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Favourite lenses
  • 52 Replies sorted by
  • sohussohus
    I expect the new Panasonic X fast zoom lenses early next year, and an Olympus video lens is rumored to be announced next week (new iteration of the 12-60mm). I think these lenses will be very good, only the price is the big question. Old school glass may be cheap, it is also old. Some like that look, I don't. I just want my glass to be as sharp as possible without flares and other shortcomings... new glass is the way to go for me. Samyang has good lenses too.
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    Yep, small m43 glass and Samyangs :-)
  • kenoahkenoah
    The professor was a bit old fashion now that you mention it. I dont have too much experience to opinionate between old vs new. But i do like a very natural lens because i take all the photos in raw and edit them on the comp. Same way with video, i want it to look as close to the source as possible and then do all my skitzo work in postproduction.


    Although i saw those toy lenses and thought they were very intriguing
  • last_SHIFTlast_SHIFT
    I had the Voigt 25/.095 - sold it after about 2 months, it was a lovely hunk of glass - but I felt I could live with my Nikkor 28/2 AIS - which is an excellent performer. I also recently got a great deal on a 5DM2 so I need glass that I can use for both, so current faves:

    Panny 14-42 kit lens - highly underrated walk-around-lens.
    Nikkor 28/2 AIS - all around shooting.
    Zeiss 50/1.4 ZF - low light/ 5DM2 walk-around-lens
    Nikkor 85/1.4D - low light, and a little reach, also semi-permanently glued to the 5DM2
  • sohussohus
    I think Panasonic's lenses are pretty good but one thing I really hate is the focus by wire. When you switch the camera off, it loses the position so you always have to refocus. I would love a manual line of lenses from Panasonic with proper manual focus rings and metal construction. I hope the new Fast-X series will deliver that, or that it will be able to hold the position electronically.
  • lenuisiblelenuisible
    I use :
    Nokton 25 f0.95 mft : 60%
    Nokton 50 f1.5 LTM : 20%
    Canon 80-200L f4 FD : 10%
    Vivitar 55 f2.8 FD : 5%
    Pana 7-14 f4 mft : 5%
  • Mark_the_HarpMark_the_Harp
    Saw an interesting bit of advice in another forum: look at your footage to see the type of shots you normally do with a zoom lens, because that gives you a clue about which focal lengths you prefer. @lenuisible is that how you arrived at your percentages?
  • disneytoydisneytoy
    20mm 1.7
    35mm Fujian C-mount (cheap, small, and fun)
    58mm 2.0 Helios 44M Beautiful straight or with Anamorphic adapter. (Cheap, Zeiss designed)
  • kenoahkenoah
    @mark thats some really good and simple advice
  • Mark_the_HarpMark_the_Harp
    @kenoah I thought so too - I'm certainly going to try that exercise out with my own footage. I can't remember where I read it, but it makes huge sense as everyone's needs are different, depending on what they end up shooting. That's where it makes sense to know what sort of photo / video work you want to do (I guess) as otherwise you'll end up spending money on stuff you don't use that much.
  • kazuokazuo
    Old school glass is the way to go.

    @sohus
    You might like to put yr Samyang or Samsung whatever next to a Contax and see if you still like kimchi the same way : )
  • nomadnomad
    Sorry, but I tried the Samyang 85mm next to a Arri-Zeiss 85mm and I still like both.
  • kazuokazuo
    @nomad
    personal taste my friend. Dun get me wrong, nothing against Korean technology. I use alot of Korean products - Gini rig for one blows my ass away. And I did my PhD on Korean cinema : )
  • sohussohus
    @Mark_the_Harp
    I have the 14-140mm and the 14-42mm kit lenses (came with both of my bodies). I do photowalks now and use one focal length (say 14mm, 25mm, 35mm, 50mm, 70mm..) and see which focal lengths are most practical and most interesting. I will buy primes based on my findings.

    I think I will settle for a 12mm (24mm), 25mm (50mm) and 45mm (90mm) lens, which combined with the ExTele deliver a proper working range.

    I have a question:
    - Which Nikon lens adapter can you guys recommend?
    - Has anyone worked with the Zeis Nikon F-primes on the GH2? I am thinking about the 50mm/1.4 and 85mm/1.4 as the glass and build quality is very good and they have aperture rings, so I can use them in the future on MicroFourThirds, Nikon F and Canon EOS mount camera's.
  • nomadnomad
    @kazuo
    I love Korean cinema! BTW, one of my current master students is a German/Korean.

    @Sohus The Nikon 50mm 1.4 is very soft wide open – not in terms of resolution, but contrast, inner reflections, maybe, can look nice for romantic portrait. Fantastic lens when stopped down.
  • kazuokazuo
    @nomad
    Is yr student a he or she? : )
    I'm assuming you're a guy and straight
  • nomadnomad
    It's the cinema I love, dude!

    The student is a he, and just a very capable student. Unfortunately I'm a straight guy – being bi would double my chances ;-)
  • sammysammy
    I'm Falling in love with the combo of Isco36 and Nikon 35mm F2 Prime on the GH2
  • sohussohus
    @nomad
    I mean the Zeiss Nikon 50mm/1.4, not the Nikkor 50mm/1.4.
  • cbrandincbrandin
    @nomad

    The main difference between "Film" lenses and "Digital" lenses is that digital lenses are designed to columnate light for the sensor. Film is two dimensional whereas digital sensors are three dimensional (because of walls between pixels casting shadows). Lenses designed during the film era will often look softer with digital cameras because of this, especially wide-open, because the image hits the sensor at multiple angles rather than at 90 degrees. Use these lenses with film and comparative results would probably be different.

    Chris
  • nomadnomad
    Well, at least color film is three-dimensional too, the light enters through several layers of filters and color-sensitive emulsions.
    But I think you are right nevertheless, the effect might be connected to the micro lenses collecting light for the photocells too.

    @Sohus
    Thanks for the correction, I was referring to the Nikkor.
  • cbrandincbrandin
    @nomad

    Yeah but the three-dimensionality of film is insignificant to compared to digital. And with digital it's not just the walls, it's also the shape of micro-lenses etc... - just like you said. Using tilt-shift lenses has always been a challange with digital cameras because of this - special processing has to be done to get rid of color shifts.

    Well, actually maybe I should say the effect of three-dimensionality of film is insignificant. Being flat layers of substances with similar refraction properties etc.... Digital sensors are "lumpy" in comparison.

    Chris
  • mythmakermythmaker
    My favorite lens is often my newest so this month it's the Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro. When the novelty of "ooh! shiny new thing!" wears off then I'll slip back into that old reliable comfy pair of slipper aka the SMC Takumar 50mm f/1.4 and my Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5
  • stoneystoney
    My "key" focal length is 25mm on m43. I like PL 25.4 and Nokton 25.95. Add 12mm 1.6 or 2.0 or 14mm 2.5 to cover a wide angle. Oly 45mm 1.8 sounds great to cover short tele where I rarely do pull-focus at short tele or longer. I'm not a fan of vintage lenses anymore.
  • sohussohus
    I just got my Nokton 25/.95. I will add the SLR Magic HyperPrime 16mm/1.6 to my kit and probably the Nokton 58mm/1.4 SLII or the Zeiss Nikon 50mm/1.4. I think you can cover almost everything with those 3 lenses. I might add a Fish-Eye lens to the kit. I own the stock lenses (14-14, 14-140) which I keep because they are light.
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