AF101 (EU) - Lenses

B

BlazeProductions

New member
Hi,

I am a film student from Brussels, Belgium currently purchasing a new AF101. I have about 1.500 euro "left" to allocate on lenses. I am looking for some advice to get a decent package that will last me a few years while I save some budget to get some decent glass.

I am currently looking into the Lumix lenses themselves, since I can get a good deal on them with my supplier for the Panasonic camera.

Currently I am thinking of getting:

-14mm Lumix F2.5 (around 350 euro)
-20mm Lumix F1.7 (around 350 euro)
-45mm Leica Macro F2.8 (around 600 euro)
-14-140mm Lumix F4-5.8 (around 600 euro)

This will cost me around 1800 - 1900 euro, but I am hoping to get a discount from my supplier if I can stay with the Panasonic lenses.

Our main projects consist of student films, some commercials and some music video's. Will this set provide me with the required tools to get started? Or would you swap out some or suggest any other lenses?

Any tips and help is greatly appriciated,
Phil
 
Depends on what you will be shooting. The Panasonic lenses - while optical quite good - have some major setbacks if you shoot dramatic work. It's hard to pull focus with them as they have no hard stop on infinity and no witness marks.

Personally I would go searching for a set of older, used quality lenses - Canon, Nikon, Leica, Pentax whatever - and a shorter, faster manual zoom and an adapter for MFT. For your budget you can get yourself very good glasses if you search a bit.

But if you need autofocus and other knick-knacks, it's Panasonic.....
 
Well I don't mind searching for some used glass, but that's just the thing. I don't know enough about lenses to make a clear distinction between a 20mm canon or a 20mm panasonic for instance.

I'm also unsure if my current selecion of 14 / 20 / 45 / 14-140mm will give me an average range of lenses to choose from for setting up my shots. Or should I drop some ranges and replace them with others and so on. All I am looking for is to get 3 - 4 lenses to have a basic starter kit to get some dramatic filmlike results; that won't break my budget. For me it's all about learning, I know the glass should be worth more than the camera, and in due time I hope to get there. But for now it's just that I'm looking for a versatile kit that will get me started with this awesome camera.

So on that note I am looking for suggestions on to what size lenses I should be looking for, what apature, and so on. Because as you might have noticed, I am not a hero when it comes to lenses, but I am looking to learn as I go.
 
Don't know what you are going to shoot. I use under normal conditions a set with 25 / 50 / 100 and wait slightly impatiently for a fast 14 or-so from the same lens manufacturer I bought my 25 & 50 mm from. As I own the 7 - 14 I use that until something comes around.

With such a set you can normally cover 90 % of all situations - unless you like the actual act of zooming while shooting (I hate it). But then you will be in some trouble with the 14 - 140 too as it is not build like a cine-zoom.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top