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View Full Version : Probably basic GH1 and adapter questions...


Final Design Studios
06-19-2009, 10:52 AM
I've been searching for these answers for a bit, so please forgive me if I just didn't see them. I hate double posting stuff.

I'm eagerly waiting for my GH1 but I have a few questions regarding adapters for it. I currently own two Nikon lenses. A 50mm and a 35mm. I was hoping to purchase and adapter to use these on the GH1.

However I've become confused. I keep seeing charts and diagrams about the "crop factor" and I see people saying that a 50mm will look like a 100mm. I would prefer for this not to happen, I like my 50mm just how it is. I guess I'm wondering why this would happen, is it because you use the 2x crop in camera and suddenly you're zoomed in farther into the lens?

But then I noticed something else. People who are posting beautiful footage of the GH1 using canon FDs look fairly normal. Take the Germany street fair footage.
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=173572

MatzeB says which lense he's using for which shots somewhere in the thread and the 50mm still looks like 50mm to me the juggler at the end). Maybe my eye isn't trained as well as some peoples but do the canon lenses still suffer a crop factor?

One last little question. Why are the FD lenses to popular? Is it the price, I found some on ebay for extremely cheap compared to some Nikon equivalents. Can you still buy brand new FD lenses, does canon still produce them? Should I just bite the bullet and switch to Canon from the Nikon lenses?

Any help would be great. :undecided
Isaac_Brody
06-19-2009, 11:02 AM
The crop factor of 2X is in relation to full frame photography. So compared to the 5D a 50mm lens on the GH1 would be a 25mm on the 5D.

However, perhaps it looks normal to you because you're used to comparing lens FOV to feature films. The GH1 in comparison to Super 35 is 1.3X. So a 50mm becomes a 65mm, a 35 becomes 45mm. It's not really noticeable for the average viewer and I doubt many of us are bothered by it here. I'm sure DP's can notice the difference.
Final Design Studios
06-19-2009, 11:22 AM
Ahhhh, so just to be 100% correct, my nikon 50mm will be a 65mm? Because I think I can live with the 1.3x factor and not buy new lenses.
Isaac_Brody
06-19-2009, 11:26 AM
Bingo.
androoow
06-19-2009, 11:51 AM
issac ...now i'm confused?? i thought an old 35mm film SLR's 50mm standard lens would be 100mm on a g1/gh1?? is that not how the x2 crop factor works?
Ben_B
06-19-2009, 12:23 PM
Not that familiar with canon lenses but I would guess that the popularity of FD lenses is thanks to a physical aperture ring like nikon's AI? Just a guess, on mobile right now don't want to look it up, but you wouldn't be able to use a lens with an adapter that didn't have aperture ring too well on the gh1 right?
Isaac_Brody
06-19-2009, 12:27 PM
Comparison is to "feature" film, not full frame 35mm film stills.

http://rebelsguide.com/dl/sensorSizes_09_MFT.png
Final Design Studios
06-19-2009, 12:42 PM
Okay I see know. Thanks Isaac.
John Caballero
06-19-2009, 01:33 PM
If you are using a manual 35mm of old the image it projects will be cropped by half by the GH1 sensor. Thus the so called 2x factor. The sensor on the GH1 is roughly half the frame size of still 35mm. Its like enlarging the full negative image on an 8x10 paper then cropping half of it.
AndrewGentle
06-20-2009, 06:35 AM
If you are using a manual 35mm of old the image it projects will be cropped by half by the GH1 sensor. Thus the so called 2x factor. The sensor on the GH1 is roughly half the frame size of still 35mm. Its like enlarging the full negative image on an 8x10 paper then cropping half of it.

Yes. I like to think about it in physical terms. The image circle falling on the sensor area of the camera is enough to cover 35 mm film but the sensor in this camera is smaller and sitting in the middle of the 35 mm plane so it only sees the centre of the image.