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fast m4/3 Lens advice for gh4
  • jclmediajclmedia

    So I want to buy a decent lowlight lens since i dont have one, I want to get either a pentax 50mm 1.7 for around $60-70 after i get a adapter for it Or a 20mm 1.7 Panny lens from ebay or craigslist for around $170-190? Im also going to sell my 7.5 rokinon fisheye because I want somthing with more distortion like the Lensbaby 5.8mm or tamron cctv lens 4mm i believe. Orr should i just wait and get the SLR magic 25mm T0.95 Lens for $550 ? or somthing with the new XL speedbooster? tokina 11-16mm?

    Thanks

  • 10 Replies sorted by
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Ideal first fast lens if you do not use FF - Olympus 45mm

    http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/873/45mm-f1.8-olympus-topic/p1

  • nosignalnosignal

    I've got the 20mm panasonic pancake lens. It's my go-to lens for any sort of work where light may be an issue.

  • jclmediajclmedia

    Yeah i loved the 20mm when my friend let me use his, I wonder how it stands up against the slr magic 25mm 0.95?

  • ipcmlripcmlr

    Another vote for the 20mm 1.7 or if you want faster autofocus for pics 25mm 1.4-usually a little less than $300 on eBay. I trust voigtlanders more than slr magic. You can get a 25mm 0.95 on eBay for about $550 as well.

  • caveportcaveport

    I use a Pentax 50mm 1.7 and a 1.4. Both are very nice for a retro kind of look. There is no electronic correction so you will get chromatic aberration and soft edges. Also when fully open there is quite a bit of flare which makes the blacks quite grey and reduces contrast. On the GH4 it has a field of view similar to a 100mm lens on a full frame sensor camera. They do look nice!

  • ipcmlripcmlr

    If you really want a Pentax I can sell you mine for $60 with a nice adapter included. It's the faster 50mm 1.4 As @caveport said open they do lose contrast and is soft open.

  • jclmediajclmedia

    Ima wait and get the 20mm or the 25mm then thanks for the advice. I dont want it to be soft wide open.

  • DrDaveDrDave

    I use the Panny 14 and 20 and the Olly 45 the most, the Olly 45 is the best for people, the 20 is good for everything, and the 14 is good for deep stage. If I had to pick just one of the three the 45 is maybe a bit more magical and more filmic, but the 20 is more versatile. Right now, the price has come down so there are some super values out there. is on sale, so it's a very good value, I paid more when it first came out.

    If you a really looking for cheap, there's a zillion lenses you can use with an adapter, like the Nikkor 50/1.8. Almost all the older lenses are better or the same in their cheaper, half-stop slower versions, and are crap wide open, and none are as good as the 20 or the 45, which is why you see so many of the latter in the field.

    Low contrast is not the same as looking like crap. A lot of these older lenses look like crap wide open, and stopped down to say F4 are decently sharp but with low contrast. But low contrast is not a bad thing, it may even give you an extra half stop of exposure (a debated idea, but reasonable). You can fix the contrast in post, but if it looks like crap, well, don't even bother.

    A metabones on a legacy 50mm stopped down to say 3.2 is an interesting look, for sure, but I'd rather have a newer lens with the new, spiffy coating.

  • ipcmlripcmlr

    A metabones opens up a lot of possibilities. It is expensive though. You can get a 35mm 1.8 Nikon for a little over $100 + metabones is equal to a fullframe 50mm fov plus makes it an f1.2

    I never use my pentax super takumar at 1.4. It just looks hazy. The SMC super takumars though are better wide open according to the interwebs. http://www.pbase.com/carpents/image/81108901/large

    This thread actually made me want to test how bad the takumar looks wide open and got me thinking maybe I should get a SMC version(it is bad but dramatically improves when I set to f2.0).

    Aperture changes every 10 sec. It not the best test but you do get to see what kind of softness we are talking about.

  • jclmediajclmedia

    Yeah i see what you mean, I will def buy one just not as my first prime, Ima go with 25mm 1.4 probably for under $400 hopefully.

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