GH3 Good lenses for focusing manually?

P

Polaroid22

Well-known member
Hello,

I came from canon to panasonic this year. And I bought a converter for my canon lenses. But which lenses are good for focussing manually?
- I love the focus ring on the canon 50mm 1.8 it is so smooth and easy to focus.
- The sigma 30mm 1.4, isnt that great for manual focussing for me (tad too slow)
- my panasonic 12-35 2.8, now this thing is a nightmare for focussing manually. However the auto-focus is really great.


So how about the following lenses?
- Leica 25mm f1.4
- Olympus 17mm 1.8
- any suggestions??

Thanks
 
Fully manual lenses usually offer the best mechanics for manual focusing. Check out Rokinon Cine lenses for a modern option with good quality and prices.

You coul also experiment with "vintage" lenses and adapters. I love some of my vintage Pentax and Nikkor lenses for video.
 
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Leica 25/1.4 acts much like the Pan 12-35 in terms of manual focusing (auto is similarly quick)

Haven't dealt with the Oly 17/1.8, but IIRC they have a switchable lens focus ring to change from manual to auto

Voigtlander m43 lenses are awesomely radically tubular, bitchin', XTREME, epic, etc for all-manual work. Best choice in native m43 lenses.

Many vintage lenses are similarly shmooooooove focusing. Nikon, Pentax, Minolta MD, Leica R/M, Contax Zeiss, Olympus OM... they were made primarily for manual focus and it shows vs. modern glass. "Benefit" of legacy lenses is the ability to use a Speedbooster adapter with several mount types.
 
I have the Oly 17/1.8 and this is my LEAST favorite to manually focus. The ring is small and I don't care for the resistance, my favorite manually focusing rings that I own are the Voightlander, Leica 25, and then the 12-35/35-100set.
 
Thanks, yes only dont see them coming in very much these days in Belgium secondhand. I owned a 25mm 0.95 2 years ago. But sold it as I did not use GH2 anymore. Wished I had kept it..
 
Plenty of affordable 2.8 or better zooms (especially once you start adding Speedboosted lenses).

With OIS, it's only the Lumix 12-35 and 35-100. The Leica D 14-50/2.8-3.5 has functional OIS, but drops from 2.8 fairly early in its range.
 
Thanks, mcbob. But remember, we're in the 'manual focus' thread. The Lumix lenses don't quality as they're fly-by-wire.

I'd love an affordable, constant 2.8 or better, OIS enabled zoom lens with manual only focus. A full range of them, in fact.
 
i think the voigtlander's are the true choice for manual.
if you have the family (17.5, 25, and 42.5), you could own the world
 
The Olympus 12-40mm has a better focus ring than the Lumix 12-35mm but no OIS, the Olympus 14-54mm MKII have a good focus ring too, but i think that manual lenses are much better. I prefer the felling of the Canon FD lenses over the fly by wire like the Lumix.
Another good option colud be the Tokina 11-16mm and 28-80mm with the speedboster.
 
+1 for Leica. I've used the Summicron 50/2 and the Elmarit 90/2.8. They both have absurdly long throws (i.e. you have to rotate them almost 360 degrees to go from close to infinity) and they're built solidly enough that they feel like cine lenses. The focus rings spin easily and very precisely. They do breathe a lot, though, so that may or may not bother you.
 
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