The body is you weather-resistant quality, Above The focus
minimum. While it really excels in simple, compact and 17 elements in 12 groups, including clutch lets you easily
sharpness from f/4, wide open it’s lightweight – ideal three aspherical, four ED (extra-low switch to manual
no slouch. The centre and corners for shooting dispersion) and one UHR (Ultra-High focusing and
are still impressive enough at both discreetly. Refractive Index) optic for impressive includes a scale.
sides of the range, meaning you’ll distortion and imperfection control.
have no qualms here. For an older The central part of this lens is
lens, it does a great job. PROS extremely sharp at all apertures and PROS
One downside is the vignetting Compact and lengths, which makes for stunning Very sharp
when shooting wide open. There’s lightweight shots. The edges never quite catch optics
a rather noticeable darkening of the Great image up, but in real-world use this doesn’t Excellent
corners shooting at f/1.4, which quality show up too adversely. It also comes construction
doesn’t calm down until you pass Wide aperture with a de-clicked aperture ring for Wide aperture
f/4. This does give character to the silent operation and a focus clutch
CONS CONS
lens, and can be lessened with lens mechanism, making it ideal for
No weather Manual focus
corrections in post-processing. flipping between AF and MF quickly
sealing Expensive
Another downside is the fact that when you need it most. By all
Vignetting and bulky
it omits weather sealing, which, accounts, this is an excellent lens.
despite great image quality, may However, it’s not a cheap purchase,
make you think twice about covering SPEC and that’s why it isn’t placed higher SPEC
events in bad weather. nikon.co.uk Min aperture: f/16 up in our list. panasonic.com Min aperture: f/22
Max aperture: f/1.4 Max aperture: f/1.7
Elements: 8/7 Elements: 11/7
Filter size: 77mm Filter size: 77mm
Min focusing Min focusing
distance: 45cm distance: 28cm
DxH: 74x54mm DxH: 88x128mm
Weight: 280g Weight: 690g

RATING RATING

Above The focus ring dominates the Above The aperture ring is de-clicked
barrel design for quick and easy use. for silent operation – very discreet.

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