A Lightweight Three-Lens Kit for Journalists

Fact: most journalists don’t want to bring that much camera gear on them. Often they need to do hybrid style work, and one of the most perfect hybrid cameras available now is the LUMIX S5 II. So what lenses should they reach for? Well, if you go with all f2.8 lenses, you’re bound to be carrying a heavy amount of gear. So we’ve got a great alternative to the traditional trinity lenses. Here’s a lightweight three-lens kit for journalists

This blog post is presented in partnership with LUMIX.

We’re going to say this right off the bat: this article is presented in partnership with LUMIX. But at the same time, we also are transparently stating that we don’t write anything we don’t truly believe in. Trust us, it has caused lots of friction in advertising campaigns with other advertisers. And if we don’t have the facts to back up what we’re saying, we won’t say it. These truly are the best full-frame cameras with a film look for good reasons.

We’re picking these lenses based on personal experience. We’ve tested and reviewed pretty much every LUMIX S lens on the market. And we can say with certainty that when rolling into a gig of some sort, these will work just fine.

Here are the best interchangeable lens cameras available now.

Why You Should Trust Us

The Phoblographer has been doing real-world photography gear tests longer than any other photography publication currently run. We also have the largest database of real-world lens reviews, amongst other things like straps, camera bags, lights, accessories, and more. Here’s why that matters:

• AI Can’t Do This Job: These days, other publications do roundups, sometimes using generative AI. That’s the same as a person researching products and then making a decision without actually trying it. All of our reviews and guides are written not just by humans but by working photographers — not AI. Computers don’t use cameras, so why would you trust AI to recommend cameras for you?
• Research and Practical Experience: Here at the Phoblographer, humans consult on what roundups to do with guidance from an editor. Then, a human goes through our database of reviews and selects the best products based on our own internal research. The human creating the roundup has practical experience with photography gear and will apply their knowledge of what’s best to the already human-based experience provided in our reviews.
• We Block AI Bots: The Phoblographer blocks indexing bots from reading our site, so what’s here can only be read here.

How We Test and Choose the Best Lenses for Journalists

• The Phoblographer’s various product round-up features are done in-house. Our philosophy is simple: you wouldn’t get a Wagyu beef steak review from a lifelong vegetarian. And you wouldn’t get photography advice from someone who doesn’t touch the product. We only recommend gear we’ve fully reviewed in these roundups.
• If you’re wondering why your favorite product didn’t make the cut, there’s a chance it’s on another list. If we haven’t reviewed it, we won’t recommend it. This method keeps our lists packed with industry-leading knowledge. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
• When we test lenses, we’ve got various things in mind. First off, we consider who might want to buy the lens and what they might do with it. With that in mind, we try to tackle at least three genres of photography with that lens in a variety of situations. If the lens has weather resistance, then we’ll test it accordingly with a weather-resistant camera. We also test the autofocus of the lens in continuous mode, single mode, with exposure preview effects, without those effects, and then with all the major image quality parameters. These days, no one really makes a bad lens — but some are far better than others. The same applies to working with cameras.
• In this specific roundup, we’re basing our findings on the reviews that we’ve done. We’re choosing a favorite, but we’re also giving photographers a bunch of others that they might like, depending on how they shoot.

The Lens We Really Think You Need: LUMIX 24-105mm f4

As a nearly perfect alternative to the traditional 24-70mm lens, the LUMIX 24-105mm f4 as our favorite pick. It’s lightweight, image stabilized, pretty fast to focus, and versatile. If you’re worried about performance in low light, you shouldn’t be. LUMIX has offered multiple firmware updates to their cameras and has given them so much more life over time. For the money, it’s really hard to beat this level of performance.

Why It’s So Great

• Image stabilization is excellent in most cases; but most effective during the daytime.
• Solid image quality, very sharp!
• Nice bokeh for portraits
• Very versatile
• Probably as compact as you’re going to get for this system
• Perhaps the best current option at this zoom range as Leica has nothing that is a constant aperture and Sigma’s lenses are clones of their DSLR options.
• Built incredibly well
• Fairly priced

Tech Specs

These specs are taken from the Lensrentals listing.

• 24-105mm standard focal macro zoom F4 L-Mount for LUMIX S Series Full-Frame L-Mount Lens
• O.I.S. STABILIZATION
• 16 lenses in 13 groups; 2 aspherical lenses and 2 ED (Extra-low Dispersion) Lenses
• MACRO LENS – 0.5x macro shooting with a minimum focusing distance of 0.3m
• RUGGED LENS DESIGN – Dust/splash*/freeze-resistant design withstands use under harsh conditions
• Lens Mount: Lens Mount: Leica L
• Lens Format: Lens Format: Full-Frame
• Mirrorless: Zoom: 24-105mm
• Maximum Aperture: Maximum Aperture: f/4
• Special Features: Aspherical, Dustproof/Splashproof
• Image Stabilization: Image Stabilization: Yes (OIS)
• Lens Type: Macro Lens, Wide Angle Zoom Lens

What We Think

In our review, we state:

What the Lumix S 24-105mm f4 Macro OIS excels at…is the image quality.

The Other Lenses You Need

This time around, we’re not selecting just one really solid lens. Instead, we’re recommending a few other options that are lightweight and need in addition to the 24-105mm f4. Be sure to get these too.

LUMIX S PRO 16-35mm f4

In our review, we state:

I really, really like the colors from the LUMIX 16-35mm f4 PRO. I still think LUMIX has lenses with even better tint though. However, for small documentary-style setups, cityscapes, or landscapes, you’ll be happy. As stated earlier, we really like the look of the images with L Monochrome D enabled.

LUMIX S 50mm f1.8

In our review we state:

It can offer nice bokeh, beautiful color, and sharpness. It doesn’t have character per se, but it also doesn’t exhibit anything that folks these days would consider to be flaws.

Using This Guide to the Best Lenses for Journalism

If you’re considering purchasing anything from this list of our favorite lenses for journalism, know the following:

• This guide contains products that we’ve reviewed. Lucky for you folks, we’ve reviewed the vast majority of LUMIX lenses and modern lenses in general. Our Ethical Practices don’t allow us to feature products that we haven’t done full reviews of. So when we say these are the best lenses for professional photographers using the LUMIX S5 series, we truly mean it.
• This guide is sponsored by LUMIX, who trusts us and understands that we have a set of ethics when it comes to reviewing products. All the product images and sample images in this roundup were shot by Phoblographer staff. There are also links to our fuller reviews.
• These are the best lenses for professional photographers using the LUMIX S5 II and other camerams if you’re looking for LUMIX’s highest end lenses when it comes to performance. And trust us, we think you’ll love the build quality, size, and the overall performance. These lenses are often designated with the Lumix S Pro moniker.
• There are lenses in this list that work well with LUMIX’s autofocus features and many have continued to improve with firmware updates.
• When considering the best lenses for professional photographers using the LUMIX S5 II, remember that this is full-frame; otherwise known as Lumix S. So unlike Micro Four Thirds, the focal length is exactly what it is.
• Generally speaking, LUMIX lenses work better on LUMIX bodies than they do with others within the L-Mount Alliance. Part of this has to do with the motors being used.
• Everything we’ve chosen are lenses with weather-resistance. Weather resistance has more use than just shooting in the rain. It helps prevent dust from getting into your lens and camera. That means you don’t need to retouch out sensor dust.
• These lenses are for full-frame LUMIX cameras. So they’ll also work on Leica and Sigma L-mount cameras too.
• With these lenses, you can pretty much do everything with the Leica L-mount. We should know; we own two of them.
• Basically, treat these like you’re using a higher-end lens. They give that level of performance for a bargain.

Picking the Right One For You

If you’re still a bit confused as to the right lens for you, here are some questions to ask yourself

• What’s your budget?
• How will you use the product?
• What lighting situations are you in, and how will that affect what you’re doing? Our reviews hyperlinked in this article can help with that.
• Are you traveling a lot with it?
• Will you be using it in a situation that’s a bit rougher?
• Who else uses this product? How are they using it?
• What’s so appealing about this product that I can’t get from what I have already or something else?
• When will I really have time to use this product?
• Where will I bring this product?
• How will this product help bring me joy and joy in my photography?

These are just a few of the questions that we ask ourselves, but we think that you should ask yourself these for sure.