Complete noob, who is about to buy a GH2, needs some help/advice

[evilgeenius]

Hello All,

I have never done any serious filming in my life and I am about to buy some equipment that will let me get started doing some cool stuff.

After looking around at different options I've decided to buy a GH2 as it seems pretty awesome and will fit all my needs.

My only concern now is what lense I should buy. The stock 14-140 lense seems pretty good for a first lense but my only concern is its DOF capabilities. A big reason for me choosing a DSLR was because of the cool DOF effect you can easily get. So my question is: Can you get a decent DOF with the stock 14-140 lense? If not, then Ideally i'd like to buy another really cheap lense for getting a good dof.

The kit i've decided to buy is :
* GH2
* Glidetrack 0.75m
* Zipshot tripod

Does this look ok? I don't have a big budget so I just want some stuff that will get me started.

I am also interested in low light filming and I have heard that the stock lense isn't great for that. Is that true? What is the cheapest way I can get good light footage?

I am a confident user with After Affects so I have no issues in that area.

Thanks
Chris

 

[Grisnjam]

Hello All,

I have never done any serious filming in my life and I am about to buy some equipment that will let me get started doing some cool stuff.

After looking around at different options I've decided to buy a GH2 as it seems pretty awesome and will fit all my needs.

My only concern now is what lense I should buy. The stock 14-140 lense seems pretty good for a first lense but my only concern is its DOF capabilities. A big reason for me choosing a DSLR was because of the cool DOF effect you can easily get. So my question is: Can you get a decent DOF with the stock 14-140 lense? If not, then Ideally i'd like to buy another really cheap lense for getting a good dof.

The kit i've decided to buy is :
* GH2
* Glidetrack 0.75m
* Zipshot tripod

Does this look ok? I don't have a big budget so I just want some stuff that will get me started.

I am also interested in low light filming and I have heard that the stock lense isn't great for that. Is that true? What is the cheapest way I can get good light footage?

I am a confident user with After Affects so I have no issues in that area.

Thanks
Chris

I would suggest getting the 20mm pancake from panasonic along with the 14-140mm. The 14-140 is great for outdoors and is video optimized and the 20mm has great shallow DOF and at F1.7 is super fun indoors (but is not video optimized so you will need to run static or manual focus or it hunts like mad). The 14-140 will only give you shallow DOF at long focal lengths and should never be used indoors without great lighting.

Here is a little video I made from our superbowl party, mainly with the 20mm in varying lighting (opening shot is 14-140 with heavy stabilization as I was running with it on gravel). I have no experience with the track or tripod.

Good luck and have fun!