Favourite lenses

kenoah

What is your favorite lens? Why? In what kind of environment?

Mine is the 20mm. It produces really nice depth of field and is lightweight. Clients dont appreciate it because its small and they equate a huge looking lens with a better image. Im actually thinking of buying the biggest hugest lens i can find just to get clients and shooting a few warm up scenes with it. And then shooting all of the real footage with the 20mm

SuperRoach

Funny you mention the large lens = happy clients. I wonder if you could put on a few adaptors to make it larger?

B3Guy

Easy. 17mm f3.5 Tamron SP Adaptall-2. Why? Sharp enough to poke a tack until it cries to its mommy, and flares bigger and more rosy than Santa's behind. Buckets of character with the flares if you want it, surgical crispness if you control your light, wide angle is very nice to the GH2, and it has built in blue and yellow filters. These can actually come in handy on the GH2 in certain situations that seem to make the sensor unhappy.

Vitaliy_Kiselev

For now it is Olympus 45mm F1.8.

LPowell

The legacy Four Thirds Leica/Panasonic 25mm f1.4 is a rare jewel. It is the only auto-focus prime for the GH2 that has a real aperture ring. It's stunningly sharp at f1.4 and will auto-focus on things that are darker than I can see.

kenoah

@super good idea. Especially since the adapters are like 15 a piece. How many adapters can you use at one time?

Everyone seems to love the primes. Is zoom not popular anymore?

nomad

Zooms are slower and primes have better bokeh in most cases.

ed_lee83

I love all my lenses, really. Each one or set has their own strengths and weaknesses. So I choose from 5 sets for specific projects:

1) Zeiss primes for high-end videography & photography.. fashion, film, corporate, television etc
2) Angenieux zooms (28-70 & 70-210).. for maybe news gathering, or out of convenience
3) Lomo primes.. for artistic films or personal stuff
4) Lomo anamorphic primes.. for films and zany anamorphic stuff
5) Fast C-mount/CCTV zoom lenses (only for GH2 w/ ETC).. from f1.0 to f1.4 - when there's the need for speed

Hallvalla · Screen shot 2011-12-09 at 9.37.42 AM.png

@kenoah

This might help:
http://compare.ebay.com/like/220895537305?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar

DrDave

The ones I use the most are the Vivitar 55mm macro, Nikkor 85mm F2, Panny 20mm, Olympus 45mm, Panny 14-45 (not 42).
Less often: Olly 40-150, Rokkor 50 F1.4, Rokkor 135mm, Vivitar Kobori 28-200
Sigma Super Wide II 24mm, Vivtar 28mm SMS Close Focusing, Vivitar Series I 90mm macro, Nikkor 35mm F1.4
Which are the sharpest of these? The Olly 45mm, Panny 20mm, The Vivitar 55 & 90, Rokkor 50mm. They are all sharp enough, but one must mention the 14mm end of the 14-45, as well as the intriguing color of the Vivitar 28mm and the "surprising for the price" of the Olly 40-150. Kobori zoom is very sharp but big and heavy.
I have thirty more in the cabinet that I don't use so I guess I should eBay them, they just look so cool in a big pile. I prefer the Vivitar Kobori zoom to almost all other zooms.

ka00

I just picked up the Olympus 12mm and 45mm today. They are both very sharp and have a shocking clarity to them. I usually use fast full frame glass and noticed that these m43 lenses are much less resistant to flare and haze.

ikoniq

With the GH2 used to be the Nikon AIS 35mm f1.4 now its the Leica R Summilux 35mm f1.4.

griplimited

@ ed_lee83

Which Zeiss did you go with? Contax or ZF?

Contax prices are reaching towards used ZF.

kazuo

@griplimited

Yeap, I saw a series of Contax lenses just two days ago at a used shop. 18mm onwards, all the way to 135mm, and the prices ranged from $300 to about $650. I was stumped. Then,yesterday i swung by the shop, all of them were gone!

Pp are actually paying top dollar for Contax now.

Btw, I always shoot with Zeiss. have the 20mm, 35mm, 135mm. Was thinking about the 85mm, but someone beat me to it. There's also the Nokton 0.95

But i love the 35mm the best. Sharp, beautiful colours.

griplimited

Sometimes, I contemplate selling all my lenses and just ordering ZF or Contax. As it would satisfy and fulfill every desire in my heart. Every time I see the colors and contrast. But at the end of the day, I still need my zooms. And yes they do have Contax zooms as well, but I prefer my two rings. If I ever had enough steady gigs, I would sell all my primes and just go Zeiss, no question.

- Lumix 14mm Pancake, makes my GH2 an awesome travel cam. I'd like to try the 14-42 next.
- Tokina 11-16, 28-70, 80-200
- Samyang 35, 85

Mark_the_Harp

Anyone used the Nikkor 17-35 2.8ED? I love my nikkor 50 1.4 at 2.0 or above, and think this zoom would be equally nice if a bit of a big beast to put on a GH2. Aim is to get the flexibility of a zoom with decent image quality and ability to cope in low light. Can't find any gh2 footage with the Nikkor zoom though so wondering if it's just a silly thing to do?

last_SHIFT

@Mark_The_Harp

Somebody on this forum uses the Nikkor 17-35, forgot exactly who but he did post some footage - maybe its Shrig if I'm not mistaken...?

jokieone

I have three lenses that I use which are my favorite.

The olympus 12 mm. It has amazing colors, it can be a bit soft at f2 for some.

The voigtlander 25 f.095.

And the contax carl zeiss 50 f 1.4. The Voigtlander and Contax synergizes really well!

I also have an Yashica 135 mm f2.8 which works great if I need that extra length.

ed_lee83

@griplimited

All ZF. Had considered Contax but got into that game too late... And they're right, prices are more or less the same. Of course I'd go for modern type, and Nikon mounts are more versatile than C/Y I suppose.

Clermond

Voigtlander Nokton 25mm 1:0,9
Fast, nice bokeh and beautiful blur. Sharp.

@kenoah I know the problem of "not big enough" since I started shoting with 5DM2. Put it on a rig, fix the follow focus, use flags, attach a big mic and a 7" LCD screen. It has become worse with the GH2 although footage looks much better ;-) Buy the rewo cage (I did, beautiful gear!) use bigger flags. Seriously. If that doesnt help rent a bigger camera. If your client want's a show give him a showtime.

kenoah

@clermond I've been thinking about buying a cage/shoulder rig of some sort to give me that stereotypical cameraman look but I cant justify the expense yet. The gigs i've been getting is only 50-200 USD and I still havent paid off my gh2 and accessories.

but Dayum! that Rewo Cage looks dope. expensive; but dope. I could prolly pimp talk my way into a gig just by pullin that thing out

Mark_the_Harp

@last_SHIFT Thanks! You're right - I found it. Looks pretty good - he was using the 17-35 with ETC mode. Although...there's something really nice about primes that you don't seem to get with zoom lenses. Or am I just imagining that?

kenoah

I picked up a few lenses at a garage sale. Picked up all 3 for 75usd plus some filters. I got home and found them on evilbay maxing out around 130 a piece.

Vivitar 28mm 1:2.5 auto wide angle
Nikon lens series e 50mm 1:1.8
Sigma zoom k2 1:4.5 70-200mm

they all fit on nikon cameras.
The problem im having is finding the correct adapter. I searched ebay and there was about 3 different nikon to m4/3rds adapters.

Nvm. Went to double check and found some universal adapters that claim to work with all nikon lenses.

But anyway. Is there one you guys would suggest? They are all about the same price (20-40)
so im thinking thers not much difference between them anyhow

griplimited

Because i also have a 7d. I use kawa NIKON>EOS adapters. Then I have a fotodiox EOS>m43 adapter. Works fine for me and I'm able to use on both cam.

Phenixone

Add a full size Matte Box with filter trays and rods attachment and your client will be happy.

kenoah

Video gear is just as expensive as audio gear. In my naivete i figured all i needed was a camera. This delusion is quickly retreating.

I got big hopes for my new lenses though, a photography professor at the college said oldschool glass is the way to go

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