Kit lenses are the lenses you get because there is a great deal on and you figure that since it comes with the camera and the price is right, you can then sell the lens on and get the body for an even better deal. We know, we have done it before too. We all do.
But when we got our first full-frame Panasonic Lumix S5 camera, we didn't have any native L-Mount lenses to start with and so we had to keep the kit lens until we sorted ourselves out. During that time though, we had shoots to do and so we started taking it with us predominately for video work because of how slow it was.
Now we should preface the rest of this post that whilst we have done some photography with this lens in daylight and studio situations, if you use your camera for low-light and street photography, it probably isn't the best choice.
Going back to our video work though, we have to say we have been really impressed with this little lens. The fact that it is native to the L-Mount means that the auto-focus is as good as it is going to get with Panasonic bodies. Whilst not par-focal, we found that if you just keep your aperture at 5.6 you won't have to worry about changing f-stop as you zoom in or out. And whilst it isn't ideal to shoot at 5.6 - if you have a plain-ish background and doing a talking head interview or product demonstration, having a nice and deep depth-of-field allows you to shoot manual focus or even have some kind of buffer with the autofocus system.
We haven't done much breathing tests because it is not really needed for the type of work that we do, but we will update this post when we have a chance to do setup and test it out.
We have decided to keep it though because of that range of 20-60, it allows us to follow the almost standard process of getting wide establishing shots, some mids and some close-ups without too much effort at all, even if we have to live with less creamy bokeh.
That's really the only trade-off we can think of, and until we have the need to get some dedicated primes for our B-Cam, this lens for our video work stays pretty much glued to our Lumix S5 because it does the job. Most clients wouldn't know it's a kit lens, and I am sure that most people watching the work wouldn't pick up on it either.
So the next time you see a great deal on the Panasonic Lumix S5 and the 20-60mm Kit Lens and it is within your needs and your budget - we say go for it, because you won't be disappointed with the video footage you will get.
(Just keep saving for a f1.4 prime for those low-light street photography shoots)