Canon ENG B4 Lens on GH1

bumkicho

bumkicho

Well-known member
Finally my Canon ENG 18x(9mm - 162mm) B4 lens is on GH1. :grin: With 2x builtin extender it covers the whole sensor as well as the range becomes 18mm - 324mm.

I took a few sample shots and uploaded the video on vimeo, but it seems they are having problem converting videos at the moment. I will post the link as soon as it's available. Or maybe I will upload it youtube.

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Very cool, thanks for posting. A good range zoom like this is almost a must have for run n gun/doc work. Did you have any vignette problems with filters/mattebox attached?
 
You can find FD to M4/3 on ebay. As for the B4 to FD adapter, a person in Korea and I had to work with a manufacturer in Korea to make them for us. It took about a month and many tries from the manufacturer.
timbook2 said:
Very interesting ! Where did you get these adaptors?
Click to expand...
 
I have not tested with mattebox yet, but I assume no vignette.
AdrianF said:
Very cool, thanks for posting. A good range zoom like this is almost a must have for run n gun/doc work. Did you have any vignette problems with filters/mattebox attached?
Click to expand...
 
One problem is that the area outside the 2/3" frame was not important in design because it was invisible. It could have heavy aberations. On the 720p sample in zoom, the CA looks heavy at the edge of the frame.

The good side is that if the lens is indeed SD capable on a 2/3" frame with the extender on, it should be HD capable at the 4/3 sensor, at least on the center 2/3" part.

A full resolution still at a medium zoom setting should show any possible problems. You can crop/scale to 1080p and see how the CA is.

I think the 2x extender wastes two stops, so it should be f3.6 equivalent for light gathering. Still faster than the 4/3 system superzooms.
 
So, this is a 18-324mm f3.6 (constant?) lens.

The superzoom is 14-140 f4.0-f5.8. It's a little more expensive (new though) and far sharper (designed for stills). Very small low light advantage at the wide end, a 2.6x ISO advantage at 140mm and it can do an extra 2.3x zoom from there (324mm). The decision is not very clear.

Also, there are not enough of these old used SD lenses to cover the Panasonic demand and the new SD B4 lenses with extender are quite expensive compared to the superzoom, costing more than the camera itself.
 
Fujinon XA87x13.2ESM 2/3" HD Zoom Lens
26.4-2300mm (with the 2x)

f4.8-f11.6 (with the 2x)

wide to tele 0.6 seconds

22kg, $160,000 :)
 
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