GH4 Best Zoom lens for GH4

S

scottfs

Well-known member
I am probably going to purchase a GH4 within the next month. I have no lenses.

So the question is, what is the best zoom lens to get? I will be shooting interviews, nature shots, talking heads, and some independent shorts or maybe even a feature.

Should I buy a Canon zoom and a metabones speedbooster? This gives me a lens that could be used if I traded up at some point.

Or should I buy a MFT lens that might not be of any use to me if I upgraded?

I've been reading the boards for a while, but don't have a great understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of each move.

I'm interested in sharp images befitting a documentary.

Thanks!
 
Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 Canon EF mount
Sigma 50-100mm f/1.8 Canon EF mount
Speedboster XL (0.64x)

With those two lenses and Speedbooster you have a nice zoom range that's excellent in low light and pin sharp. Perfect for docs, interviews, as well as narrative filmmaking. They're not cheap, but they're about as good as you can get without spending thousands per lens.
 
I decided on the MFT Olympus Pro 12-40 and 40-150 f2.8 lenses because they have a special clutch arrangement for manual focus, this gives you hard stops for use with a Follow Focus. The Olympus Lenses are very well built and sharp as a tack.
 
No right or wrong answer here.

If you are happy with M4/3 then get native lenses.

If S35 is more your bag then get a SpeedBooster and a set of S35 or FF zooms.
 
Vardalos said:
I decided on the MFT Olympus Pro 12-40 and 40-150 f2.8 lenses because they have a special clutch arrangement for manual focus, this gives you hard stops for use with a Follow Focus. The Olympus Lenses are very well built and sharp as a tack.
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Those are two very good lens choices. Wish I could afford them.
 
I bought the Panasonic 12-35 2.8 and 35-100 2.8 in order to get dual stabilization with a Panasonic GX8 or a future GH5. That was also partly for stills use.

Olympus lenses usually don't have stabilization, because they use in body stabilization. Panasonic is migrating to both in body and in lens (dual.)

Although I am very tired of having duplicate lenses with parts of 5 different systems. I am going to keep my Canon lenses, as I also do stills and need good quality AF on a DSLR fir events, and for wildlife stills and video. And adapt the Canon lenses to Panasonic and Sony going forward.

I have the Canon 24-70 2.8 II and 70-200 2.8 II that I love, and haven't been able to bring myself to sell. Plus the Canon 24-70 4.0 IS and 70-200 4.0 non-IS for more casual work.

The Sigma 18-35, 50-100 1.8 pair also look like a great kit, especially for events in low light. If the Sigma MC-11 adapter for Canon EF to Sony E mount works well, we could also see one for M 4/3. It would be great to have one set of lensed that performed like native lenses on multiple platforms, for video and stills.

The Olympus lenses are also supposed to be great of course.

Good luck!
 
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unadog said:
I bought the Panasonic 12-35 2.8 and 35-100 2.8 in order to get dual stabilization with a Panasonic GX8 or a future GH5. That was also partly for stills use...
Click to expand...

I bought these lenses for my AF100 (since sold) and love them. They work great with my GH4. OP, you're right to keep in mind that you can never adapt them to anything other than an m4/3 camera. However, those two lenses combined are now less are the cost of one Canon 70-200mm f/2.8
 
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