Lumix S 24-105mm f/4 Macro Zoom Lens Review

I’ve spent considerable time shooting with the Panasonic Lumix S1, primarily pairing it with the Lumix S 24-105mm f/4. This is the versatile zoom lens that’s often offered as a bundle with the camera body.

This lens utilizes the L-Mount system, a cooperative standard developed by the alliance of Leica, Panasonic, and Sigma. It’s an autofocus lens with built-in optical image stabilization. It has a highly versatile zoom range of 24mm to 105mm, which makes it suitable for a wide variety of shooting, from contextual travel photography and landscape work to photojournalism and portraiture. (I’ve previously posted some practical examples of this lens’s zoom range here.)

It’s also surprisingly well-suited to macro photography. It offers a maximum magnification ratio of 1:2 (0.5x) and a minimum focusing distance of just under 12 inches (30 cm).¹

With a nine-blade rounded diaphragm design, the bokeh highlights are round and quite soft. Something else that lends itself to the rigors of travel photography is that it’s ruggedized against water splashes, dust, and freezing temperatures down to 14°f/-10°C.²

Design & build

It’s not a small lens — especially compared with lenses on other mirrorless cameras, and even more so with systems that utilize smaller sensors.

But it’s also beautifully constructed. It feels solid in hand, and there’s no extra give in the dials or switches. It’s a telescoping zoom — meaning that the front section of the lens extends away from the camera body — which naturally introduces some physical resistance when zooming. However, the zoom and focus dials are both very smooth and true.

Shooting with the Lumix S 24-105mm f/4

It’s a straightforward lens to shoot with, and I haven’t come across many quirks to work around. In general, there’s no problem pointing it at bright light sources, although if you get the angle just so, with the light source sitting just outside the frame, you can end up with some odd streaked flaring. Aside from that, the controls are self-explanatory.

Image quality & the hardware-software bridge

The image quality you get with this lens is excellent. I’ve posted a few shots taken with it below, and many more here.

Something worth noting, though, is that what you see out of the camera isn’t just the product of raw analog optics. The camera treats the lens and the image processor as a continuous system. It draws on a built-in lens profile that digitally corrects physical issues like lens vignetting, barrel distortion, and chromatic aberration in-camera.

For JPGs, the corrections are applied directly when rendering the image. For RAW files, the profile is embedded within the file and applied automatically when you open the image in software like Lightroom. They’re also applied to the thumbnail preview embedded within the RAW file.³

So, the embedded profile corrections are actively masking optical flaws the glass might have. But it also means those physical flaws basically become a non-issue in the final image. The analog optics and the digital corrections work in tandem to produce clean files that are largely free of typical optical hurdles. As a result, I haven’t put together a vignetting panel for this review, and there’s not much to show in the way of purple fringing. Straight lines are very straight — there’s virtually no barrel distortion to speak of. All of which suits me just fine. I’m personally much more interested in looking at the practical results in real-world shooting rather than technical lab tests.

Optical image stabilization

The lens features built-in optical image stabilization (O.I.S.), and I’ve found it to work exceptionally well in the field.

Here’s an example of a shot I took hand-held — without resting the camera on anything — using a shutter speed of 1/5 second. Even at a wide 24mm angle, that’s much slower than I would normally expect usable results. But as you can see from the full-size version (click on the image to open it), the details are still surprisingly sharp when you look at the main cluster of boats in the foreground, where the focus point landed.

There’s an asterisk here, though: I also had the S1’s sensor-shift in-body stabilization enabled. It’s impossible to tell exactly how much credit each specific system gets, but the combined end result is impressive.

A downside of any optical image stabilization system, of course, is that it drains the camera’s battery. That’s certainly true here, even with the oversized battery that the Lumix S1 uses. However, it is highly effective, making the battery drain a price I’ve been willing to pay.

Sample photos

I’ve posted a much more extensive collection of photos taken with the Lumix S 24-105mm f/4 separately, but here’s a smaller set of practical examples. You can click on each image to open a full-size version.

Wrap up

After shooting with the Lumix S 24-105mm f/4 for a while, I’m impressed. It’s an easy lens to shoot with — especially for contextual travel photography. The optical image stabilization works well, there are very few optical hurdles that show up in the image quality, and the files are tack sharp.

While I have some quibbles with the S1’s autofocus, those are tied to the camera’s subject detection, not the lens hardware itself. And while I’d love for this to be a f/2.8 lens, that’s just asking it to be something it isn’t. Accepting the lens for what it is — a moderately fast, incredibly sharp zoom lens with a highly versatile focal length range — I have to say that Panasonic nailed it with this one.

Where to find them

You can find the Lumix S 24-105mm f/4 Macro zoom lens at B&H Photo, Adorama, and Amazon.

If you prefer to test gear before buying, you can rent it from Lensrentals or LensProToGo.

I haven’t come across many used copies for sale, but it’s worth a try at KEH if you’re in the market for a used copy.

Accessories for the Panasonic Lumix S 24-105mm f/4 Macro

Filters. It takes standard 77mm screw-on filters: Polarizer | UV/Haze | ND. Because it’s a telescoping zoom, the front section doesn’t rotate as you zoom in and out, which is extremely helpful when aligning directional filters like polarizers or graduated neutral density filters.

Lens Hood. It comes with a plastic petal-style lens hood. The model number is S-R23105, but those can sometimes be hard to track down as direct replacement parts. If you opt for an aftermarket version, be sure to check for lens (or hood) vignetting when zoomed out to 24mm.

Notes & References:

1. Panasonic Lumix S 24-105mm f/4 Specifications. [↩︎]
2. Panasonic Lumix S 24-105mm f/4 Specifications. [↩︎]
3. When using the lens on the Lumix S1, I haven’t come across a way to easily disable these automatic corrections. Frankly, I can’t think of too many good reasons you’d want to anyway, since the results are so good. [↩︎]