any other (cheaper) lenses other than nokton f0.95 for shallow dof for videos

S

shifty250

New member
it seems that a lot of people are using the gh1(13)/gh2 with the nokton f0.95 lens

anything else out there that i could use for a shallow dof when recording videos? i'm tempted to get in on the panasonic epp (even though the camera is unhackable)

looking to use the gh1 for music videos so audio and pictures aren't a main concern

please let me know what else i could use to produce good results!

cheers
 
Last edited:
You can adapt just about any lens ever made to the GH1. The Lumix 20mm f/1.7 is a great lens and can get shallow DOF. For shallow DOF one shots I usually either go to that, to my Nikkor 50mm f/1.4, or to my Olympus F. Zuiko 38mm f/1.8.
 
Fast lens with short minimum focus distance. Good center sharpness. Smooth transition toward edges. At max aperture, # of blades plays no role. Usually such lenses have vignetting at max aperture. 50mm 1.4 Ai-s gives nice bokeh. I'm selling 85mm 1.4 Ai-s on ebay to buy CV 25mm 0.95.
 
Last edited:
There's a good amount of options on the used front. I picked up a couple of nice fast pentax lenses for dirt cheap. The voigtlander is AWESOME though. It's certainly the best thing I've used in a long time. It's a very flexible lens on the GH2 due to the ETC option.

I'm looking to get a couple of cheap used manual lenses to go with this one. The good thing is that they are readily available, albeit pricey for some.
 
CANON FD 50mm F1.4 (great lens and price) manual focus only.

PANASONIC 20mm F1.7 (pancake) automatic/manual focus.

:smile:
 
You can also look into the manual Vivitars (by Kiron) 24mm f2.0. Good for low light and useful field of view, fast for narrow Dof (although not 0.95), very nice lens. I use it a lot on the t2i. I have a second one with pentax PK mount that I plan to put on eBay soon. Pm if interested.
 
Canon 55mm F1.2 is great for less than $150

Canon 55mm F1.2 is great for less than $150

I used my Canon 55m F1.2 for most of the clips in this video. It is soft wide open but the continuous aperture control on the adapter let's me stop down to about F1.6-F2.0 where it sharpens up nicely.

 
I like my Nikkors (20mm f/2.8 AF-D, 24mm f/2.8 AI, 50mm f/1.4 AI-S, 85mm f/1.8 AF-D, 80-200 f/2.8 AF-D). They all have nicely damped focusing rings and are generally a pleasure to use both mechanically and optically.
 
terra1 said:
CANON FD 50mm F1.4 (great lens and price) manual focus only.

PANASONIC 20mm F1.7 (pancake) automatic/manual focus.

:smile:
Click to expand...

Is it worth buying the F1.4 if I already have the F1.8? In terms of sharpness, contrast, bokeh, etc.
 
The Sigma 30mm f1.4 Four Thirds lens is currently available and works decently with the Panasonic or Olympus M4/3 adapter. It will auto-focus in AFS mode on the GH2 and G2, but its manual-focus mode lacks the ability to automatically zoom into Focus Assist mode when you turn the lens' focus ring. Other than that, it's a sharp and very bright lens.
 
bowman20 said:
I like my Nikkors (20mm f/2.8 AF-D, 24mm f/2.8 AI, 50mm f/1.4 AI-S, 85mm f/1.8 AF-D, 80-200 f/2.8 AF-D). They all have nicely damped focusing rings and are generally a pleasure to use both mechanically and optically.
Click to expand...

+1 my choice as well, anything below f2 is good for shallow DOF and I prefer Nikon glass too.
 
bowman20 said:
I like my Nikkors (20mm f/2.8 AF-D, 24mm f/2.8 AI, 50mm f/1.4 AI-S, 85mm f/1.8 AF-D, 80-200 f/2.8 AF-D). They all have nicely damped focusing rings and are generally a pleasure to use both mechanically and optically.
Click to expand...

I have Nikkors too:

24mm f/2.0 AI-S, 35mm f/1.4 AI-S, 50mm f/1.2 AI-S, 105mm f/1.8 AI-S, and the 80-200 f/2.8 AF-D

I'm struggling to find something wider than my 24mm that's still fast. I'm looking at the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 as per Philip Bloom's recommendation.
 
The Canon FD 50mm f/1.4 is great. I got mine for $80 mint condition on eBay, plus a $27 FD to M4/3 adapter. Lots of shallow DoF possible with that lens, and a very nice feel. But I agree with Justyn that the Voigtlander 25mm f/0.95 is superb.
 
I rented the Voigtlander 25mm f/0.95 recently and it is a fine lens. Wide open, not so great as with just about any lens in the 1.4 or wider as their fastest aperture, generally best to close down a partial stop or full stop to get rid of blooming and other birefringent coloring. But I most good quality lens that are 2.8 are excellent at 2.8. Just my thoughts, buy a 1.4 but shoot it closer to 1.8 or 2.0. For Nokton 0.95, shooting at 1.4 or more closed yields far better image quality. Wide open shows too much fringing for my taste but everyone mileage may very.
 
Heres what I have and love them all.
Nikon G 35mm f1.8 DX (supersharp wide open) thx Hunter richards for the heads up
Konica hexanon 40mm f1.8 Lpowell thx to you!
Fujian cctv lens 35mm f1.7 (I have two actually ....I love it sue me!) c mount
Pentax cosmicar 25mm f1.4 c mount (little vignette nothing major...crazy bokah though)
panny 20mm f1.7
panny 14mm f2.5

and all the pentax 110 lenses 18,24,50,70mm plus 18mm pan focus all fixed aperture @ f2.8 (ludicrously small and good/great optics...pan focus is fun)

Looking for a decent priced canon fd 24mm f2.
 
photonashville said:
I rented the Voigtlander 25mm f/0.95 recently and it is a fine lens. Wide open, not so great as with just about any lens in the 1.4 or wider as their fastest aperture, generally best to close down a partial stop or full stop to get rid of blooming and other birefringent coloring. But I most good quality lens that are 2.8 are excellent at 2.8. Just my thoughts, buy a 1.4 but shoot it closer to 1.8 or 2.0. For Nokton 0.95, shooting at 1.4 or more closed yields far better image quality. Wide open shows too much fringing for my taste but everyone mileage may very.
Click to expand...

Where did you rent it from??
 
Vivitar 24mm f2.0 (by Kiron or Komine)
Vivitar Series 1 28mm f1.9 (by Tokina)
Mir 24-N 35mm f2.0
Canon FD 35mm f2.0 (concave front element)

All excellent and on the "wide" side since we are talking about alternatives to the Nokton. 50mm is ok but double the effective field of view.
 
Would you guys recommend me M42/M39 as prime lens for purchasing in the future (I haven't found any which would be wide on Micro 4/3; only few Jupiter lens/Zenitar and Helios 66 but I really don't know if any of these are usable with GH2), or should I rather go route with old Nikon lenses (I m going to buy Tokina 20-35 /2.8 in Nikon mount + PIXCO adapter as my first lens on GH2) or should I buy more zooms (Tokina 11-16; I'd like to try ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-54, f/2,8-3,5 but I don't like that only adapter 4/3 - MICRO 4/3 I ve found is about 100$) or should I wait and save money for panasonic pancakes and something like Sigma 30mm f/1.4

Could you please recommend me something, as my GH2 arrived a while ago and I'm not sure which way I should go (At the time, I'm looking something for general purposes, as I want to discover strong/weak points of GH2)...
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top