Lenses

Wide Angle Adapters topic

kronstadt — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 19:32:53 +0000

Salute everyone,

Problem 1: The 2X crop factor of GH1 and GH2 which make 50mm lenses look like 100mm. It's not just a problem - it's a pain in the neck!

Problem 2: GH1 shoots in 16:9 aspect ratio, while most films today are made in 2:39:1

Possible solution 1: Use Anamorphic lenses or Anamorphic adapters.
BUT... LA7200, which made GH1 and GH2's 16:9 into a nice 2:39:1, is discontinued by Panasonic. The prices for LA7200 and anamorphic adapters and lenses have gone through the roof, and most people simply can't afford them.

Possible solution 2: use wider lenses and crop the top and bottom in post-production.
BUT... wide angle prime lenses are super expensive, and you are still really getting a usual 28mm shot out of your pricey 14mm pancake. And I still don't know how to get that nice Kubrick-style 14mm wide angle shot with my GH13...

So, I want to start a thread around this possible solution 3...
Possible solution 3: use those cheap (~£25-£60) 0.45X wide angle adapters from eBay that will make a 28mm lens behave more or less, like it should - like a 25mm. And a 14mm might finally appear like a nice 12.5mm...

The problem is... does it work? Has it worked for any GH1/2 users in this forum?
Which particular wide-angle adapter has worked well for you? And what about the sharpness, and loss of light-stops, and quality, and other issues?

If you have any information or experience with these wide angle adapters, please share. Because many of us, can't afford anamorphics or even decently wide lenses.

Thanks!

45mm Contax G f 2.0?

Zaz — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 02:49:24 +0000

Anyone have any experience with this lens? I'm in need of a portrait lens and want to examine some alternatives to the Oly 45mm

this vid is beautiful:

i believe james is a member here no?

Quarz Zoom / Meteor-2 lenses

disordinary — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:56:11 +0000

Hey Guys,

I was looking at getting a Soviet Quarz Zoom 16mm which comes with a Meteor-2 Lens.

What sort of mount is this? Is it able to be chucked on a M42 camera?

What are the best GH2 lenses?

acuriousman — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 12:04:27 +0000

Without adapters, which are the best m43 lenses for the GH2? Specially for gorgeous looking video?

Sigma 30mm 1.4 V Lumix 20mm 1.7 for GH2\BMPC

lmackreath — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 02:31:20 +0000

Morning all!

I am looking at both lenses for video work for my GH2 and eventually the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera. They both cost around £260 new and both in my eyes have their advantages\disadvantages.

I love the small form factor of the Panny, better focal length for the BMPC and it has autofocus for the GH2 and native to both.

The Sigma is faster, generally though of as giving a more 'cinematic' image and again would be great for both the GH2 and BMPC.

The Sigma however is large and heavy, and with the adapter it will need for both the GH2 and BMPC it will become even larger...

Your thoughts please...

LA-7200 Anamorph Lens Diopter

jaecjaec — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 19:09:26 +0000

I've got a couple of LA-7200 adapters to play with. Despite search the internet, I'm a bit confused over what diopters do exactly. Specifically where to place the diopters. So, I did this quick experiment. It's clearly quick and crude for reasons that I only had one hand free to hold the lens in place, and one to take a snap shot. This is done on a camcorder Canon HF-g10
1. Zoom out, native lens
2. Zoom out, native lens, +1D in front
3. Zoom out, LA7200
4. Zoom out, LA7200, +1in front of the LA7200
5. Zoom out, +1D between the camera and LA7200
6. Zoom in with LA7200 only
7. Zoom in with LA7200, +1D in front
8. Zoom in with LA7200, +1D between the lens and LA7200

I know these pictures are crappy, but am I correct to say that using a diopter between the lens and the la7200 work? It seems to not work as powerfully as putting it in front of the LA7200, but it works? Photo 6 is out of focus, photo 8 is in focus?

This is important to me, and perhaps others, since large, good quality 0.5 diopters are so rare and expensive. 68mm, higher power diopters, such as +1 or +2 may work just as well....

Fujinon - New HD Lowercost Pro Lenses ?

feha — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 09:26:16 +0000

Anyone tried these to use with MFT ?

I wish they made similar lens for MFT :-)

PL Mount Zoom lenses for GH2

Donnie88 — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 18:37:04 +0000

I'll be renting out PL Mount Zoom lenses for the Panasonic GH2. Been asked to give a list - which lenses would you recommend.

Speed is important, f/2.0 or faster. Looking for a range of focal lengths.

What PL mount lenses would you guys recommend?

Next step up from 50mm Pentax SMC-M?

hellokevin11 — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 11:04:54 +0000

I bought a used GH1 body + Adapter + Pentax SMC-M 1.7 and I have to say I am simply stunned and blown away (my first real camera).

What would be some good lenses? I'm broke as a joke so I'm buying older manual focus lenses.

Lens Dilemma; Wides sorted.....prime lens medium/telephoto not sorted.

Donnie88 — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 11:21:14 +0000

I'll be purchasing the Olympus 14-35mm F 2.0 Zuiko lens for my GH2.

Since I'll be shooting documentary stuff, I would love to have a prime lens around the 85mm mark. A light option for the tighter stuff to aid my wide zoom.

I have a Nikon F Mount and will be getting the Olympus converter for the Olympus Zoom.

Do you guys have any recommendations for a prime lens that would work for those adaptors (or straight onto the camera) - around that focal length?

No budget limitations.

Cheers

Best Clasic C Mount Lenses from the 16mm era

JohnBarlow — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 06:10:56 +0000

Interested in peoples opinions on classic C Mount lenses in the sub 50mm region.

Currently looking at Zeiss, Kern, Berthiot

If you have some experience to share why not put it down here?

...and also any zooms you particularly like.

Advantages to using MFT lenses?

theconformist — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 17:06:00 +0000

Any advantages to using a Micro Four Thirds lens (Panny, Olympus, etc) on an MFT camera over a lens made for a larger sensor via an adapter?

Lenses for Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera

Sangye — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:32:52 +0000

Rather than pollute the official Pocket-BMCC thread with this information, which I think is something a lot of people are interested in, I figured a separate thread might be useful.

Please post and discuss various lenses that may or may not be compatible. I'll edit this original post to include any notable lenses that are confirmed to cover the Super-16 size sensor. I'm also working on writing a guide to using other lenses with a Speedbooster, with consideration for depth of field, field of view, etc, that I'll include in this post.

Buying new lenses. EF Lenses?

rilz — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 14:34:29 +0000

I have owned a GH2 for around a year now and it's time for me to expand my paltry lens collection. I currently own the 20mm 1.7 pancake and a 50mm FD 1.4. I am considering the possibility of one day upgrading to the 4k Black Magic or Mkiii and I want to future proof my lens choices. I was wondering what is out there in terms of decent GH2 compatible EF mount lenses. Do samyang/rokinon fit into this category?

Is Leica 14-50 F3.8 better than Panasonic 14-45?

cmountman — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 22:48:04 +0000

Hello

I need some help choosing between the Leica 14-50 F3.8-5.6 and the Panasonic 14-45 (not the pancake lens). I already have the Leica lens and am thinking to sell it to buy the 14-45 for quieter operation but I am wondering if the 14-45 will produce a lesser quality footage than the 14-50. The IOS is noisy but my main question for this thread is the actual difference in image quality between the 2 lenses

If any of you have any experience using both of these lenses I would really appreciate feedback

Thanks

Continous autofocus for the taking lens in dual focus anachromatic shooting

Andreask — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 07:13:08 +0000

I'm new to this forum and also to anamorphic shooting, though I worked as steadicam operator on projects with rented hawk lenses before. Recently I purchased my first anamorphic lenses on ebay, a set of Rathenower Rectimascopes 48/2x which I might get soon. Videos on youtube confinced me about how sharp they are:

However, the Rectimascopes are dual focus like many other scope lenses (Kowa, Moeller, Sankor) and I'll soon have the ability to test how this handles in real shooting. But I wonder if it is not possible to use a camera with continous autofocus for the rear lens at all. This way one would only have to focus the anamorphic lens and the rear is adjusted by the camera with contrast autofocus. No reason to fear the autofocus might adjust to the backround in this setup, though.

I have a Canon 60D and no autofocus lens at the moment since I use my old Contax/Yashica lenses for video and also photos but what I've read in the manual their autofocus won't allow for continous and fluent focus revision during REC. But a Panasonic GH series camera might do the trick. Eventually there is somebody who already tested this approach?

Zunow Imperial Primes - 4k T1.5 Lens Set

bannedindv — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 20:13:21 +0000

ZUNOW Japanese Rehoused Lenses distributed by Alphatron

Set Consisting of 25/35/50/85mm T1.5

PL Mount? Maybe other mounts on release?

What do we think these are rehoused from?

http://www.alphatron.tv/2013040367/zunow-news/nab-2013-zunow-imperial-prime-lenses.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Manual Lenses test on m43

valpopando — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 09:02:34 +0000

Hope'll be usefull .

IMHO , love the Nokton at all , nikkor got strong bokeh cool colors and is sharp , Fujinon got very nice pearly bokeh but is very soft .

hope You enjoy cats ; )

14mm F2,0 Schneider-Kreuznach Super-Angulon

mikidora — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 13:25:30 +0000

AF + Aperture Control. Photokina - I'm coming !!

Oldest lenses on GH2 / GH3

fosterchen — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 19:11:56 +0000

This is a fun topic to see who's actually utilizing the oldest lenses on their Panasonic GHX.. Can be both actual use in the field or just experimenting to see if it is possible to mount and attain focus. Pics if you got'em!

Dog Schidt Optics by Flare Factory 58's

Manu4Vendetta — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 00:38:53 +0000

Vintage 58mm f2 lens based on a classic 1960's Zeiss optical design.

For mount Canon EF, Nikon, Sony E-Mount, M43, Sony Alpha/Minolta, Arri PL.

We hand machine each lens and apply various cool modifications to add extra character to your pictures or movies. The lenses are available in various styles. Please see our online video samples and our PDF, then choose your style! If unsure just let us know what video sample you like best and we will send you the right configuration :-

http://www.43rumors.com/no-joke-new-dog-shits-optics/

http://www.etsy.com/listing/126095702/flare-factory-58-dslr-mount?

Schneider Cine-Digitar Anamorphic 1.33x Projection Lenses?

kellar42 — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 23:48:45 +0000

I stumbled on B&H's selection of high-end anamorphic projection lenses this evening and I'm wondering, is there any reason these couldn't be attached to a camera and act like a high end version of the LA7200? I know they're radically expensive, but that aside, what am I missing?

Longest lens to shoot handheld video with on GH2?

jimtreats — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 20:52:18 +0000

So I'm really excited about the new Olympus 75mm f1.8 lens, which seems to be very close to optically perfect. It'd make a lovely lens for stills, and i guess would be a pretty good lens for video on an olympus body where the stabilisation can help you out with a shutter speed of 1/50.

I'm presuming the same logic applies as for stills, a sharp image is typically best got by having a lens less focal length than your shutter speed. So our 1/50th shutter speed for 180 shutter of 24fps means we really can't hope to get that good results from anything un-stabilised beyond a 50mm equivalent focal length. Which draws the line at say the Voigtlander 25mm f0.95.

I've dabbled with longer lenses, but just wondered what you guys all used as a rule of thumb? Are you all using tripods, or other supports to get usable footage out of anything longer?

With that, and the price tag I guess I'll have to pass on the Oly 75mm for now. Wish i could rent one for a wedding in a few months.

Olympus 75mm 1.8 manual focus grinding sound on GH3

cinevoyeur — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 19:25:16 +0000

I just got this lens the other day and noticed that it makes a vey quiet, yet noticeable grinding sound when focusing manually. Is that normal? It also makes a noise when focusing automatically. I have the panasonic shotgun mic attached to the GH3 for audio recording and it definitely picks up the sound. Is my lens defective or is this normal for this lens? I don't notice it on my 17mm or 45mm, but haven't tested.

Would love some direction on this. You can hear it in this video at around the three second mark - small clicking sounds.

14-45mm Panasonic lens issue

prince — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 18:42:35 +0000

Hi, I recently got a used panasonic 14-45 lens from ebay described to be in very good condition. The lens seems so cheaply made, nowhere near my legacy lenses, it's like a toy...Real letdown. But what really troubles me is the zoom ring. It's okay when doing fast to medium movements but it feels sticky when zooming slow. It jerks and it's really hard to frame accurately especially on the wide side. Is the lens faulty or the same goes for your units? Thanks.

Good Lens for learning film making

stoneDog — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 01:52:26 +0000

So I picked up a GH2 body recently but I am having a hard time deciding which lenses to pick up. My objective is to learn how to film. I have some books on cinematography and want to start putting myself to work.

I don't have any practical experience shooting video, so as much as I want to blow a couple thousand on a range of lenses I really just need to get something that I can use to start working on the basics.

I know the kit lenses aren't ideal for shooting serious video but would one of them be useful for a beginner in my situation? Or is it worth it to get a couple of primes instead?

I know the question is really subjective but I could use a little help.

Thanks!

Cine m43 lens set topic

tjnavyblue — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 16:06:20 +0000

Hoping to start a useful thread on building a MFT lens set from scratch.

I thought this could be it's own topic, as I think there are more and more people in a similar scenario, whether as photographers moving over into video, DP's that want a run n' gun MFT setup for travel, or budget film makers. I (like many of you) have grandfathered a fairly random set of different mount primes into my MFT setup, but I thought it would be an interesting "what-if" to think about starting from scratch.

There are a lot of new lens options in the last year from some new guys - SLR Magic, Nokton and as well as some zooms from Pana - I'm really interested to see which of these are must-haves for you guys.

Parameters:

-Please keep suggestions to lenses that are available new, or used from a reputable seller (ie. I like/own vintage primes, but let's assume you need to be able to buy and expense this equipment through a corporate finance dept.)

-For budget, let's say you have $2500 - $3000. And you don't want to blow it all on one Leica.

-Let's assume you're using MFT because you're traveling and need a light, yet flexible kit - everything from two camera interviews mixed with lots of run and gun art-docu type shots (let's say you have something standard, like a couple of tripods, a small slider and a Steadicam arm/vest).

Given that - what are the three/four/five lenses you would buy for your set?

PS. In the spirit of keeping things short and readable, please do not list a bunch of lenses that you don't recommend and all your reasons for not recommending them.

High speed cinema lenses shootout

Vitaliy_Kiselev — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 16:57:08 +0000

Source images and more info - http://matthayslett.com/salt-iii-high-speed-lens-shootout-wfo/

Advice: Nokton 25mm f0.95 vs PanaLeica 25mm f1.4

Manu4Vendetta — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 17:20:33 +0000

I know both are two great optics. The Nokton lens is tested with the GH2, the PanaLeica've seen a few videos, references and analysis in the video section. I think the Nokton is manual, so it is more than indificated video stills, and PanaLeica is suitable for photo and video.

I'm saving for the Nokton, but its price is a bit prohibitive -at least for my third world economy-, PanaLeica wanted to know if it is a good option and I can get a result close and as cinematic as the Nokton or the step and go straight to the Nokton.

I would like to arguments for and against each.

Thanks.

12mm, Olympus or Noktor?

azza_act — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 17:56:25 +0000

Going to be shooting a short film with the GH2 next month and I want this short to have a cinematic look about it (don't we all?). Unfortunately, I can't afford anamorphic lenses :( But I believe I have a good selection of manual lenses: voigtlander 25mm, Canon 50mm 1.8 and the samyany 85mm 1.4. The only lens i believe i'm missing is a good wide to match these. Now i shoot weddings also, so i have the Olympus 12mm for steadicam work (auto focus is great) and I shoot real estate videos (my day job) with the beautiful panny 7-14mm. I love these lenses, especially the 7-14mm but i'm worried that they with not match with the lenses mention above, the Olympus is sharp as hell, maybe too sharp and the 7-17mm is a little slow at times. So technically, I'm covered on the wide end... right? But every time i watch Noktor 12mm footage it screams movie magic to me. I think it would be crazy to have 3 wide lenses but i can't help falling in love with the Noktor 12mm. Should the Olympus and the 7-14mm be enough? Does anyone own both or all three? Will anyone really notice the difference?