Olympus 75mm 1.8 manual focus grinding sound on GH3

[cinevoyeur]

I just got this lens the other day and noticed that it makes a vey quiet, yet noticeable grinding sound when focusing manually. Is that normal? It also makes a noise when focusing automatically. I have the panasonic shotgun mic attached to the GH3 for audio recording and it definitely picks up the sound. Is my lens defective or is this normal for this lens? I don't notice it on my 17mm or 45mm, but haven't tested.

Would love some direction on this.  You can hear it in this video at around the three second mark - small clicking sounds.

 

https://vimeo.com/61436718

[andy lee]

yes thats normal it happens on lots of lenses

[jgharding]

Manual lenses can be noisy, some more than others. Is the shotgun in an isolation cradle of some kind? Like one of these:

 

 

That can help with vibration noise. Still, if it's a noisy lens it's noisy. That's one of the reasons camera-mounted sound can be a problem.

[chauffeurdevan]

As Olympus m43 lenses are "focus-by-wire", the energy that you put rotating the focus ring is not mechnicaly transfered directly to the lens. It is in fact converted to an electronic signal, send to the camera, and back to the lens where an electronic motor mechanicaly focus the lens.

 

So the noise you hear is this motor. I suppose the loudness change from lens to lens.