Veydra vs Pana Leica and other native MFT lenses

[Fredrik Lyhne]

Has anyone tried Veydra Lenses? I really like the character of the Pana Leica lenses for stills but I am curios about the Veydra lineup. 

I get that they are geared for video but how is the image compared to the cheaper Pana Leicas or other native lenses? 

[jonpais]

why would you buy a cine lens if you shoot stills when for a touch more, you can buy a faster and optically superior Zeiss Milvus lens, which can be used when you upgrade to the Blackmagic Ursa mini if you're shooting video or other larger format stills cameras. At this point, I can't see the purpose of relatively slow primes when there are so many other reasonably-priced options out there, and weather-sealed to boot. 

[Fredrik Lyhne]

why would you buy a cine lens if you shoot stills when for a touch more, you can buy a faster and optically superior Zeiss Milvus lens, which can be used when you upgrade to the Blackmagic Ursa mini if you're shooting video or other larger format stills cameras. At this point, I can't see the purpose of relatively slow primes when there are so many other reasonably-priced options out there, and weather-sealed to boot. 

Thanks for your input. I never said I intend to use them for stills, just that I like the Panasonic Leica's for stills. 

Have you tried both the Veydra's and the Milvus, I didn't know they were out yet?

I have used the MFT format for a few years know and with the V-Log L coming I don't really see a need to upgrade. The benefits outweigh the negatives by far for me.  

[Nikkor]

I'd rather buy some vintage zeiss, but that's me.

[cantsin]

All Panaleicas have three severe drawbacks for video work:

1. focus-by-write instead of mechanical focus rings;
2. no aperture rings;
3. software-corrected optical distortion (which boils down to resolution loss when shooting 4K with Panasonic cameras or when using them on Blackmagic cameras);

For these reasons, I'd recommend fully manual MFT lenses (such as Voigtlander, SLR Magic and Veydra), or a Metabones Speedbooster with Nikon/Nikon-compatible lenses (such as the Sigma Art series) over the Panaleicas. 

[jonpais]

Thanks for your input. I never said I intend to use them for stills, just that I like the Panasonic Leica's for stills. 

Have you tried both the Veydra's and the Milvus, I didn't know they were out yet?

I have used the MFT format for a few years know and with the V-Log L coming I don't really see a need to upgrade. The benefits outweigh the negatives by far for me.  

Hi Fredrik, I haven't shot with either the Veydra or Milvus lineup yet, nor do I have any experience with the cheaper PanLeica lenses. I own a Panny 12-35 f/2.8 and 35-100 f/2.8, a Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 and Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8. I use a Metabones Speed Booster XL. Since working with adapted lenses, the crop factor and slower speed of many micro 4/3 lenses seems limiting. There is also something to be said about the build quality of lenses like the Voigtlander or Milvus, which makes handling them a pure joy. And yes, no more fly by wire focusing. And the focus peaking on the GH4 makes getting tack sharp images at apertures as wide as f/1.1 a breeze. Still, the Panasonic lenses are very compact and light and they deliver crisp images, and may be preferable under certain circumstances, such as when using a gimbal. While I love cine lenses, I am not a professional videographer, so stills lenses are fine by me. 

[jonpais]

Both Ming Thein and Lloyd Chambers were fortunate enough to be invited to spend a few days at Zeiss, and both came away highly impressed. Addressing videographers, Lloyd Chambers had this to say about the Milvus line: Another strength of the Milvus design is video—the focusing feel and throw are superb, the bokeh (out of focus blur style) is exceptionally uniform and pleasing across the field. Pulling focus with the Milvus lenses has to be as good as anything out there, short of cine lenses sporting dedicated mechanical features for video.

Concerning lenses, Ming Thein had this to say: I think you can see by this point that the argument for a lens system as opposed to a camera system is starting to make a lot of sense: you have one set of lenses that works on everything, and simply pick the best body for the job.

Like the OP, I also love my GH4; but I can't say that I won't be getting another camera system sometime in the future: so buying full-frame or APS-C primes makes more sense to me than purchasing micro four-thirds lenses.