Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH

field trip

The field trip series features me taking lenses on a trip, and most/all photos coming from that journey. This is the first post in the series – enjoy!

Last year (2023) almost exactly a year ago I watched a video that made the case that the Lumix GX800 is an absolute stonker of a camera; something you can carry with you every day and still get tremendous photos. I was interested, and £154 later I was sold. And they were absolutely right.

But with a new tiny camera you need (as pictured above) a new tiny lens, and it’s that lens that I’m writing about today: the Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH.

Mount	Micro four thirds
Weight	70g
Purchased	21 February 2023
From	MPB
Price	£89

The GX800 I originally bought, and the Olympus E-P7 I now also own, are micro four thirds cameras. This means they have a small sensor; the below diagram compares these sensors (bottom right) with that of larger-sensor cameras:

Why should you care? Well larger sensors mean less depth of field (so a smaller range of distances are in focus for any given aperture) and better image quality (as more light is captured). But why stop here? Why not go for even bigger sensors than “full-frame”, which is modelled on 35mm film? Because the bigger the sensor the bigger the lens needs to be to focus light accurately across the entire sensor. So small sensor can allow smaller lenses.

For travel this is a huge plus, and today’s lens is fairly magical – a lens that offers about 2.5x zoom that weighs next to nothing and is absolutely tiny. And, amazingly, it has image stabilisation. So it’s the perfect lens for the first field trip, this time to Hastings.

This is a theme I didn’t think would come on Lens Flair as much as it has, but a small micro four thirds camera (all of these photos were taken on the Olympus E-P7) with this very small lens is very inconspicuous. It’s quick to take out or easy to keep in the hand and even at the lens’ maximum extension it’s still very portable.

The images below set this out; left hand is camera with lens retracted. You can’t take pictures in this mode; it’s for stowing only. Middle is the lens at its shortest operable length, which is when the focal length is set to 25mm. The longest, right, is when the focal length is set to 12mm (although it’s basically the same length at 32mm). I’ve taken all three images with the lens mounted on the GX800 because it shows just how tiny this whole lens+camera combination can be.

Colours a really decent with this lens. You’re not going to get perfect sharpness or flare control in a lens this small and cheap. While the blown out sections of images lead to a bold look there’s plenty of detail and subtlety in mid tones which means photos can have a real mix of contrast in the image which works great for seaside pictures like this where there’s lots of bright sun and also pale gradations of colour.

The zoom reach is fine – nothing special. The field of view from the wide ends is equivalent to 24mm on a full-frame camera; fully zoomed in it’s equivalent to 64mm. That’s enough to get some different views; it’s never going to challenge a super-zoom or the excellent 24-105mm range. Having said this my Sony 24-105mm f/4 lens weighs more than nine times this Lumix lens.

The zoom dial is the same dial that stows the lens away – you just keep turning as if you’re zooming out further than 12mm and then the lens pancakes in. The collapsing stage is a bit stiff (I suppose you want it to have some force required so that you don’t accidentally activate it while using the lens normally), but otherwise zooming feels fine

It’s not at all surprising that this lens has a plastic lens mount – it’s 70g remember. But while it’s plastic this lens happily goes in a camera bag pocket amongst other stuff and looks no worse for it.

As with all electronically-connected (as in a lens that can communicate with the camera) micro four thirds lenses I’ve used there’s distortion correction happening in camera. I found several times in Lightroom this wasn’t enough so chose to manually correct further (this took minimal time). You can see from the image of the wall taken below at Charing Cross station (in very poor light) that it’s possible to still get good detail across the frame (naturally the corners are a bit softer than the centre).

This is an amazing, versatile, super light and cheap lens. If you have a micro four thirds camera then get it. If you don’t then I can honestly say it was part of the attraction in getting one.

See the album of this lens’ photos on Flickr.