GH4 Gh4 long lenses for wildlife

F

flinty

Veteran
Personaly i am undecided whether to wait and see what the next GH model offers or go for a GH4,i do a lot of wildlife filming,what lens options are best for long range filming,ie canon fit.Wold lenses like the sigma 50-500mm work with the gh4 with an adaptor,i have lenses like the Canon EFS 55-250mm but even with the 2x crop that is not realy long enough.Any advise will be appreciated.
 
Sigma 300-800 great for wildlife - but big and pricey. The Nikon version even has an aperture ring and focuses the correct (ie Canon / Zeiss) way.
Smaller and cheaper, the new Sigma 150-600 Sport get great write-ups.
Gotta really be aiming for around 1000mm+ for wildlife, so a 1.4x on the 300-800 or a 2x on the 150-600 would be essential for me - it's the problem with S35 sensors for wildlife, you need big focal lengths.
GH4 looks terrific, but for wildlife could ideally do with 60fps 4k.
Steve
 
Shooting wildlife was so much easier back in standard def with an XL1s and 35mm lenses. The crop really helped.

As mentioned, a 1.4x or 2x tele extender added to your lens is so helpful if you can afford the light loss, which shouldn't be an issue in daylight.
 
If you are ok with HD video I know some people use the Extele mode on the GH cameras to get a bit extra reach. It gives you an extra 2x zoom (compared to 4k) without too much quality loss. I say not too much loss because you no longer gain the benefits of an over sampled sensor or the benefits of 4k. Extele also tends to show more noise at higher ISO levels compared to native HD although should be equal to the noise when shooting 4k.

How the extele mode works is it only uses the center 1920x1080 portion of the sensor. In essence it crops even more compared to FF but still uses enough of the sensor for a 1920x1080 pixel sample.

If you are ok with shooting HD video then this mode will turn the FOV of a 300mm m43 lens into a 600mm FOV.
 
I was never happy with using Extele on the GH4. Its just too far a departure image quality wise from shooting w/o it especially in the fine details. It looks like good SD in some of my tests with it. However, some may find it useful.
 


This is shot with one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Opteka-650-26...d=1433177947&sr=8-1&keywords=800mm+nikon+lens

I use it in 4k mode but with a MB speed booster to help with CA and sharpening. That is a frame grab that has no post to it at all and in camera sharpening was set to 0. That was shot at 1300mm, need quite a heavy tripod to get a steady shot and little to no wind, but when you need reach, you have it. I have not tried the doubler that is included yet.

Jon
 
Thank youu all very much for your replys,i already use an FZ1000 but after its optical 584mm i find the i zoom losses quality and is no better than using my FZ72 recording 1920x1080,i never knew 2x extenders could be used on the Pana GH4 with canon lenses,so does that meen with the sigma 50-500mm i asked about the reach would be 2000mm .
Jon i have seen that lens but but never coonsidered it would work on GH cameras or give 4K resolution on the GH4,with the 2x crop that would be 1300-5200mm,unreal,it would certainly need no breeze and only on non moving fixed subjects.
 
Last edited:
The GH4 internal Ex-tel 2x crop can be used in conjunction with an optical extender with a lens like the 50-500, but you will loose a lot of light. the Sigma is already a 6.3 at the long end plus a 2x so your effective Fstop would be around F13. Pretty darn slow. Same goes for the lens Im using but with less optics Degrading the image. At least with the speed booster Im gaining a stop back while sharping and improving the CA performance of the lens. Just a thought.
 
I don't know what you have going on there Mark, but the ETC on the GH4 is the most astounding thing ever created for wildlife filming. Like usual it's all about the glass. It's just a tad better than SD quality I'd like to think :)

https://vimeo.com/116448341

Cheers
Pete
 
Pete, I just couldn't get the image quality I desired with ETC. I am using a Panasonic 45-175 and a newly acquired Olympus 75-300. Without ETC both lenses perform fine for my needs.
 
My hope was to make UHD videos with content like
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCLeAgHnvHQ
But i dont think this is possible in the non pro world,some of the clips were at just over 4000mm,using a lens like the sigma 150-600mm on the GH4 would be around 2000mm if a 2x extender was used as well if i am correct and i wonder if UHD resolution could be recorded at that length.
 
Generally if you're needing 4000mm you're better off looking at your fieldcraft - putting on bigger and bigger lenses is not the answer!
Steve
 
That STX95 digiscoping setup is equivalent to an 1170-2730mm lens in 1080 mode and 1400-3268mm in 4K UHD on a GH4. It would be another 2.4x times that in ETC mode.

http://www.imaging-resource.com/new...rovski-scopes-pinch-hit-for-a-super-tele-lens

ETC mode on a great piece of vintage glass is still better all the way around. Even a G6 in ETC 1080-60p with a great piece of glass is better than the Swarovski. When I filmed my 'G6 in Slow Motion' video on Vimeo, there was a guy right next to me with a Canon 7D and a Swarovski setup like the one in the link above and it wasn't even in the realm. Mostly because the Canon's are junk at video, but to get great images it takes really good glass.

My next lens will be a Nikkor AIS ED 400mm f/3.5 for equivalent focal lengths of 832mm in 1080, 995mm in 4K UHD and 1920 in 1080 ETC. A perfect combo of telephoto length and light gathering ability. There is no tool at any price that can create these kinds of images.

Cheers,
Pete
 
c3hammer said:
That STX95 digiscoping setup is equivalent to an 1170-2730mm lens in 1080 mode and 1400-3268mm in 4K UHD on a GH4. It would be another 2.4x times that in ETC mode.

http://www.imaging-resource.com/new...rovski-scopes-pinch-hit-for-a-super-tele-lens

ETC mode on a great piece of vintage glass is still better all the way around. Even a G6 in ETC 1080-60p with a great piece of glass is better than the Swarovski. When I filmed my 'G6 in Slow Motion' video on Vimeo, there was a guy right next to me with a Canon 7D and a Swarovski setup like the one in the link above and it wasn't even in the realm. Mostly because the Canon's are junk at video, but to get great images it takes really good glass.

My next lens will be a Nikkor AIS ED 400mm f/3.5 for equivalent focal lengths of 832mm in 1080, 995mm in 4K UHD and 1920 in 1080 ETC. A perfect combo of telephoto length and light gathering ability. There is no tool at any price that can create these kinds of images.

Cheers,
Pete
Click to expand...
Interesting thanks for that,i know there is an adaptor for connecting the STX95 to the lens mount but not sure what,its on google no doubt.doubt i would use ETC for UHD though i was not impressed by it when i had a GH2.
 
c3hammer said:
ETC mode on a great piece of vintage glass is still better all the way around. Even a G6 in ETC 1080-60p with a great piece of glass is better than the Swarovski. When I filmed my 'G6 in Slow Motion' video on Vimeo, there was a guy right next to me with a Canon 7D and a Swarovski setup like the one in the link above and it wasn't even in the realm. Mostly because the Canon's are junk at video, but to get great images it takes really good glass.

My next lens will be a Nikkor AIS ED 400mm f/3.5 for equivalent focal lengths of 832mm in 1080, 995mm in 4K UHD and 1920 in 1080 ETC. A perfect combo of telephoto length and light gathering ability. There is no tool at any price that can create these kinds of images.
Click to expand...

That sounds pretty sweet.

I have an FD adaptor - is there any vintage canon of similar focal lengths that people have good experience of for this kind of shot?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top