Best Affordable Low-Light Lens

C

CColton

Well-known member
What do you think is the best lens setup for low light for the GH1? Lens recommendations or lens+adapter recommendations.
 
Best and most affordable are two very different questions :) and affordable is relative.

Canon FD 50mm f/1.4 or Canon FL 55mm f/1.2 and cieco7 adapter.
 
I use the nikon 50mm 1.4 and a cheapo adapter from fleabay. works fine in fairly low light.
 
A focal length between 45mm and 100mm would be fine. Zoom would be nice, but if that means a significant cost increase, I could go with a prime lens.

Also, "affordable" would mean $300 or less. I'm on a pretty tight budget, unfortunately.

Is there an adapter that would fit Canon EF or EFs lenses? I know they aren't cheap, but I know someone I could borrow them from.
 
Pick up a nikkor 50mm f/1.4 You can probably get the non-ai version for less than $80.
 
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I use Zeiss Contax (pre N) C/Y mount primes - if you look carefully you can pick 50/1.4 and 28/2.8 up around $300. The 85/1.4 was more, but there are deals there too. The 18/4 is a bit expensive, but I still want one. All manual and the image quality is awesome... just zero interest in using my pancake 20/1.7 any more...
 
On a gh1 body it will always be wide open unless you control the aperture on an EOS body and then flip the lens on the gh1. Not handy at all
 
Do all of these lenses work directly on the body or through an adapter? And do any lenses that aren't Lumix lenses have to have iris rings in order to operate them on the GH1?
 
All lenses that have not a micro four thirds mount need an adapter to work on a micro four thirds camera. The great thing is that there are adapters for almost every lens to the gh1. If you don't want to start a lens connection yet (bit you'll eventually want to) stick with one type of lenses (canon fd, nikon, contax yashica, m42 etc) so that you need only one adapter for all your lenses (even if adapters are cheap these days).
I think that Canon FD mount lenses are the relatively less expensive option for you since these lenses, while being an excellent option for the GH1, cannot be adapted without image quality degradation on other systems like Canon EOS. Hence, for the money you spend you get more (for instance you can get a Canon FD 50 1.2 for around $250, and I don't thing you can find such a low light performer in other mounts for less than 3 or 4 times that).

And yes to have full control of the aperture you need to have an aperture ring on the lens.
 
kostas said:
I think that Canon FD mount lenses are the relatively less expensive option for you since these lenses, while being an excellent option for the GH1, cannot be adapted without image quality degradation on other systems like Canon EOS. Hence, for the money you spend you get more (for instance you can get a Canon FD 50 1.2 for around $250, and I don't thing you can find such a low light performer in other mounts for less than 3 or 4 times that).
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The danger of this option of course, is that should someone later decide that they want to move to a Nikon camera, or a Canon camera, all the glass they bought won't move with them. It's a one-way street.

M42 lenses can be adapted to m43, Canon, Nikon, and other mounts. Nikon works natively on Nikon, and can be adapted to Canon, m43, etc.

Choose carefully. Sometimes what looks like a bargain is no bargain at all.
 
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I like Nikon because it has a pretty long flange distance so can be adapted to lots of things and a good selection of glass both old and new.
 
The Konica 40mm f1.8 pancake lens is an inexpensive classic that works very well on the GH1 or GF1 with an ebay adapter. This is not a Minolta MD-mount lens, but a manual-focus AR-mount from the original Konica line. I think a 40mm focal angle is more flexible than 50mm with the GH1's 2x crop factor.
 
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