GH1 GH1 arriving this week.. questions from newbie

S

sebek

Active member
Hello, I'm new to this forum and the world of micro four thirds photography/video. I jumped on the great GH1 deal and my camera should be arriving this week. I have a few questions:
1. Is this a good card to get for video - Transcend 16GB Class 10 SDHC Card?
2. GH1 will come with a 14-42mm lens. Is this lens any good for shooting video? My main interest in the camera is because of it's video capabilities but I can't afford a $700 lens. I am thinking of one day purchasing the 20mm pancake once I get use to the camera.
3. I am thinking about also purchasing another lens. Out of these two, which one will be better for me? Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II or the Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor? I see that the Canon has AF which will probably be helpful to a newbie.
4. What type of adapter do you recommend for the two lenses above? Once the lens and adapter are attached, will it be much longer than the 14-42 lens?

Hopefully someone can lead me in the right direction!
 
1) For an unhacked camera, it seems like overkill, so your card will more than suffice.
2) The 14-42 is fine. Unless if you shoot telephoto, you're not missing out on much.
3) Auto-focusing won't work with adapted lenses, so you'll be better off with cheaper FD, OM, or MD lenses.
4) Cheap $20 Chinese adapters from eBay will do the trick. I mainly use OM lenses and I find them similar in size to an unextended 14-42/14-45--sometimes smaller.
 
Thanks Tyrone. What does FD, OM and MD stand for? (I'm very new to this) I saw some vimeo videos with both 50mm lenses and they looked really good. What comparable FD, OM, MD lens do you recommend?
 
sebek said:
Thanks Tyrone. What does FD, OM and MD stand for? (I'm very new to this) I saw some vimeo videos with both 50mm lenses and they looked really good. What comparable FD, OM, MD lens do you recommend?
Click to expand...

FD is older Canon lenses (FD is the lens designation - as in - Canon 50mm FD)
OM is older Olympus lenses (same thing)
MD is older Minolta lenses (same thing)

You can get a 50mm F1.4 to F1.8 in nearly every available lens manufacturer, it's pretty much a standard.
 
I would recommend FD lenses for someone just learning. They are usually the cheapest. you can pick up a 50mm and a 28mm for about $30-40 each, plus an adapter for about $30. The first thing you need to do is read read read. The more you read, the better. There is so much information out there about this camera. If you are looking for autofocus you may try looking at olympus m4/3 lenses. They are not as fast or as sharp as the panasonic ones and the image stabilization doesn't work on the gh1, but I picked up my 14-42 olympus m4/3 for about $100 new.
 
Quick tack-on question on this topic - does the GH1/GH2 have any manual focus assistance in the viewfinder? Considering that the viewfinder is digital it'd be great if there was some sort of cats-eye focus lens type option...
 
I have the 20mm pancake lens and the Nikon 50mm 1.8 and they cut together well (in terms of the images they produce). My Nikon 50mm is my favorite lens to use on the GH1, makes really nice clean images with smooth tonality. I highly recommend these lenses to cover medium wide to closeup portrait shots both for video and stills.
 
My advice. Don't spend too much at once. It's better to burn cash slowly so that u can buy better M43 lenses on the way.

For example I don't mind exchanging all my legacy lenses from ebay with Voigtlander 25mm .95.

The popularity of old lenses will go down. I wouldn't spend too much on them. FD is cheap but it's hard to find a good copy and it's hard to mix with m43 lenses. Either all FD lenses or none.

I'm getting GH1 this week!!! I'm not exactly noob though.
 
jascination said:
Quick tack-on question on this topic - does the GH1/GH2 have any manual focus assistance in the viewfinder? Considering that the viewfinder is digital it'd be great if there was some sort of cats-eye focus lens type option...
Click to expand...

yes both have focus assist/magnification. With Lumix u4/3 lenses it engages automatically when you manually focus the lens (tho it can be disabled.) with adapted lenses you engage it automatically. It will not work while recording video.
 
You will want a long lens at some point - one to try if you follow the good advice of memphishills is the Canon FD 80-200mm zoom. That's quite a long lens on a 4/3 camera, and you'll like the perspective compression and shallower depth of field that a longer lens gives you.
 
EF or FD? Because you'll need an expensive adapter to be able to control the aperture on the EF versions.
 
Hello Sebek, here's my modest choice of all-around zoom, close-up lens and low light lens:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/wl/360AA05979

I've heard that Panasonic is coming up with a bright zoom (their words), a 12-50 2.5~3.3, however I'm not sure the price point of it, if it's around $500 sounds good, if it's more, not so much, however it'll be optimized for video.
 
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Oetam - FD lenses as I am on a budget. I'm still trying to understand lenses and what the 50mm, 28mm etc actually means in terms of view on the GH1 camera. Are there any lenses that give you that 35mm film look?
 
Canon FDs...if you want cheapest possible and have a nice deep film look.
24mm f2.8
50mm f1.8 (I prefer this over the f1.4 cheap and light)

Nikon Nikkors are awesome and are super sharp that match with the 20mm pancake perfect.
I can HIGHLY recommend the Nikon G 35mm f1.8 DX...just make sure you get the correct adapter with aperture control. A truly superb lense at a great price....and sooo easy to auto focus with.

Keep in mind the 2x factor with GH1 (50mm fd will be 100mm & 24mm will actually be around 48mm) so be prepared to stand way back and be stable when shooting
Alternatives that you may consider?
You could for fun try the 35mm f.7 fujian cctv cmount with adapter (you can get this for $20/£18 without adapter $35-45/£40 with adapter)
Pentax/cosmicar 25mm f1.4 c-mount (a little vignetting but close to the panny 20mm in centre sharpness but a lot cheaper)
Check out Seb farges vids if you want to see how effective this "cheapy chinese fujian" lense is.
I use them all myself.
 
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Thanks for all the info! so when you say be prepared to stand way back, the more 'mm' the further you have to stand correct? so 24mm lens you won't have to stand as far as with a 50mm lens.
 
lpowell, I provided the link for the lenses I talked about, the 14-54 is also an option.

However, they both don't provied OIS and are not optimized for video, that may be something crucial for someone.
 
I got my GH1 with 14-42mm lens and have some more questions.
1. does the 14-42 lens have IS?
2. when I was using the camera, I clicked the wheel right below the shutter and changed some settings and I'm not sure what they are for - can I revert back to what they originally were set to?
3. For some reason now, when I am in creative movie mode, the LCD won't show what I'm looking at. If I switch to other modes, it's fine.

Looks like it will take some time for me to learn how to use this camera but it feels and looks great!
Thanks!
 
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