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14-45mm Panasonic lens issue
  • princeprince

    Hi, I recently got a used panasonic 14-45 lens from ebay described to be in very good condition. The lens seems so cheaply made, nowhere near my legacy lenses, it's like a toy...Real letdown. But what really troubles me is the zoom ring. It's okay when doing fast to medium movements but it feels sticky when zooming slow. It jerks and it's really hard to frame accurately especially on the wide side. Is the lens faulty or the same goes for your units? Thanks.

  • 14 Replies sorted by
  • MicahMicah

    I find the zoom ring sticks a bit on mine too. I think this is just inherent in the design. If you need smooth zooms while video is running, you're probably going to have to look elsewhere or consider using follow focus gearing.

    I find that it's surprisingly sharp for stills, but the slow aperture at the long end has me avoiding it for video indoors and for events.

  • princeprince

    Thanks for the quick reply Micah. No need for video zooming, I use it for stills too but it is really annoying for framing... Low quality plastics and terrible build quality but it's sharp yes.

  • AKEDAKED

    Is it the 14-42? Cause the 14-45 is metal

  • princeprince

    Nope, it's the 14-45. Only the mount is metal. The rest is plastic...

  • inqb8trinqb8tr

    It's not all plastic, the barrel that extends is metal, and zoom ring is rubber.

    Zoom is jerky if you try to do a smooth zoom while recording video, but I have never had any problems with framing. I also have all plastic 14-42. It is even jerkier, but still not to that extent for that to be a problem for framing.

  • stoneystoney

    This is a moot issue. No M43 zooms are parfocal.

    12-35-100mm 2.8 and X14-42 and X45-175 could mimic parfocal feature only at slow zooming.

    This is not a biggie. No Canon EOS lenses are parfocal, either.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @stonebat

    On this words I always remember Tokina 24-200mm AT-X. This thing is parfocal ultrazoom :-)

  • stoneystoney

    ORLY? Parfocal from end to end?

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    ORLY? Parfocal from end to end?

    It is quite unique thing :-) Hence AT-X moniker of top Tokina lenses.

  • stoneystoney

    That's good.

    I tried Canon 24-105 f/4, 24-70 2.8, 70-200 2.8, 16-35 2.8, 100-400. All L lenses. None were parfocal.

  • mintcheeriosmintcheerios

    I've owned two copies of the 14-45mm and both were horrible for zooming. It's nice that they don't have lens creep though unlike the 45-200mm.

  • DrDaveDrDave

    I have a 14-45 and the quality of the image is super. Great lens. I bought mine new and it always was a bit sticky, and it also has loosened up just a bit.

  • aljimenezaljimenez

    My experience is the same as @DrDave. My 14-45 is superb images and the zoom has become smoother with use... Al

  • Alex_KAlex_K

    14-42 is jerkier

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