GH2 Newbie, 14-42lens kit worth it? On a budget

D

DBP

Well-known member
Hey all,

Going to take the plunge into the world of the GH2 to compliment my HMC150.

Is the 14-42mm kit *any* good at all? or would I be really stupid not to get the 14-140mm kit? The difference of 300$ is big to me right now.

Thanks for any advice!
 
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Well, I went ahead and decided to blow 1495$ at B&H on the GH2 14-42mm kit + Panny pancake 20mm + Sandisk extreme 32gb card (for driftwood hack)

Hope I made a wise choice!
 
Just got mine in the mail yesterday. Thank you Amazon Japan!

It's tiny. Barely larger than the 20/1.7. And if Power OIS is 2X better than Mega OIS, then it will clearly have a broad market appeal.

If you're on a budget, this is really your best bet for an OIS-enabled lens for the GH2.
 
I don't own one, but am considering picking the GH2 up to compliment an HPX170, so am wondering if this lens is any good, compared to dropping $2,000 on the Zuico.
 
Guys, if you are coming from video and haven't shot with DSLR's much, spend time with the camera and the stock lens, (which is a decent lens BTW), and then decide where and how to spend your bucks. Aside from quality issues, dslr lenses are generally designed to meet the needs of higher resolution for still photos as oppose to the flexibility of your typical video lens with its smooth zooming, (relatively) constant arpeture and often a camera with built-in ND filters.

Not arguing against the Zuico, but if I don't have a huge budget I might be tempted to think about camera support, filters, rigs, hi-def monitors etc. as well as lenses. And as far as lenses go, I would probably do a couple of my bread and butter gigs and get a feel for what is going to make things work best. If you are doing indoor/darker b-roll, an f2.8 or faster lens would be a great idea...
 
If your going to shoot stills of wildlife or some other reason that you need that big zoom then go for the 14-140 but if you shooting films and stuff then put that $300 towards a 20mm or 25mm prime. You'll get way more use out of it... I have my kit 14-45 and use it quite a bit for that 14mm wide range until I can afford something better. The kit lens is nice too because it has stabilization built in and we used it shooting some wilderness quads etc. It was way better than the 20mm prime in that situation.
 
The 14-42mm kit lens is ok, the older 14-45mm is better, but harder to find. ( the 14-45mm is sharper at the long end )

The Lumix 20mm f/1.7 is a very sharp lens, and quite compact.

I wold have recommended buying the 14-42mm kit lens, and then a Nikon ---> M4/3 adapter plus a used Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AI-S manual lens, the MetaBones M4/3 adapter on eBay is quite good, and the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 lens is easy to find at about the $150 range. I recommend the Nikon adapter because there is so much great and cheap manual Nikon glass floating about, and manual prime lenses really show what the GH-2 can do.
 
snowleopard said:
I don't own one, but am considering picking the GH2 up to compliment an HPX170, so am wondering if this lens is any good, compared to dropping $2,000 on the Zuico.
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Which Zuiko? The four-thirds Zuiko? You can't really compare a $2000 lens that doesnt have OIS with a $400 lens with OIS. They're really quite different.

All of the rumor sites say that there will be a fast constant F2 lens set released sometime soon, so if that's what you want, you should wait for that.
 
TheDingo said:
I wold have recommended buying the 14-42mm kit lens, and then a Nikon ---> M4/3 adapter plus a used Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AI-S manual lens, the MetaBones M4/3 adapter on eBay is quite good, and the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 lens is easy to find at about the $150 range. I recommend the Nikon adapter because there is so much great and cheap manual Nikon glass floating about, and manual prime lenses really show what the GH-2 can do.
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Good to know, thanks. I'll know what to look for with my next lens purchase.
 
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