Lumix GH2 - Lens kit recommendation BEFORE purchase

[weltenbummler]

Dear forum,


I bought the manual for the GH2 recently - still don't have the camera yet. Which is good, because I would like to start with the right lens"kit".

On page 46 Andrew writes:
"If you have the 14-42mm kit lens and want to take the lightest toe dip possible into the world of interchangeable lenses on the GH2, I recommend picking up this bundle of Russian glass in M42 mount. They offer the best value for money and because they are F2 aperture lenses, they are great in low light. Much better than the kit lens. For wider than 58mm you will have the kit lens."

I'm not a technical guy. Aperture and Shutterspeed is still a blur for me. I'm really trying to understand the mechanics. But what I understand is, if I buy lenses, the "f" number should be low for better results in low light. So far so good.
You say "for wider than 58mm you will have the kit lens"- what exactly do you mean by "wider" - Tele?

Right now I'm looking at
GH2  body only
GH 14-42
GH2 14-140
Panasonic OIS 45-200mm lense (F/4.0-5.6)

The Pana lens apparently isn't that good in low light. The russian lenses seem to be better. On the other hand I'd like to have a tele lens.

How would you interpret Andrew: Is he recommending the russian lens INSTEAD of the 14-42?

Thanks guys

[BIoodBrother]

Hi there, wider is always less tele. I think Andrew would recommend for you to buy the 14-42mm lens. This would mean you could shoot relatively wide pictures/video (ergo 14mm) and relatively tele videos/pics (42mm). The lens isn't very fast or very good but cheap. If you want extreme tele shots, you should go and buy a good and fast (F-number low ergo aperture light intense...good for low light/evening or little depth of focus ergo beautiful/cinematic) tele objektive and still not the relatively expensive 14-140mm F4-5.8.
Though you really should buy the lens kit and not only the body itself, since you can always sell the lens for much more than the 40euro/30pound difference.

If you like wide shots you could also buy the Panasonic 14mm F2.5 for about 200euro which is as you will notice only as wide as the standard lens but quite fast and light intense.

If you wanna go for super fast lenses you will need to pay more or take it easy on the width. Panasonics 20mm F1.7 is about 330euro and you can have the SLR Magic Hyper Prime 12 mm F1,6 for less than 500euro, which is most certainly going to be my next purchase. There's also an olympus 12mm F2 for 650euro

[weltenbummler]

BIood Brother,

thanks for your comment.
I've understood, that you d not prefer the 14-140. What about the one I mentioned: 45-200 from Panasonic. It's not fast (f4.0), but it's a price issue too. Can you recommend a better alternative in a similar price range?

thanks

[Axel]

[quote author=weltenbummler link=topic=527.msg3489#msg3489 date=1333694040]What about the one I mentioned: 45-200 from Panasonic. It's not fast (f4.0), but it's a price issue too. Can you recommend a better alternative in a similar price range?[/quote]

200mm on the GH2 equals 400mm on a full frame sensor. You definitely need a tripod for that. And a heavy one too.

But with a 50mm, you have a 100mm already. You get very fast ones (f 1.4) at ebay for under 200 €, the adapter to MFT included.

And you not only have a moderate tele lens (100), you have a strong tele (260mm), if you switch to the EX-Tele-mode of the GH2. This means no loss of quality, it actually means [i]better[/i] quality.

Zooms on the interchangeable lens devices can't be operated with the fluid transitions we are used to (this will change, but then those lenses will be rather expensive).

I just saw 2 videos on your vimeo page. I think we both use the same range of lenses, so let me describe mine:

Wide-angle: I had the Olympus 9-18 f4.0-5.6. Very good for photos. Not fast enough for my taste, so I sold it again (BTW: I used it for four months, but I lost only about 50 € at ebay, MFT is hot).

I waited for the SLR magic 12mm, but it took too long.

I finally bought the Olympus 12mm f2.0. Fast, very sharp lens. Not so good for manual focus, but has a quite good autofocus, that works continiously during filming (a little noisy though, in quiet rooms it sounds as if Robocop operated the camera). Suitable for most situations. And practically indispensible if you plan to shoot with a steady-system.

I really think about buying the very expensive Nokton 17,5mm f0.95. Reasons follow:

Standard lens: Nokton 25mm f0.95. Makes the GH2 very good for lowlight. Very good focus control. You need this lens, that's obvious. There never again will be a place too dark for filming.

Tele: I have an adapted Nikon 50mm f1.4. From Nikon you can buy a [url=http://www.ebay.de/itm/Nikon-Nikkor-Micro-MF-105mm-1-2-8-Ais-/270943728266?pt=DE_Foto_Camcorder_Objektive&hash=item3f1581328a#ht_936wt_1398][color=red]105mm[/color][/url] with f2.8, and it stays affordable. Remember, it can be 210mm, 546mm and even 819mm (at 720p, the TeleEX-crop means 3,9 x). Have you ever heard of a 500mm tele-lens that fast? This alone would be a reason to buy the Lumix.

[weltenbummler]

[quote author=Axel link=topic=527.msg3491#msg3491 date=1333700737]

I just saw 2 videos on your vimeo page. I think we both use the same range of lenses, so let me describe mine:

I finally bought the Olympus 12mm f2.0. Fast, very sharp lens. Not so good for manual focus, but has a quite good autofocus, that works continiously during filming (a little noisy though, in quiet rooms it sounds as if Robocop operated the camera). Suitable for most situations. And practically indispensible if you plan to shoot with a steady-system.

I really think about buying the very expensive Nokton 17,5mm f0.95. Reasons follow:

Standard lens: Nokton 25mm f0.95. Makes the GH2 very good for lowlight. Very good focus control. You need this lens, that's obvious. There never again will be a place too dark for filming.

[/quote]

Dear Axel,
thanks. But I'm sorry to say. All those movies were either shot with the JVC Everio HD7 or goPro 1. No lense changes at all.  That's what I'm trying now.

I've bought the GH2 with the standard 14-140 and bought the helikon 44 as advised by Andrew. Same here with a wider lense. Your Olympus seems to be a fit. The Nokton is too expensive.

kind regards

[MichalGajdos]

hi weltenbummler

Don't rely on auto focus lens from panasonic, in my opinion they cost too much.For what they can offer you it's not cheap at all. I would suggest go on ebay and buy adapters for old canon fd, olympus om or as also andrew mentioned russian helios, Tair, Mir, Jupiter... (i have 8 helios nad one tair 135mm 2,8f for sale, can send pictures if you want to) with m42screw.Those adapters i mentioned, doesn't cost more then 15 euros from china, plus the lens aprox. 40-70 euros maximum high quality and you can experience the beauty of manual focus and manual setting aperture. Better for low light, better for artistic videos, much better lens quality and built quality which is usually some kind of metal, maybe alluminium. Don't worry about the manual focus, you'll get used to it and you will also find it much more interesting than auto focus. links for helios
http://vimeo.com/10942299 here take a closer look of what is capable this little helios 44
http://vimeo.com/25129350 both helios and Tair 135mm 2,8f

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Zenit-Helios-44M-Helios-44-M-1-2-2-58mm-58-mm-M42-M-42-/380423644433?pt=DE_Foto_Camcorder_Objektive&hash=item5893042511#ht_1962wt_1139
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Zenit-Helios-44M-6-MC-44-M-6-58mm-58-mm-1-2-M42-M-42-digital-/380418905121?pt=DE_Foto_Camcorder_Objektive&hash=item5892bbd421#ht_1962wt_1139
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Helios-44M-4-58-mm-F-2-0-Objektiv-Adapter-Pentax-/290693516524?pt=DE_Foto_Camcorder_Objektive&hash=item43aeaf0cec#ht_500wt_1202

another russian beauty the Tair 135mm 2,8f
http://www.ebay.de/itm/TAIR-11A-2-8-135-Russian-Tele-lens-M42-SLR-Cameras-NIKON-F-D90-D7000-Canon-EXC-/260997502486?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item3cc4a9d616#ht_2242wt_1185

here's my mail if you're interested lachim.sojdag@gmail.com