LUMIX 40mm f2 Review: What We Always Wanted

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There are LUMIX finally gave so many photographers what they wanted: a proper 40mm f2 lens with weather resistance. Specifically, they wanted something to pair with the LUMIX S9. I’m here to tell you the truth. Because of the lack of weather sealing on that camera, the TTArtisan 40mm f2 is still the best option even as it’s smaller. But if you want something weather resistant for your LUMIX and Leica bodies, the Panasonic LUMIX 40mm f2 is really the single best small option available for the L-mount right now.

The Big Picture: LUMIX 40mm f2 Review Conclusions

For around $400 on Roberts Camera, the LUMIX 40mm f2 lens is a pretty great option. It’s weather resistant, small, lightweight, fast to focus, and it’s a blank slate. So many photographers will love that blank slate for them to edit their images later. That’s also a way of saying that unless you’re using LUMIX’s Real Time LUT, it’s hard to really fall deeply in love with the images because they just look like something from any camera out there.

At the same time, it shouldn’t be understated that this lens fills a niche for everyone and remains to be the smallest and most affordable lens for the L-mount that you can carry with you everywhere without much fear due to the weather resistance.

I was struggling to write these conclusions. And so I wondered again about the LUMIX 35mm f1.8 — which is one of my favorite lenses. Make no mistake, there’s something that I can’t quite put my finger on that adds more character to it than the 40mm f2. With that said, if you own the 35mm f1.8, don’t expect to sell it for the 40mm f2. But if you want a walkaround lens that’s easy to bring with you and very lightweight, you can’t beat this.

And if you don’t care about weather sealing, you’ll be very happy with the TTArtisan 40mm f2.

We’re giving the LUMIX 40mm f2 four out of five stars. Want one? Check it out at Robert’s Camera — a brand we champion as one of the most ethical choices for camera gear.

Small
Lightweight
Fast to focus
The ultimate blank slate in terms of image quality
Weather resistance
Very affordable at only around $400

Experience

A Lumix camera on open books, with sunlight and rainbow light streaks across the pages. — Panasonic LUMIX 40mm f2 product image

If you’re an L-mount user, you’ll know that we all have wanted a single lens that we’d bring with us everywhere just for funsies. For a while, that was the Sigma 45mm f2 Contemporary — but it’s not really weather resistant. All of us have been asking for something like this. And Panasonic LUMIX finally gave it to us. I didn’t test it out in the rain, but know that this lens has weather resistance to the point where you shouldn’t really panic all that much as long as you’re exercising good judgment.

The company sent me the silver variant simply because I asked, and I quote, for, “Silver, like the silver full moon that looks down upon us all!” It’s so nice that they made it fun instead of boring old black.

Close-up of a Lumix camera with lens, lying on open books and illuminated by bright light.

A Lumix camera rests on open magazines, illuminated by a beam of light from above.

A camera with a strap rests on open magazines, illuminated by a beam of sunlight.

A camera rests on open magazines, with sunlight casting shadows across the scene.

A Lumix camera resting on open newspapers, illuminated by a shaft of sunlight.

The lens has a few things to know. First off, you can’t mount your collection of 67mm filters that you’ve had for all the other LUMIX lenses because this filter thread is around 62mm instead. It’s also a very small lens with an AF/MF switch, a focusing ring, and a function button. The ring and the button can be configured using the camera’s menu system.

The only thing that could’ve made this lens better is a clicky aperture ring of some sort. Truly, I yearn for something like the Leica 40mm f2 Rokkor, which I requested make a comeback a while ago.

The autofocus performance of the lens is also what you’d expect from LUMIX and Leica. On LUMIX cameras, this lens is super fast. And on the Leica SL2s, the autofocus wasn’t all that fast partially because I’ve got a mist filter on the sensor. Without the mist filter, the focus performance is pretty snappy.

If you’re experienced with the Micro Four Thirds world, you’d probably feel like LUMIX and Olympus have tried to subtly screw each other over in terms of autofocus performance. Both brands claim that they’re not. Thankfully, nonsense like that doesn’t happen with the L-mount.

When I used this lens, I’d use it with human focus detection on and even in really low light, it didn’t have any issues on the S1R II.

Flat out, I don’t have a single problem with this lens’s performance. It’s everything that you’d expect and it works as it should even without scene detection on. But you’re bound to want to use this lens for street photography — and for that, it does everything that you’d expect it to. What’s also cool is that you can use it with LUMIX’s zone focus feature that keeps the lens and camera focusing out to a specific distance.

Image Quality

In terms of image quality, there’s really nothing unique about this lens that makes it stand out from the rest of the LUMIX lineup all that much. If anything, the strongest point of this lens is the fact that it can always be on me and it will make me want to bring my camera with me everywhere. On top of that, LUMIX’s Real Time LUT feature is doing all the heavy lifting here — and I really mean that.

I mounted this lens on the Leica SL2s and wasn’t all that pleased with the image quality that it gave me. But when I switch to the S1R II and when I applied some of my favorite LUTs in-camera, the LUMIX 40mm f2 gave off the same vibes as someone giving you flowers. Seriously, when you use the LUTs, it’s nearly impossible to get a bad photo.

With that said, still don’t buy this lens for the bokeh, sharpness, or anything else. Buy it because it’s a utility lens. The TTArtisan 40mm f2 has far more character, in case that’s what you’re looking for.

The following images were edited using the Phoblographer’s presets.

Man in a black shirt talking to a woman in a restaurant with warm lighting and a red door in the background.

Black fountain surrounded by green plants and shrubs in a small garden with a brick wall in the background.

A brick apartment building with fire escapes and window air conditioners on each floor.

Two police officers talk to a man on a city street in front of an apartment building and parked cars.

Green leafy ground cover with small white and purple flowers scattered throughout.

A man sits at a restaurant table with a plate of food, looking to the side; paintings hang on the wall behind him.

A plate of stir-fried chicken with peppers on a red table, surrounded by dishes and people.

Two people smiling and sitting together at a table in an art-filled restaurant.

Four people sit around a restaurant table, sharing food and drinks, with one pouring tea into a cup.

A bowl of food with herbs in the center of a red table, surrounded by people with plates and chopsticks.

Night view of Mr. Mario restaurant with illuminated signs, plants, and people outside on a city street.

A busy city street at dusk with parked cars, storefronts, and glowing shop signs.

A man eating with chopsticks at a restaurant table with food and drinks, sitting near a floral mural.

A plate of green fried rice and another dish on a restaurant table, with people dining in the background.

A close-up of a plate of stir-fried beans with a spoon, on a red table with blurred dishes in the background.

A person serves a plate of food at a red table with partially eaten dishes and people sitting around.

Three cars parked outside a brightly lit 7-Eleven store at night, with people visible inside.

Two empty tables with red cloths, two chairs each, and five small paintings hanging on a white wall above.

Yellow-green leafy bush with a tree trunk and brick wall in the blurred background.

A bush covered by a brown cushion sits among trash bins in front of a brick house with stairs.

Red brick church building with signs, trees, and parked cars on a city street corner.

Green leafy vines growing over a metal fence with a pipe and some rust visible on the structure.

Blurred image of people in motion, walking through a hallway with warm lighting and indistinct backgrounds.

Sunlit modern cafe with empty beige chairs and tables, large windows, and potted plants by the window.

A white towel hangs over a black metal fence beside a sunlit garden path in a park.

A couple relaxes on a park bench, surrounded by trees and city buildings on a sunny day.

People walk along a sunny path lined with trees and grass in a city park.

A large, colorful egg-shaped art sculpture stands in a green, tree-filled park on a sunny day.

Traffic control box with a small sticker in front of a bright orange sign on a city street corner.

Two people take photos on a sunny city street crosswalk with buildings and traffic in the background.

A woman walks with a small robot in a sunny city park, while people sit and relax in the background.

The following images are straight out of the camera with no editing at all.

Person holding a pizza slice above their mouth, ready to eat, with an empty plate in the other hand.

A ceramic teacup on a saucer sits on a wooden table with a teapot and teaware in the background.

An older man in a white shirt holds a yellow object and a stone, standing indoors by a window.

Large potted plant by a sunlit window with light streaming onto green and white leaves.

Two empty glass carafes on coffee scales in a softly lit, minimalist kitchen setting.

Empire State Building viewed from street level, framed by nearby buildings and a street lamp against a cloudy sky.

Sunlight streams through a window, illuminating indoor plants and a lamp in a cozy room corner.

A person in black prepares tea with a blue gaiwan on a tray, with a glass pitcher nearby.

A person pours tea from a small cup into a glass pitcher on a table set for tea preparation.

A dimly lit city street at night with a brightly lit grill and taco shop, and a bicycle parked outside.

Do You Want to Buy from Panasonic LUMIX?

We believe that everyone should be aware of the ethical decisions that they’re making when they spend money. So to do this, we research the companies that whose products we test and make folks aware of both possible concerns and reasons to feel great about giving a company your money.

Here’s what we’ve got for Panasonic:

Panasonic works to support women in STEM to address inequalities. We can’t find any more information on that, but it’s worth knowing.
Panasonic is very transparent about how they use cookies. And you can delete your information if you request so.
Panasonic has a 30 day refund policy. This goes beyond what many retailers may offer.
In the owners manuals, Panasonic states that attaching items that don’t comply with the L-mount alliance can void your warranty. You can search the S1R II manual to find this for an example. This means that if you’re using a 3rd party product that isn’t part of the L-mount, you could void your warranty.
Panasonic has various chemical disclosures. Nothing from the LUMIX camera brand has a disclosure.
LUMIX has been a supporter of Pride Month in various ways in the past, according to email correspondences the Phoblographer has with the brand. There’s even imagery implying that they’ve given away $15,000 to participants in their Pride Month function.

Declararion of Journalistic Integrity

The Phoblographer is one of the last standing dedicated photography publications that speaks to both art and tech in our articles. We put declarations up front in our reviews to adhere to journalistic standards that several publications abide by. These help you understand a lot more about what we do:

At the time of publishing this review, Panasonic is not running direct-sold advertising with the Phoblographer. This doesn’t affect our reviews anyway and it never has in our 15 years of publishing our articles. This article is in no way sponsored.
Note that this isn’t necessarily our final review of the unit. It will be updated, and it’s more of an in-progress review than anything. In fact, almost all our reviews are like this.
None of the reviews on the Phoblographer are sponsored. That’s against FTC laws and we adhere to them just the same way that newspapers, magazines, and corporate publications do.
Panasonic loaned the unit and accessories to the Phoblographer for review. There was no money exchange between us or their 3rd party partners and the Phoblographer for this to happen. Manufacturers trust the Phoblographer’s reviews, as they are incredibly blunt.
Panasonic knows that it cannot influence the site’s reviews. If we don’t like something or if we have issues with it, we’ll let our readers know.
Panasonic paid for shipping of the lens to and back. This is a standard practice in the world of journalism.
The Phoblographer’s standards for reviewing products have become much stricter. After having the world’s largest database of real-world lens reviews, we choose not to review anything we don’t find innovative or unique, and in many cases, products that lack weather resistance. Unless something is very unique, we probably won’t touch it.
In recent years, brands have withheld NDA information from us or stopped working with us because they feel they cannot control our coverage. These days, many brands will not give products to the press unless they get favorable coverage. In other situations, we’ve stopped working with several brands for ethical issues. Either way, we report as honestly and rawly as humanity allows.
At the time of publishing, the Phoblographer is the only photography publication that is a member of Adobe’s Content Authenticity Initiative. We champion human-made art and are frank with our audience. We are also the only photography publication that labels when an image is edited or not.

More can be found on our Disclaimers page.