One of the benefits of the Lightweight photography approach is as the name suggests that it’s lightweight. This becomes particularly true where you are engaging in another activity which compliments your photography but which is physically demanding. This is certainly the case with one of my other pursuits, Hill Walking. You need to keep equipment small and light so that you are able to carry it along with other essential equipment for the hills and mountains.
On a few of my recent treks I have found that I am keeping pretty much to using one lens, a 14mm-45mm which is equivalent to 28mm (wide angle) to 90mm (telephoto). There have been a few times where I have thought that I should switch to a wider lens and a few more times where I have thought that I should switch to a longer lens than 45mm. In all of these occasions I have had suitable lenses with me but they have been in my backpack so changing lens means stopping and removing the pack. As this is inconvenient for both me and anyone walking with me, I tend not to change the lens.
On my last outing I decided it was time to perhaps switch to a super zoom lens. I know Panasonic produced a 14-140mm lens which would give the equivalent of 28mm to 280mm (a huge range). Looking up the lens later I found it was around £500 and had a size and weight that was suitable for my use. The lens really would open up a lot of opportunities and be far more convenient for me and there were a lot of reviews from people who were very happy with the performance.
Now it’s not that I distrust the views of others but I am highly critical when it comes to image sharpness and the resolution of lenses so I went looking for some sample images for download. I found plenty of sample images but unfortunately all were JPG; not a RAW file in sight. Looking at the JPG’s, all of them displayed the usual softness that in camera JPG’s usually do. Is this the lens or is it the camera? I suspect it’s the camera but without the RAW file I can’t judge how sharp the lens actually is. I’m also reluctant to splash out £500 to find out if the lens is good or not.
I really want to lighten my equipment further but not at the expense of image quality. My plea then is does anyone have any sample RAW files at 14mm, 75mm and 140mm using this lens, or know where I can find these? If you can help either add a comment to this blog or email me using robin@lenscraft.co.uk.
The Lightweight Photographer 
I’ve been using the 14-140 for the past few weeks and I can attest that it is a fine, sharp lens. It, of course, adds a little weight and bulk compared to the 14-45 or primes but the extended range really comes in handy. I agree that it’s tough to find decent sample shots online so I just simply bought it and took it out for a spin. My original lens with my GX1 was the 14-42 (non X) which, although panned by many, I was quite satisfied with. The sharpness of the14-140 was immediately noticable, even in the jpg’s. The RAW files were even better to work from. I purposely try to shoot photos in a variety of situations when trying out a lens and I have been shooting wide open at 140mm, since I figure that is the worst case scenario, and I haven’t been disappointed, as long as I kept my shutter speeds up (a common problem with forum posters complaining on the softness of a lens). I’ll see if I can dig up some shots in the ranges you asked about and send them to you. Meanwhile there are a few pics on my blog shot with the 14-140 but I do a lot of processing and they might not be good for you to judge from.
Thank you for you kind offer. You have a great blog and the image do look sharp although as you say its hard to judge the sharpness from the processed files. I also like to keep my shutter speeds up to avoid any camera movement and tend to shoot in the f/5.6 to f/7.1 range where possible. All th best and thanks again for the help.