Currently I own a Voigtlander 25mm for my GH2 but I am getting a GH4 next week and want to get a second lens. But I'm looking to purchase another lens, maybe an AF lens so I can work a little better with focus. I film mostly dancing so the lighting is low, and the movement quick so focus is important but so is speed. Any suggestions I would love. Probably something a little wider.
GH4 Help me choose a lens
- Thread starter tampawolf
- Start date
Sol M.
Veteran
Here are some native M43 lenses with AF that are wider than your current 25mm:
The fastest lenses are the 20mm, 17mm, and 12mm so those would be best for low-light.
- Panasonic 20mm f/1.7
- Olympus 17 f/1.8
- Panasonic 14mm f/2.5
- Olympus 12mm f/2.0
- Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8
- Panasonic 7-14mm f/4.0
The fastest lenses are the 20mm, 17mm, and 12mm so those would be best for low-light.
joe1946
Veteran
The Sigma 18-35mm with speedbooster is another option.
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...eld-of-View-(Sigma-18-35mm-f1-8-Speedbooster)
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...eld-of-View-(Sigma-18-35mm-f1-8-Speedbooster)
Sol M.
Veteran
The 18-35 is a nice lens. Wide-ish FOV and large constant aperture. Just so there's no confusion though, the 18-35 will not have AF as requested by the OP.
If you have enough light available the Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-140 f3.5-5.6 is a surprisingly good lens. I own one of those and also the 12-35 f2.8. While the 12-35 is amazingly good at f2.8, there is really no way to tell which lens was used when looking at actual footage, both look amazing even in UHD. I had assumed then 14-140 would embody a lot of compromises from being a super-zoom and bought it to be able to pick up long shots. Was quite surprised how it is at all focal lengths. You can see a little bit of difference is sharpness, edge quality, and CA when scrutinizing stills, but for UHD there is basically no on-screen difference. Both do a fine job of capturing the "wow that's sharp!" look we have come to expect from the GH4.
In regards to auto-focus, I like the GH4's focus-peaking feature and I am now using manual focus a lot more than before. Autofocus is certainly faster, but there is inevitably a bit of back-and-forth hunting which has to edited around. After about an hour of practice I found I could manually track focus quite well, and even in cases where I didn't exactly hit perfect focus at the end of a focus pull I felt that footage was more acceptable than in cases where autofocus hunted around a bit.
In regards to auto-focus, I like the GH4's focus-peaking feature and I am now using manual focus a lot more than before. Autofocus is certainly faster, but there is inevitably a bit of back-and-forth hunting which has to edited around. After about an hour of practice I found I could manually track focus quite well, and even in cases where I didn't exactly hit perfect focus at the end of a focus pull I felt that footage was more acceptable than in cases where autofocus hunted around a bit.
dustylense
Veteran
Every GH Panny should have a 12-35 Lumix. It should be mandated.
Ha! After a bunch of under-educated research and comparisons, that is what I chose for a decent all arounder. And am happy with it. AND happy others think it is good as well.