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What are the best GH2 lenses?
  • Without adapters, which are the best m43 lenses for the GH2? Specially for gorgeous looking video?

  • 9 Replies sorted by
  • Best for what?

    If you check Lenses category, or search you'll find plenty of topics like

    http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/4902/what-is-the-best-portrait-lens-for-m43/p1

  • I did look around, but I didn't see any topics that said which lens was good for beautiful video without an adapter. Short to medium range.

  • face palm

  • @acuriousman One way is to check out some footage posted on the site here. If you go to the right side of the page on this site, you'll see a section called Showcase. If you click through that, you'll see a lot of footage posted, very often with a description of which lens was used. So you could look at stuff shot with the Panasonic 12-35, the 35-100, the 20mm, and I think some of the Olympus lenses work without adapters. That'll give you a pretty good idea.

    It's kinda tricky because everyone has a different idea of what looks great, based on their style/image preferences. I would also consider maybe keeping an open mind on using adapters, because you can get some great lenses that work with adapters that yield images that look great, are good in low light, and are inexpensive. My favorite lens is a 50mm Lomo that cost me $150. I use it with an adapter that cost $100. So for $250 I have an image type/style that I think is best for what I'm doing.

    Also it's important to experiment with different settings and lens combinations. I found my "secret sauce" to be my Lomo lenses combined with Intravenus II by driftwood, and camera set at Smooth all -2 (except 0 for saturation).

    All the experimentation with settings and lenses is really worth it, because once you find your "secret sauce", you'll be getting just the image you want. That's the beauty of the GH2 and the hack and settings created by Vitaliy, Driftwood, and the other folks on this site...you now have a camera that can create a variety of looks.

    Best of luck finding your perfect image style. Rock on brother!

  • Don't you have to sacrifice aperture control when using adapted lenses? I.e, you can only use it fully open?

    What I mean by beautiful is something that has rich colors that pop out.

    Like this.

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  • Oh, that would be the Voigtlander Nokton 25mm f0.95 with some vintage grading :) "magic bullet + Nick Cambell's vintage film looks"

  • SLRMagic 12mm, Nokton 17.5 and 25 are great lenses, native to m43 if you're after this classic look. If you go with adapted lenses, check out Canon FDs, especially the 50mm 1.4. And yes, you can use them wide open :)

  • Fantastic! Thank you sir! Are there any others that can get that look or that the cream of the crop?

  • Yeah, oscillian is right- Voigtlanders are good for that look, and I think they're coming out with a 42.5mm pretty soon.

    For adapters, they often come with an aperature ring on the adapter itself that lets you adjust from fully open to closed down.

    But try the Voigtlanders - many people love them and it seems to be look you're after.