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Lens Dilemma; Wides sorted.....prime lens medium/telephoto not sorted.
  • Donnie88Donnie88

    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

  • 23 Replies sorted by
  • vicharrisvicharris

    Why don't you just get an old AIS Nikon 85mm? Seems like a pretty easy solution. I use a 50mm AIS with my prime set of Rokinons right now.

  • Donnie88Donnie88

    Yeah the 85mm is what I had in mind...can't find it anywhere though! At least none that has an aperture ring on it or manual.

    can you direct me to one?

  • stoneystoney

    How about Lumix 35-100mm f/2.8? The Power OIS will be helpful.

  • Donnie88Donnie88

    @stonebat - The speed is a SLIGHT deterrent, however is it a lens you would recommend for a budget of an extra 1k to spend on a lens?

    Can you adjust the aperture on cam?

    I'm drawn to this lens now.

  • stoneystoney

    Yes. It's Lumix lens that is native to m43. You don't need any adapter. Sharp at max aperture. I'd get it if there's no budget limitation :)

  • soundgh2soundgh2

    Contax Zeiss 35-70 3.4 or Minolta 35-70 3.5 macro are nice - second option is dirt cheap and v sharp & parfocal also if you don't mind using manual lenses.

  • Donnie88Donnie88

    Thanks for the help guys!

    @stonebat - I've opted for the Lumix 35 - 100mm, cheers mate!

  • stoneystoney

    I wish I can afford the lens. Prolly you'd be able to stabilize the shot with hand-held. But one caveat. All Olympus/Panasonic native m43 lenses use focus-by-wire. You can't do precise focus pulling. For documentary, I don't think focus pulling is necessary, but YMMV.

  • Donnie88Donnie88

    @stonebat - What exactly is the term 'focus-by-wire' - how does that differentiate with let's say manual focusing on Nikkor AI-S lenses?

  • stoneystoney

    Electronically guesstimated focus mechanism. The faster you turn the focus ring, the faster focus shifts. It's like your computer mouse. The faster you move it, the faster acceleration moving across the screen. You can't do repeatable focus pulling. Nikkor Ai-S has no such problem, but you get no image stabilization from the lens.

  • DrDaveDrDave

    I have an old Nikkor 85mm F2 and it is compact and delivers beautiful vid and photos. It could be that the newer Samyang is sharper and faster, but it isn't exactly light. The new Olly 75mm is of course a great lens, but pricey.

  • Donnie88Donnie88

    @stonebat - Ah makes sense, thanks for the info. The image stabilisation would be important a zoom lens like that I imagine.

    @DrDave - I'm also drawn to the Olympus 75mm f/1.8. Would the same adapter for the Olympus 14 - 35mm Zuiko Zoom also work for this lens?

    This is the adapter I'm thinking to buy: http://www.calumetphoto.co.uk/eng/product/olympus_mf_2_om_adapter/359-060r

  • DrDaveDrDave

    The Olly 75 m43 is native to the GH2 so you have the smooth focusing video motor (msc) as well. You can see from this chart that even wide open you get less than one blur unit over the entire frame. http://slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/1521

    Of course, for video it doesn't have to be at the limit of sharpness. I don't usually use zoom lenses for video so you might also want to look at the Panasonic 20mm.

  • Donnie88Donnie88

    @DrDave - Ah I did not know that was native, even better! Cheers for that.

    A prime lens that has really grabbed my attention is also the Carl Zeiss CP.2 lenses. I have a Nikon F mount, would this work for it - it does say F mount: http://www.creativevideo.co.uk/index.php?t=product/carl_zeiss_1916-644

    If so would you guys recommend it or is it overkill for the GH2? Ideally I'd prefer 85mm but couldn't find that for the F mount.

  • nomadnomad

    Have a look at Zeiss Contax. The 85mm 2.8 is still cheap, small and lightweight and has incredibel image quality. It can easily be adapted to EF.

  • Donnie88Donnie88

    @nomad - Hey I'm not on a low budget and would rather stay within Nikon F mount, Olympus mount or native.

    Also 2.8 is a tad slow for my liking man.

  • DrDaveDrDave

    I have a lot of high end lenses and the Panny 14mm, Panny 20 mm and Olly 45 are as sharp or sharper than the rest. So I don't use the other lenses unless I want a special look. The thing is, it isn't just the sharpness. At a certain point, the sharpness is not captured by the video. So then you are looking at evenness, microcontrast, reflective coatings and color. And this is where these primes lenses perform better. The nanometer type microcoatings really make a visible difference. Of course you can get great results with the high end lenses, I just don't think they are better.

    Even though the Panny 14mm is on the slow side, it is a remarkable lens. Sharp as a Leica; light as feather. I paid $165 or $175 for mine.

  • WarrantyVoidedWarrantyVoided

    DrDave, are you solely talking from a video perspective? Those three lenses pop up quite a few times, but I'm still torn.

  • stoneystoney

    Lumix 14mm 2.5, Lumix 20mm 1.7, M.Zuiko 45mm 1.8 are m43 trinity :)

  • Donnie88Donnie88

    @stonebat - Do you have any videos you've done using those lenses? Particularly the Zuiko 45mm f/1.8

    They seem like a good set of primes I might also purchase for non-documentary projects where I don't want a big zoom. They fit directly onto the GH2 without any adapters right?

    The good thing is I'm assuming they would fit straight onto the new Black Magic which seems to have a m43 mount.

  • jazzroyjazzroy

    Why not considering the Samyang 85 T1.5 cinema lens for Nikon F mount ? It is a very good lens, reasonable price, focus and aperture gears, continuous aperture, minimal breathing.

    http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/895584-REG/Samyang_sycv85n_85mm_T1_5_Cine_AS.html

  • Donnie88Donnie88

    @jazzroy - Nice suggestions. I think I like the idea of sticking to native lenses, rather than mixing it up with an F mount lens - but also so I can use them on the new BlackMagic I'll be purchasing (either 4K or pocket camera version)

    As for primes, I'm going to buy:

    • Lumix 14mm f/2.5
    • Voigtlander 25mm f/0.95
    • Olympus Zuiko 45mm f/1.8
    • Olympus Zuiko 75mm f/1.8

    The Voigtlander and Zuiko lenses should work natively on the new Black Magic, right? I'm aware the Lumix 14mm might not however.

  • Donnie88Donnie88

    Come to think of it - I'm surprised the SLR magic lenses weren't recommended for native prime use.

    They're native for both the GH2 and BlackMagic?

    I'd be interested in sticking to my list of lenses - but perhaps swapping the Lumix 14mm to a CINE 12mm T1.6 Magic SLR mFT. (IF it's native for both GH2 and BlackMagic)

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