Panasonic Leica DG Vario Elmarit 8-18mm F2.8-4 ASPH is a bright and compact wide-angle zoom lens, designed for compact system cameras with Micro 4/3-mount (Micro Four Thirds).
Versatile zoom
With its wide focal length (equivalent to 16-36 mm on a full-frame camera) and a maximum aperture of F2.8-F4 this lens has many applications, both for photography and filming. Landscape, wedding and street photography are just a few examples of subjects where a wide-angle zoom is useful.
The lens has a sleek metal finish and is equipped with weather protection to withstand rain, dust and freezing temperatures down to -10 °C. The weather protection is of the same caliber as in the Panasonic Lumix GH5.
Advanced optics
The optical design includes 15 elements in 10 groups. Among these are several aspherical elements as well as elements made from ED- and UHR-glass (Ultra High Refractive Index) to provide maximum sharpness and resolution while minimizing the appearance of image artifacts such as chromatic aberration. Nano Surface Coating is also used to reduce glare and stray light.
A 67 mm filter thread makes it possible to mount, for instance, polarizing filters to enhance the greens in vegetation or to emphasize a blue sky. Or ND filters to use long shutter speeds and a large aperture even in bright daylight.
Fast, quiet and precise
Panasonic Leica DG Vario Elmarit ASPH 8-18mm F2.8-4 has a quiet and very quick autofocus, capable of following even fast-moving subjects, thanks to a focus motor that operates at a frequency of up to 240 Hz (frames/s). The motor is also capable of fine-tuning the focus to provide super accurate sharpness, particularly important when recording video in demanding formats such as 4K.
Other features particularly advantageous for video recording is a smooth-zoom ring and an aperture control with micro stepper motor, which can control the opening in small precise increments to allow for slow, imperceptible exposure changes.