This lens is a love letter to street photography: and always remember that sharpness is a bourgeois concept. The Panasonic 27mm f8 is a manual focus lens that’s small and designed to go everywhere with you. Is it hard to use? At times, yes. Can be deliver sharp photos? Yes. But overall, it’s a conversation with how good you as a photographer.
Table of Contents
The Big Picture: Panasonic 26mm f8 Review Conclusions
I’d be telling a lie if I said that I didn’t admit that this lens gave me a few photos that I didn’t really want. Though at the same time, I got photos that I really ended up liking. The Panasonic 26mm f8 is a fun lens that can lend itself well to real street photography. And more importantly, it’s a lens that you’ll want to bring everywhere with you for a very affordable price. But I really wish that it were weather-resistant.
The Panasonic 26mm f8 wins four out of five stars. Want one? Check it out on Amazon.
Pros
- Small
- Lightweight
- It can be sharp, and also it won’t always be sharp
- Very fun to use
Cons
- I wish it had weather resistance
- Focus markers on the lens would’ve been very nice
- The focusing ring turns a bit too easily, and you can’t even lock it via the camera’s menu system.
Gear Used with the Panasonic 26mm f8
We tested the Panasonic 26mm f8 on the Panasonic S5 II, Panasonic S9, and the Leica SL2s. All of the units are loaners, except for the SL2s, which is ours.
Innovations
There’s truly nothing like this on the market. Lumix went and made a lens that everyone was basically afraid to make. I consider this a love letter to street photographers.
Hardware
This lens is insanely tiny. There are no controls on it except for the focusing ring. That’s it. The fact that there is no weather resistance is quite saddening. But at the same time, it’s at a very affordable price point. Compared to Nikon’s 26mm f2.8, which is a nearly $500 lens, this is smaller and lighter. Taking out the focusing motors makes this a dream to use.
In the presentation, Panasonic stated that the lens has a protective element on the front. It’s not clear if it’s Gorilla Glass. It’s surely not sapphire.
While there is no weather resistance, I shot with it out in the rain and didn’t find that it had any issues. That’s nice!
Focusing: Sharpness is a Bourgeois Concept
This is a manual focus lens. People might be intimidated by that, but if you know how to zone focus, you shouldn’t be.
I wish this lens had zone focusing markers on it so you can figure out how far away you’re focusing. I also wish that the focus ring could lock in at places or be much smoother so that it doesn’t move so easily. But honestly, I can’t complain all that much.
Due to the focusing, someone is sure to complain about sharpness. Throw that idea out the window. Take a plot of dirt in your creativity and bury the idea of sharpness in a graveyard. And in another plot, plant a garden that will foster fruit and nourishment. Sharpness will not do that for you in the same way that drinking won’t solve your problems in life. It’s instead all about the subject matter of the photograph and how you interpret it.
Turn your lemons into the finest lemonade the summer has given you.
Do I sound nuts? Maybe. But I’m so sick of overly sharp lenses, and an autofocus game that leads photographers to all make the same photographs. Do it yourself.
Ease of Use
All you’re doing with this lens is screwing it onto the camera, focusing it, and shooting. That’s all. But if you’re planning on zone focusing, then it might be a bit tougher. I wish that Panasonic had put focusing markers on this lens as it would help greatly with zone focusing. I also wish that the focusing ring didn’t turn as easily when you’re out and about shooting. Though at the same time, it also just works well. Additionally, you can’t lock the focus ring via the camera’s menu.
Image Quality: Sharpness is a Bourgeois
Sharpness is a bourgeois concept. But I’ll entertain you for a paragraph.
For anyone who wants to know if this lens is sharp, let’s not play around. Below, we have photos shot using the Leica SL2s and the Panasonic 26mm f8. They were used with the Profoto B10 and the images here are unedited. It’s sharp when you nail the focus. There’s also a lack of contrast, which isn’t really done anymore and hasn’t been the norm since the release of the Sigma 35mm f1.4 Art for DSLR lenses over a decade ago. Instead, there’s just pure sharpness.
Otherwise, we’re not here to talk about the technical stuff. Let’s focus on the art.
To understand this lens, you have to understand film photography. The incredible street photographer Daniel Arnold quotes someone else when he says that film is a conversation with failure and digital is a conversation with success. But this lens is a conversation with learning how to make the most of your failures. Some of the images will be soft due to various things. Sometimes it might be shutter blur while at other times the focus will just be off. But are you willing to admit that your work doesn’t always have to be so incredibly sharp?
What might really scare photographers away is the fact that the bokeh is pretty much useless — and that’s fine. This lens isn’t designed for the beautiful bokeh that is otherwise fetishized in our culture like you’d imagine millennials pray to the alter of avocado toast. Instead, you just have to make a good photograph with it. Sometimes you’ll get what you want, and at other times you won’t.
I used this lens primarily out and about on the subways, in Brooklyn, around Queens, etc. I documented the gentrification of the neighborhood as newcomers patronize establishments that haven’t been around or local to the area before it became gentrified. These folks also often have a very distinct look to them. I could’ve spent a long time doing this, but I didn’t have enough time. Perhaps this is the best thing that the image quality of this lens will teach you — intentionality.
There’s really nothing more to say about this lens. It reminds you to humble yourself and to approach photography differently than to constantly rely on machinery to get good photographs. Most of all, that results in you making photos that you won’t really see anywhere else.
Below, I’ll talk about five specific images that I’ve shot and why I like them.
First off, these photos were shot with zone focusing and a Kodak Portra LUT. But they were shot on the S5 II, so I ended up editing all of them.
- The image of the two women from behind is a stark, metaphorical statement. The woman on the left is a normal, typical person that you’d see walking around Jackson Heights, Queens. The woman on the right wearing the bunny ears is a completely different kind that you’d typically find in more gentrified neighborhoods. The vast space between them and the lines show how starkly different they are. We don’t need to see their faces, we can just understand so much about their mannerisms by this image. It was shot on Roosevelt Ave under the 7 train. The borough of Queens is an ever-present part of my images.
- The image of the two women walking together holding hands is something that I don’t see in other parts of NYC. Coming back to Queens, it was apparent to me how close families are with one another. This is something very much lacking in my own family growing up after my parents’ divorce. These women even dress like one another. Are they a couple? Or are they relatives? We can probably suspect that this is a mother and daughter coming out of the doctor’s office. People often say that Queens is for families, but there’s a sense of love here that I haven’t found anywhere else. Teenagers even hold their parents’ hands here.
- The photo of the man on his bike, well, come on! How often do you see elder gentlemen wearing a button down and riding a bike? This man is doing it with grace and keeping in shape. He reminds me of my grandfather who rose a bike to work every single day and would bring us all chocolate. I adore this moment so much.
- The photo of the mother and very young daughter is very touching to me. She seems to be deep in thought and talking about something with her mother who is paying attention and even looking at her as she speaks. It’s far different from how adults interact with one another.
- The man carrying laundry above his head like this is something that I never saw in Brooklyn when I lived there for a decade. I also never saw it in Ozone Park. This is a beautiful sign of strength that I love to see.
Extra Image Samples
The Phoblographer has been huge on transparency with our audience since day one. Nothing from this review is sponsored. Further, many folks will post reviews and show lots of editing in the photos. The problem then becomes that anyone and everyone can do the same thing. They’re not showing what the lens can do. So, we have a section in our Extra Image Samples area to show edited and unedited photos. From this, you can decide for yourself.
Unedited
Edited
Panasonic 26mm f8 Tech Specs
- Fixed f8 aperture
- 0.13lb
- 18.1mm long
- No weather resistance