GH2 body en route. which lens??

G

ghosttv

Carbonite Member
I couldn't resist the $600 pricetag, dealer says it is in transit. Panic mode about what lens to get. The two kit offering are slow and the long one seems quite overpriced. So I was thinking of this zuiko 14-53 f2.8 which sells for about 500mm. So that's 28-106 and 56-212 in crop. What you gus think? Good allarounder for everything but sports? I plan to get a c mount vintage as well.
 
@john: I found a discount coupon on the web. $630 then 680 after tax. From pan direct.
@pietro; I think that's the same lens I am considering. I mistyped when I wrote 53mm. Its as u said, 54mm. Have you used it? Can one manual focus with it? Follow focus would work too? I read one blurb that alleges the af doesn't work so grfeat on panny in that its olympus optimized.
 
roei z said:
but doesn't the Oly lack OIS on GH2 ?
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Of course. Olympus lenses are built to use the in-camera optical stabilization built into Olympus cameras and will not provide OIS on Panasonic cameras. On the GH2, however, both older and newer versions of the Olympus 14-54mm f2.8-3.5 zoom will autofocus in AFS mode. On the GH1, only the newer Mark II version of the 14-54mm zoom would autofocus properly.
 
ghosttv said:
@john: I found a discount coupon on the web. $630 then 680 after tax. From pan direct.
@pietro; I think that's the same lens I am considering. I mistyped when I wrote 53mm. Its as u said, 54mm. Have you used it? Can one manual focus with it? Follow focus would work too? I read one blurb that alleges the af doesn't work so grfeat on panny in that its olympus optimized.
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I asked Rabot about the focus ring on the 14-54, that's what he said to me:

The 14-54 is completle fly by wire, and it's pretty smooth. Never tried it with a FF tho.
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I've got the Olympus Zuiko 14-54 II. It was the fastest zoom I could afford in a focal length range that was useful for documentary work. It does autofocus, though not superbly, well enough. I wish it had a longer reach, but with the GH2 that's obviously not really an issue. The focus ring is focus by wire, which is fine by me. Not preferable but not a deal killer. It does have one annoying flaw for video work. There is a distance meter on the lens (you know, you're focusing on an object 8 feet away or infinity, whatever). That's fine, but it makes noise. It makes enough noise that a shotgun mounted on the camera will pick up the noise in a quiet room. I normally don't mount the mic right on the camera but sometimes I do and then I kind of have to think about the damn distance meter.
In reality, I've found there are few situations where I'm using a zoom with this range where the sound conditions or creative conditions are such that the quiet clicking during a focus are problem. But it is sometimes a problem.
I can't heartily recommend the lens because of this, but I also haven't found another zoom with the same range, speed and quality for cheaper.
 
Okay guys I ordered the 14mm-54mm. I have a good WAD so I should get REAL 14mm fov to 200mm in ex mode with decent speed in lo light. $479 at BH. Hopefully it will af well enuf and be nice.
 
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