Uploading now. Used Canis Majoris Night, which is pretty much my favorite hack (even over the new Apocalypse Now settings).

I've got the Nikkor 17-55 for my D7000 for photos, and use it occasionally on my GH2 for video. Haven't done any lens comparison shots with it, but at least on the D7000, the lens is extremely sharp on the wide end, even wide open. It softens up a bit at the long end until stopped down, though has been compared to the 50mm 1.8D in sharpness and contrast. And yes, it's big and heavy, but very well built (mostly metal) with a nicely weighted zoom ring and a light but evenly dampened focus ring.

Amusingly, people thought it was a waste of money compared to similar lenses when it initially came out. Only recently have sensors been able to capture the true sharpness of the lens.

I have a 720p60 vid of a lizard I shot last week that I can post up tonight to give you an idea.

Thanks all for feedback - very helpful.

@itimjim Yeah, I figured you were talking about light meter usage. We're okay on that as we don't use a meter. Interesting on the difficulty with adjusting - I happened to notice their are/were 2 versions of the Novoflex adapter. I saw at B@H site the new one, which has a different blue ring. Maybe that's a better than the older ring.

@vicharris We're looking at 17-55 as that was focal lengths we were using with primes (18,28,50) and want the total choice of exact focal length. I hear the 17-55 is a bit heavier than some other lenses, but if it seems to be a bit much for the GH2 with Novoflex, I guess I would just add rails with a lens support?

We'll probably get this Nikon 17-55 F2.8 with Novoflex and use with Apocalypse Boom setting. Will post footage as we start shooting/testing.

Thanks all for help and advice.

@matt_gh2

1) I'm not using the 17-55, sorry. Just the Tokina set of 11-16, 20-35, 28-80.

2) It's difficult for two reasons. One, you never know exactly what aperture you're shooting at unless wide open or fully closed - so using a light meter is mostly useless, and you have to rely on the internal meters. Two, the difference between stops is really a micro movement on the ring. The very stiff ring helps with this, but it's still challenging, although 10x easier than other G adapters I've used.

+1 for the Oly 14-54 II It's not perfect, but best bang for the buck. Prices have come down compared to last year.

@itimjim 2 questions 1) are you using the Nikon17-55 F2.8 with the GH2 and do you like image quality?, and 2) you said the Novoflex adapter is difficult but allows fine aperature control- what about using it is difficult?

Thanks all.

When you consider that the Nikon 17-55mm f2.8 (along with the rest of the lenses discussed here) lacks a manual aperture ring, it really cannot be considered the "perfect" choice for a mid-range manual-focus zoom on the GH2. The closest that Nikon came to filling that spec was the 17-35mm f2.8 AFS-D, a parfocal zoom whose front barrel does not extend with either zooming or focusing.

Unfortunately, the Nikon 17-35mm f2.8 is more expensive and much heaver than any Lumix lens, in particular, the 12-35mm f2.8, which covers a far wider range of focal lengths.

As for Nikon-mount lenses that lack manual aperture rings, I can only wonder how GH2 shooters put up with the sloppy, uncalibrated "Nikon-G" adapters. I have the Fotodiox version, and it's impossible to accurately set the lens aperture to anything but wide open. Since the iris on a Nikon lens was never intended to be manually adjusted in this way, the adapter's aperture ring is at best a makeshift kludge.

Get a Nikon G to m43 adapter with open-close ring. That way you get a step less aperture control.

Tokina 16-50 2.8 has the same short focus throw as the Tamron, BUT it is parfocal and has a much smoother focus ring (no rattle). We're getting the 11-16, 16-50, 50-150 2.8 in Nikon mount to try out on our weddings. As much as I love working with primes, it's nerve wrecking some times!

Also remember that panasonic 14-35mm lens is $1100 and minus $200 discount if you get it with any modern body.

http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/1676/17-35-f2.8-nikon-or-17-55-f2.8-nikon-dx-good-for-anamorphic-/p1

http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/2896/most-recommended-zoom-lenses-for-gh2#Item_24

Tamron (non VC) 17-50mm F2.8 is very good lens and much cheaper.