@Rambo Forgive my ignorance, but I'm having trouble imagining how you put the filter in the wide converter. Do you take the glass out of the Marumi filter and just jam it in there? Or do you just jam the whole filter in there?

Anyways, they're selling them in Korea for $154 and I'm gonna get one. I'm considering just screwing on a 46mm filter before putting on the converter at the risk of slightly messing up the image. I'm guessing the shot will look slightly wider with a little blurrier corners.

My solution to attach a filter (and there are others), is to remove the glass from an old 55mm filter and insert the filter ring only into the inside of the wide adapter, it's a push in fit, but can be glued if you wish. You then can attach whatever you want, 55mm filter, step-up adapter or a hood. Works perfect.

@feha >The Converter is hard plastic based similar to the other kit lenses.

Download Original 24p MTS file of 14mm pancake with adapter. Aperture wide open F2.5 showing sharpness. http://www.mediafire.com/?vzvesyi1orh8j4r

Ralph_B, this is probably what you were expecting. The 20mm pancake with wide adapter is blurred center and edges at f1.7, it's not until f4.0 that the full frame becomes sharper edge to edge.

Conclusion, Panny designed this for only the 2 lenses stated and only at 14mm >H-PS14042 and H-H014

Below are the results with converter attached

First pic 14mm at f2.5 ......................... Second 20mm at f1.7 ........................... Third 20mm at f8.0 ...............................

I've added the converter too on the 14mm and its awesome imo, total matched pair. Couple of images @dpreview below link both with the combination. The top four, 2x fruit and 2 landscape before are all with the combo. I didnt seem to get good results with the 20mm, ghosting and softening but didnt stop down. Also havent checked on the PL macro 2.8 yet. Note, really this a 20mm actual fov on GH2, the 11mm refer's to the 4:3 ratio fov, in 16:9 you are wider definately the fastest equivalent 20mm out there and sharp as a razor even at f2.5. The cap for the converter is a snug fit on the outside. I am going to hollow it out and add a ring onto it to take filters/nd.(fader). Btw, if you shoot raw in stills with certain raw converters the image is wider still due to ignoring correction, you will see it in the 2 fruit shots below link, ie stills with converter achieves <18mm fov @f2.5, both images I am less than 6inches from the fruit, also a benefit of this lens, very close focus. May add the pancake zoom now, for a cheap 10-30 option with OIS, be cheaper than this new 12-35 and wider!, but slower. http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/9640001356/photos

@adventsam, yeah agree on the close focus, 2" (50mm) from subject. Panny only recommend running the converter at 14mm end of the pancake zoom, so may experience the same softning and distortion as the 20mm pancake if you zoom in.

I received the wide adapter yesterday, and I just whipped up a quick test to compare barrel distortion and sharpness.

I've attached three jpeg files straight out of the GH2, so the file sizes are pretty big.

Wide A.jpg - Olympus Zuiko 9-18mm at f/4 with the Panasonic m4/3 to 4/3 adapter.

Wide B.jpg - Panasonic 14mm at f/4 with the GWC1 adapter.

Wide C.jpg - $40 no name wide converter on the Panasonic 14mm at f/4.

Please excuse the can of compressed air moving on Wide C.jpg. I had to use it to clean some of the dust that was on that converter and forgot that it was a part of the shot. You can still use the Panasonic box for corner sharpness reference though.

The results were just as I expected. The Olympus had the least distortion with the best corner sharpness, the Panny with GWC1 was next best on both respects, and the Panny with no name converter was the worst. The center sharpness doesn't seem to differ too much. I also have pictures with the Panasonic lenses at f/2.5, but they just had more vignetting and less corner sharpness.

I was hoping that this would give me a reason to sell off the Olympus, but now I'm actually not sure. If you look at Wide B.jpg without seeing Wide A.jpg first, it doesn't seem unacceptable. Once you see how good Wide A.jpg is, you don't want to go back to the other two. Anyways, I hope some of you found this useful.

@mintcheerios, in the bottom left I agree Oly seems sharper but on the right probably the Pana and converter? I think your angle of focus is different? all in all for video am sure the Pana is the Oly equal with converter, but the Oly is more flexible as its a zoom. I think they look equal overall? the cheap converter is a bit wanting though.

I went shooting with this lens today with the Lumix 14mm, and I'm pretty satisfied with it. The distortion isn't a problem unless you are shooting brick walls, and in the worst case, I can always correct it in Photoshop. With how cheap you can get the 14mm, this seems like a good way (maybe only way) to get 11mm wideness, speed, autofocus, compactness, and sharpness for m4/3.

@mintcheerios

Thanks for the test. I really like the look from 14mm 2.5 + dmw-gwc1. It's neither too perfect nor too imperfect. A bit of blurriness and a bit of distortion... I like :)

If I need sharper corner, I'd use x14-42mm + dmw-gwc1. The X-lens has better t-value than 14mm 2.5 by 1/3 stop, and its image color is closer to Nokton 25mm 0.95. But 14mm 2.5 gives just slightly wider FOV.

The bottom line.... Get all three pancakes... plus DMW-GWC1 hehe

Nope only on order at JR, is listed out of stock.

It does say estimated arrival 15/6, but would be best to call see if that is accurate. Good price.

I'm doing some more shots with this adapter right now on the 14mm

Grab it, bargain. I'm having a lot of fun with this adapter and the 14mm pancake on the GF2, the combination is so lightweight and the FOV is perfect for stable handheld video and the panning (up/down/sideways) has that ""rolling"" type perspective you see on wide angle ENG camera footage. I'm shooting 720p 30fps 1/60 and the motion is perfect, no strobing even on fast pans, nice blurring, really makes the GF2 shine. Even the rendered 720p 30 (dropping the double frame is smooth).

All up it's great combination. I want to try it extensively on the GH2 next and see if the extra resolution causes any issues.

Got it today. Love it.

Definitely the adapter makes the lens less perfect. Slight distortion toward edges. Little bit more CA. Slightly less sharp. I call them "characters". I like since the new characters give more vintage look.

Compared to HyperPrime 12mm, it's sharper, less distortion, less CA, and better flares.

No filter thread is a bummer, but this is primarily for indoor where space is limited.