GAS is a thing! I know this not because I read it on the internet, but because, shortly before Christmas, I ordered myself another used lens on eBay for my mirrorless cameras: the Lumix G 14mm f/2.5.

A rationalization: I don’t generally get gifts for Christmas (the exception being that my parents are incredibly generous to all of us each year, and Aaron gave me a t-shirt this year, which was a pleasant surprise), so I figured this would be my gift. It works for me!

Anyway, this lens came to my attention in a YouTube video where someone was trying to make an affordable version of the ever-popular (and expensive) FujiFilm x100. I believe they paired a m4/3 Lumix or maybe an Oly with this lens as a pocketable everyday carry, and I was immediately smitten.

I’ve been using (and enjoying) the Panasonic LUMIX G II Lens 20mm F1.7 for a long time now, probably a decade, and I’ve always considered it a small lens that can sorta end up making for a pocketable camera. The TT Artisans 18mm f/6.3 UFO Lens, of course, is even more so, but it has pretty specific light requirements and isn’t something I want to be tied to.

The Panasonic Lumix G 14mm f/2.5 definitely takes up less room, and on the Olympus E-PM2 you can really notice the small footprint. I imagine this lens would be super cute on a LUMIX GM1.

I’ve only been able to take a few pics with this lens, and I need to get out in bright light to really get a sense of its image quality. The 1.7 lets in more light than the 2.5, so that’s a consideration, and explains why some of the pics I took the first night at a new restaurant are pleasant but dark.

My iPhone would have taken a much brighter pic of my sushi last night for sure:

Lots of bokeh on Rhonda’s roast chicken thighs, though:

This pic of Bellview’s new rosé vintage, taken with lots of light last Saturday, shows the lens’s potential, though:

I think most people are perfectly well served by using their phone camera, and that’s why the middle end of the camera market is being gutted. I liken enthusiast photography to driving a manual transmission, or switching your clock to military time when you don’t need to–you introduce some complexity into your life for the sake of learning. I enjoy the process of trying to understand more of what might capture a good picture, of inserting myself in between the subject and the device.

More on that E-PM2 soon.