At CES2024, Panasonic unveiled a new macro lens Lumix S 100mm f2The 8 MACRO (S-E100), an L-mount full-frame lens, weighs only 298g and measures just 736mm*82.0mm, both parameters are lower than similar lenses, and the magnification is kept at 1x. Therefore, when I saw it in the palm of a foreigner's big hand at CES, it was difficult to think that such a small lens was actually Baiwei, so what is its image quality and user experience, let's take a look.
The evolution of Baiwei.
After entering the mirrorless era, there was a clear differentiation of Baiwei's technical routes, and Canon first launched the RF100mm F28 l macro is usm, which not only increases the magnification to 14x, and the introduction of adjustable spherical aberration function enables different styles of bokeh. Next up was Nikon with the launch of the Nikkor Z Macro 105mm F. 28 VR S, it maintains a magnification of 1x, and is no longer compatible with teleconverters, but pursues the ultimate image quality performance, and even takes into account the bokeh effect.
Obviously, the Panasonic Lumix S 100mm F28 macro has opened up a new route, 298g, 736mm*82.0mm represents it with Panasonic Lumix S 1The weight and size of the 8 regiments are the same, and they can be used on hydraulic gimbal and handheld stabilizers with the same as 1The 8th Legion switches almost seamlessly, which can improve the efficiency of shooting.
However, it was a challenge to achieve a compact size with 1x magnification and image quality, so the Lumix S 100mm F28 macro, we can see some technologies that Panasonic has not applied before. Let's start with the optical structure, the Lumix S 100mm F2The 8 MACRO consists of 13 lenses in 11 groups, of which 3 are aspherical lenses, 2 are super ED lenses, and 1 is an ED lens.
At the same time, the lens uses a dual focus system and a dual linear focus motor, the double focus system is the well-known floating focus technology, the lens will change the aberration due to the change of the position of the lens group when focusing in the single lens group, and the result is often a decrease in image quality.
According to Panasonic, the thrust of a bilinear focusing motor is about three times that of a conventional linear motor at the same volume ratio, and the two coils of the motor can work simultaneously without affecting each other, thus maintaining the high-precision and quiet characteristics of the linear motor. When focusing, the Lumix S 100mm f2The 8 macro doesn't feel like mud or water in both long and close shots.
For ** shooting work, shooting in rain and fog is a common thing, in order to better adapt to the outdoor environment, Lumix S 100mm F2The 8 MACRO tube is dust-proof and splash-proof to withstand -10 low temperatures, and two sets of switches are provided on the side, the AF MF switch below and the focus limiter on the top, with unlimited bits, 05 m to infinity, 0204 meters to 05 meters with three levels optional, 67mm filter interface also with Lumix S 1The 8 corps remained consistent.
However, in order to control the weight and size, the Lumix S 100mm F2The 8 macro forgoes optical image stabilization and relies entirely on in-body image stabilization, so it is not recommended to use this lens on the Sigma body unless you are using it on a gimbal station. And what will be the lens stabilization performance on the Panasonic body, we will analyze them for you one by one below.
Image quality test. Macro has no weak brigade, I believe it is a familiar sentence for photography enthusiasts, it is to say that macro lenses often have good image quality, even if it is a secondary lens. However, after entering the mirrorless era, this perception has been somewhat broken - a certain dragon's 20 24 35 three macro lenses are too crotch-pulling, less than 300g Panasonic Lumix S 100mm F2How does 8 macro perform, let's take a look at it in combination with real shots.
First of all, let's take a night view of the city, shooting with full aperture, the body is Lumix S5II, the focus point is in the center of the frame, the sensitivity is ISO 400, the shutter speed is 1 30s, the resolution of the whole picture is reduced in the upper picture, and the small picture below is 100% cropped. The image is clear in the center and corners, and you can even see the carvings on the wall.
The following group of portraits** taken at dusk is shot at full aperture, with the focus point locked on to the human eye through the recognition function, and the first** sensitivity is ISO 800, the shutter speed is 1 200s, and the focus point is in the center of the frame. It is not difficult to see that the resolution of the center of the lens is excellent, the hair and stubble of the characters are clearly visible, and even the iron doors in the corners, the texture and nails on them are clearly visible, and users can shoot with wide open aperture when shooting at a telephoto.
In the second photo**We narrowed the focusing distance, which is about the distance of the bust portrait in the vertical composition,**The sensitivity is ISO 320, the shutter speed is 1 400s, and the distance between the focus point and the center point is about half of the height of the image. However, we also noticed a noticeable purple dispersion on the CES 2024 badge in the lower left corner, which will be left for further analysis below, and continue to look at the sharpness performance of the lens in close shots.
This is followed by a nearly close-to-focus shot** with the focus point in the center of the frame, also shooting at a wide aperture, ISO 500 sensitivity, and a shutter speed of 1 125s. Even at shallow depth of field + close-up shots, the center sharpness of the lens is still excellent, and the dual focus system plays its role well.
However, for macro lenses, high sharpness alone is not enough, and the next scene is also a factor that must be considered in close-up shots. The lens field curvature, also known as the "Pittsvar field curvature", is different from the imagination, due to the relationship between the optical structure and the characteristics of the lens, the projected image is not flat, but curved, and the result falls on the flat camera sensor, which will cause the scene in the same plane to be part clear and partly clear. At a long focusing distance, the depth of field of the frame is large, and the problem caused by field curvature is not obvious, while the macro lens has a very close focusing distance, and the depth of field becomes very shallow, and the field curvature problem can seriously degrade the shooting quality.
Below is the Lumix S 100mm F28 Macro shoots the LCD panel at the closest focusing distance**, and the camera is mounted on a gear gimbal to ensure that the CMOS image sensor is as parallel as possible to the LCD tablet; When shooting, use an electronic shutter to avoid vibration caused by the mechanical shutter, and manually focus the lens to the center of the frame with f28、f4.0、f8.0. F16 aperture shooting, the sensitivity is locked at ISO100.
Due to the field curvature relationship, in f28、f4.At 0 aperture, the edges of the lens are not able to produce a sharp image, but at the small aperture commonly used in macro photography, the field curvature problem is significantly improved, even at f80 or f16 aperture, ** the pixels at the edges are very clear, due to the diffraction relationship, f8 will be clearer, but f16 will not be weakened much, users can rest assured that Lumix S 100mm f28 macro for macro shooting.
This is followed by the dispersion test, and the image below shows the lens shooting a bar scene with ISO 1000 sensitivity and f2 aperture8. The shutter speed is 1 30s. With a large number of light sources and a large number of glass bottles, it is very easy to have dispersion problems, but in the Lumix S 100mm f2In the 8 macro, there are no noticeable dispersions either in the center or at the edges.
When it comes to dispersion, though, we can't say anything about the Lumix S 100mm F2The 8 macro has no dispersion problem at all, it is in more extreme scenes - high ambient light contrast, and large contrast between light and dark, such as purple dispersion on the front white background black letter on the badge, or the scene in the picture below, sunlight + sky background + black sling will cause purple dispersion on the edge of the sling. But in general, the problem is not serious and can be fixed at a later stage.
In the history of lens development, macro lenses are one of the earliest categories to introduce optical image stabilization technology, and after entering the mirrorless era, the five-axis image stabilization of the body has gradually become the standard, and a large number of headers and wide-angle lenses have canceled image stabilization. However, for the sake of image stability in close-up shots, the CN still retains the image stabilization function on Baiwei, Lumix S 100mm F28 macro has canceled optical image stabilization, will it affect the user experience? The picture below is a handheld shot**, the body is S5 II, the camera is in a horizontal state when shooting, the shutter speed is only 1 5s, and the picture is very clear from the 100% crop picture, in other words, the body of the S5 II can be Lumix S 100mm F2The 8 macro brings 5+ stops of stabilization, which is quite good.
Finally, we take a look at the Lumix S 100mm F2The bokeh of 8 macro lenses tends to be average due to the high magnification required to be achieved. In use of Lumix S 100mm F2When shooting night scenes, you will find that the out-of-focus flare will produce a more pronounced binarity, and the edge flare also has a certain degree of erosion, so if you want to achieve a strong bokeh effect, you can only shorten the focus distance.
Epilogue. Panasonic Lumix S 100mm F2The 8 Macro is a macro lens that prioritizes the needs of ** shooting, and is compatible with the Lumix S 1The 8th Legion has a high degree of weight and size, which determines that it can easily compete with F18. The fixed focal length lens is used interchangeably, but the small size makes it impossible to do everything, and the lens gives priority to ensuring sharpness and dispersion performance, and the focus will not hesitate, and there is a lack of bokeh in the out-of-focus. From the point of view of the design goal, this is a lens that achieves the task, suitable for ** users, if you like to take pictures, Lumix S 100mm F2The 8 macro is also quite suitable for hang-up use, the weight of less than 300g will not bring significant pressure to the neck, and the 100mm+ macro function is more comfortable in urban street sweeping.
lumix s 100mm f2.8 Macro sample (RAW to JPG):
f8.0，iso 2000，1/200s
f8.0，iso 125，1/125s
f4.0，iso 1000，1/100s
f4.0，iso 500，1/10s
f2.8，iso 640，1/30s
f2.8，iso 1600，1/100s
f2.8，iso 500，1/20s
f2.8，iso 200，1/400s
f2.8，iso 640，1/25s
f2.8，iso 100，1/50s
f2.8，iso 1600，1/100s
f2.8，iso 250，1/60s
f2.8，iso 2000，1/20s