Panasonic H-X015-K Monofocal Wide Angle Lens for Micro Four Thirds Leica DG SUMMILUX 15mm/F1.7 ASPH. Black

So this is a great lens. I almost gave it a four star review but I just revised it as I feel for what it does, it does it very well.What it does: a wider angle with great sharpness and color... for what it's worth.My problem, and one you should consider if you are on the fence... is that I wasn't sure I *needed* a wider angle/somewhat expensive lens and even though I've had it permanently on my camera for 6 weeks and enjoyed shooting with it non-stop... I STILL am not sure that I **needed** it.Shooting wide brings up its own set of problems... there is a tendency for any shot to become a snapshot, which is fine... but, I have my phone camera for snapshots... so I have had to do a bit of learning about how to frame pictures to make them more interesting. That's a great thing as it has led me to learn a bit more about photography in general.I won't bore with my amateur takes, but subject really matters for this wide of an angle. And if you want to get that nice depth of field bokeh, your subject will need to be perhaps a bit closer than usual. For me at least.I got this for the compactness and for the ability to quickly capture street shots. It does that wonderfully. It's great. I highly respect this lens and occasionally am in love with it but... I think the price continuously has me wondering.The point of all this is: I also own the 25mm f1.7 lens. If you are fretting a lot about the money, and you don't yet have a nice wide aperture lens... I have to say I shot with the $150 25mm f1.7 lens for over a year very happily. As that year went by though, I felt the sneaking suspicion that I wanted a wider angle on my gx85 for two situations that seemed to keep arising: night/star shots and interior shots.For example, the 25mm f1.7 could capture really amazing star shots, but the crop was never quite wide enough to capture the full majesty of a night scene.As another example, over the holidays when I wanted to take pictures of the Christmas tree or other interior goings on, I could never *quite* get far enough away to capture it.So I am very happy to have this. I always have it by my side and I especially like being able to frame city scenes well. Nature is still flummoxing me with this lens... as again, subject really matters and I just haven't wrapped my head around that with landscapes yet.Oh, one last thing, close up near macro imagery is excellent.So, it's a great lens. If you can afford it, go for it. If you can't and wonder if you can get by with the 25mm... honestly I think you're good with that until you're not, which could be indefinitely. For those wide frames you can always pull out your phone...Hey I'm just trying to be the advocate for the cheapos out there like myself!

The lens arrived from Japan in only 5 days, about twice as fast as promised, very carefully packed. It works as I expected, so I'm very satisfied. International versions do not come with a warranty and the manual is in Japanese, but it's just a lens. It works. Everything is self explanatory, plus in many decades of photography not one of my lenses ever required service.Some observations: Images taken with this lens have about 700K higher color temperature than the 12-40/2.8 Olympus zoom. Just photograph something white and correct accordingly. Focus is quick, no issues. Great image quality (native distortion and vignetting are high but digital cameras correct that). There is no in-lens image stabilization, but Olympus cameras have terrific in-body image stabilization (IBIS). On the other hand, the aperture ring on the lens is useful only on Panasonic cameras (Olympus ignores it). The angle of view is of course wider than the similarly sized Olympus 17mm f/1.8, which is considered a more versatile focal length. The 15mm is good for photographing groups, but not for close portraits. When used for people photography, the strength of the 15mm is that it shows more of their surroundings. That's why I chose it: to photograph groups of people (mostly indoors, using available light); as well as some landscapes (this prime is a bit sharper than my zoom). I also considered the pancake Panasonic 40mm f/1.7 II, but needed a wider view and faster focusing. This 15mm is rated by DxOmark as slightly sharper than either the 17mm or the 20mm alternatives: It starts sharp wide open at f/1.7, and achieves critical sharpness across the entire frame around f/4 (with high micro-contrast, but without breaking any lens sharpness records). Finally, it comes with a very nice metal hood and a rubber lid, useful as lens protection and to keep out the stray light (a similar hood is only available as an extra accessory for the Olympus 17mm f/1.8 alternative).Sharp? Yes. Fast? Quite. Practical? Very, small compared to the 12-40/2.8 zoom, although larger than a pancake lens. Versatile? Not as much as a classic 17mm, but a good choice if a slightly wider view fits your needs.

This may be the perfect focal length for walk-around shooting, roughly 30mm equivalent on 35mm cameras. It's wide enough for a variety of situations, yet isn't so wide that distortion is an issue. The lens is brutally sharp, and for a mirror less lens has nice bokeh. The lens is also fast enough for low light, especially with such high sensitivity sensors these days. These are definitely not Kodachrome 25 days anymore! Build quality is quite solid. A very nice addition to your kit.

Yes, this lens gets high marks for optical quality and lack of distortion. In the few months of use since purchase, I can report that the color saturation and clarity and lack of distortion is terrific. Here is a brief list of what I like and what I do not:Likes:- Great optical quality, consistent with other Leica branded lenses I have- Better continuous shooting speed than Pana 20/1.7 (which seems to lag much slower than GX85 kit lens, for instance)- Manual aperture control is a nice feature, as is the AF/MF switch- Nice focal distance for street shooting, 30mm equivalent vs. 35mm- FastNot so much likes:- Has a lot of blue/green lens flare in lower light settings (street shooting) with streetlights present - or when shooting with sun behind subject. This is a bit of an annoyance. It is not a pleasing flare, either.- AF performance in lower light is just average- Focus-by-wire ring is a bit on the touchy side; especially as distances increaseOverall, a very solid prime lens for m43 cameras, and is my everyday workhorse for street shooting with my GX85. I would give it 5 stars if not for the annoying lens flaring tendency.