Lumix S 14-28mm F4-5.6 Macro

A modest zoom range and maximum aperture at a modest price

- Rod Lawton

£699/$698
www.panasonic.​com

UItra-wide zooms are popular amongst landscape, travel and architectural photographers for their ability to squeeze everything into the frame even when you're right up close. They are also useful for filmmakers and vloggers who need to film themselves at arm's length and get the background surroundings into the frame, too. However, ultra-wide zooms for the best full-frame cameras are typically big, heavy and expensive. Either that or their performance is only mediocre. The Lumix S 14-28mm F4-5.6 Macro turns that on its head.

It's not expensive, but it is rather good. In fact, for anyone trying to keep the costs down, it has to be one of the best L-mount lenses to buy.

There are a few reasons why. First, it has a macro capability... well, sort of. It can offer 0.5x magnification at its maximum focal length of 28mm and, while that's not a true 1:1 macro magnification, it gets you a lot closer to small objects than a regular lens. Second, by full-frame zoom standards, it's not a big lens - about the same as Panasonic's f/1.8 primes and the Lumix S 20-60mm kit zoom - and it's designed not to change length during use, so once it's balanced on a gimbal, it should stay balanced. This makes it ideal for use on the Panasonic Lumix S5 II and Lumix S5 IIX, two of the best hybrid cameras right now.