Who doesn’t love something they didn’t have to pay for?
Panasonic is cooking this fall. On September 16, it announced the LUMIX S 20mm F2.5, a full-frame pancake lens. Then on October 13, it dropped free firmware for five cameras. A pancake and some eggs. We’re thankful for both.
The Pancake: LUMIX S 20mm F2.5
- $499.99 / €499 / £429, in black or silver
- About 142g and 40.9mm long
- Three aspherical elements
- Focuses down to 0.18m
- Dust, splash and freeze resistant, with a fluorine-coated front element
This lens can ride along everywhere. At 20mm, you get room for big skies and busy streets, with less of the edge stretch you see at 14mm or 16mm. And that 0.18m close focus (measured from the sensor) lets you get real close to a wildflower inches from the lens with mountains stacked behind it.
The tradeoff? F2.5 is about a stop slower than an f/1.8 prime, so you give up some blur and some low-light capability. Weather sealing also depends on mounting it to a sealed LUMIX body. Fair trade for a full frame E.D.C. that fits in a pocket.
Panasonic built it as a partner for the compact S9. Put the two together and full frame really starts to feel like a point-and-shoot.
The Eggs: Free Firmware
LUMIX S9, Version 2.1
- 4K 60p/50p and FHD 120p/100p/60p/50p in MP4 (Lite)
- More Lens Fn button options, including Focus Peaking, E-Stabilization, Boost I.S. and Aspect Ratio
- LUMIX Flow app 1.7.0 support
The Lens Fn change is the tasty part. The S9 has few buttons, so putting peaking or stabilization on the lens saves a trip through the menus. One catch: MP4 (Lite) is a low-bitrate, quick-share format, and Panasonic hasn’t listed the bitrates. Great for social clips, not so much for client work.
S1RII, S1II, S1IIN and S1IIE
- Faster shutter response
- Better bursts with external flash
- Stability fixes
Mostly maintenance stuff, but flash shooters should be really happy with this.
The downloads are on the LUMIX Global Customer Support site.
Why We’re Thankful
Trending upwards – we hope other companies follow Panasonic here. Free firmware makes the camera you bought two years ago better. It rewards loyalty over FOMO and leaves more money for lenses, trips and prints.
So here’s your order: update your S9 or S1 body, put Focus Peaking on the Lens Fn button, and go shoot something close and wide like pancakes.
Sources
- Panasonic: LUMIX S 20mm F2.5 lens and firmware announcement
- LUMIX Global Customer Support: firmware downloads
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