GH3 Is this normal? New Lumix 12-35 f/2.8 lens.

O

OldCorpse

Rockin the Boat
So I just received the GH3 and 12-35 f/2.8 lens I bought from B&H, and started playing with it, and I'm shocked by the brand new 12-25 lens... it is hard to turn the zoom ring, and as a result it stutters when turning instead of being butter-smooth as is my experience of every other zoom (f.ex. Nikons) I've ever used. Wow, is this normal? If so, I hate it! If not, back it goes to B&H... maybe I got a bum one. In any case, pretty unacceptable for a lens that cost well over $1K. Not impressed so far :( What's yours like?

To clarify: if I try to turn it slowly, it stutters, because it requires too much force for smooth movement; of course if I simply whip it from one end to the other 12 to 35, I can get it to move without stuttering. This really is pretty unacceptable.
 
Last edited:
i believe you have a dud. should not stutter at all otherwise everyone would have kicked up a big stink about it a long time back. walk into a brick and mortar store and test one out for comparrison. it should confirm everything.
 
Yeah, sounds like it. There's a Samy's not far away from me, I'll call tomorrow and see if they have one in stock so I can try it out.
 
OldCorpse said:
Yeah, sounds like it. There's a Samy's not far away from me, I'll call tomorrow and see if they have one in stock so I can try it out.
Click to expand...

Bring your camera to test the lens. Since both are new might as well eliminate if it could be the camera. I doubt it is but it could hurt.
 
OldCorpse said:
To clarify: if I try to turn it slowly, it stutters, because it requires too much force for smooth movement; of course if I simply whip it from one end to the other 12 to 35, I can get it to move without stuttering. This really is pretty unacceptable.
Click to expand...


It is difficult to know for sure if your lens has a problem or not. This could possibly be more of a perception issue on your part.

If your experience is in using much larger Nikkor DX and FX zoom lenses, then a much smaller and compact m4/3 lens is going to feel quite different to you, simply because of its much smaller diameter. If you have fairly large hands, you may find just getting a solid grip on the lens is much more of a challenge because of that.

So I would advise practicing with the lens some, and see if you can get a solid grip on it where you can find that you can then move the lens smoothly.

I'm 6'2" tall and have larger than average hands, and I certainly found using m4/3 zoom lenses to be a challenge when I first tried them, because of these issues. Hopefully you are having a similar experience, and don't actually have a bad lens.

And if all else fails, at least you will have B&H Photo's money back guarantee to fall back on.
 
LanceOregon said:
It is difficult to know for sure if your lens has a problem or not. This could possibly be more of a perception issue on your part.
Click to expand...

No, I don't believe so. This is literally unusable - I can't do a smooth slow zoom, it stutters. My hands are average size, but this would be a problem regardless of your hand size - incidentally, I had my wife try it, and it's the same for her. This is a defective lens. It has to go back to B&H.

LanceOregon said:
And if all else fails, at least you will have B&H Photo's money back guarantee to fall back on.
Click to expand...

There is no choice, I have to send it back. It's defective. I'd like to exchange it for one that is not, but I'm getting nervous, because I have to pay for shipping - this is not exactly a bargain anymore, through no fault of my own... the item is defective for God's sake! What if they send me another one, and it's bad again? This is starting to get expensive. I've bought literally thousands of dollars worth of stuff from B&H, and I never had to return anything, so this is a new one and a bit of an eye opener... I can return/exchange items from Amazon without paying for shipping - sucks when it's not my fault the item is defective. For items that cost more to ship, and complicated stuff like cameras and lenses that can easily be defective, I think I'm going to stick to Amazon from now on... prices are pretty much the same anyhow. Disappointing.
 
The zoom isn't "buttery" smooth, not even close. I love the lens. Used it a bunch. Several copies. The zoom, like all 4/3 and m4/3 zoome lenses I've used (and many other SLR format zooms) do not provide a usable slow zoom. They are essentially varifocal primes. Nothing in the HDSLR world that I've come across comes close to the zooms buillt for motion picture work.
 
woodcarver said:
The zoom isn't "buttery" smooth, not even close. I love the lens. Used it a bunch. Several copies. The zoom, like all 4/3 and m4/3 zoome lenses I've used (and many other SLR format zooms) do not provide a usable slow zoom. They are essentially varifocal primes. Nothing in the HDSLR world that I've come across comes close to the zooms buillt for motion picture work.
Click to expand...

That pretty much sums it up.
 
The zoom ring itself is smooth, but the footage captured during a zoom is not.

This behavior has been discussed in depth on this forum ever since the lens was released, & while dissapointing, the 12-35/2.8 remains my most used optic for the format, followed closely by the 35-100/2.8.

It will likely also be a hit on the BMPCC.
 
Last edited:
I said it as plainly as I can: the action of the zoom ring is physically rough, resulting in stuttering movement. Imagine two surfaces moving with ball bearings separating them - smooth; now imagine two surfaces moving with sand in between them - it's going to be rough and skip and stutter. In this case it really seizes up between 25 and 35mm, and you have to exert much more force to push it on, resulting in choppy movement. I'm not talking about footage, or parfocal or cinezoom effects or recording. So I don't get how people can misunderstand this as being the difference between photo and cine lenses... it's not like I have not used other photo zooms (though not m4/3 mounts), and I've always found the zoom ring itself butter-smooth. Oh, and btw., the focus ring on this lens is butter-smooth... exactly as I would hope the zoom ring would be, but is not. I think it's a QC issue - disappointing that it happened on a pretty expensive lens, but it happens to the best. I'm just hoping the next one will not have this - or other problems. I have not read of others having this particular complaint about this lens, so I'm hoping this was a freak case, and I'm not going to have any problems on my next one. I'll tell you this much though - paying shipping on an exchange of an item that's defective through no fault of my own, makes me about 99% less likely to buy from B&H next time, if I can get the same thing on Amazon for the same price.
 
Last edited:
I have the same stutter with one of my lens, a 14-42mm kit lens,
my other 14-42mm is much smoother that the first,
and my 45-200mm is way smoother than either of the 14-42mm lens.
 
Does anyone have footage pulling off a smooth zoom with this lens? Generally I'm inclined to agree that it's just a varifocal prime and should not be used as anything else.
 
It's "electronically parfocal," or at least nearly so, inthat the lens adjusts electronically to maintain your focus point through a zoom. The greater issue with zooming while rolling on this lens is the detectable aperture adjustments through the zoom.
 
mcbob said:
It's "electronically parfocal," or at least nearly so, in that the lens adjusts electronically to maintain your focus point through a zoom.
Click to expand...

Actually, the 12-35mm f/2.8 doesn't maintain focus throughout it's zoom range and neither does the 35-100mm f/2.8 lens.

I learned very quickly that you can't zoom and maintain focus with either of these lenses unless you enable focus-tracking and have the camera adjust focus as you zoom.

They are both extremely good lenses, but don't expect parfocal performance from either of them.
 
Well, I just RMA'd it to B&H, and requested an exchange for another one. Fingers crossed the next one they send will be perfect right out of the box.
 
That's odd.

Both my 12-35/2.8 & 35-100/2.8 "hold focus" throughout their zoom range, but only if initially focused at the long end of their focal lengths. Of course "hold focus" is used loosely in this context as they defocus mechanically & are then corrected electronically.
 
UPDATE

I sent the lens back to B&H on 07/15. The replacement arrived today, and I have just tested it. This one is behaving as I thought it should: the zoom ring is mechanically smooth in operation - slightly stiffer than I'm used to on high-quality zooms, but infinitely better than the stutter I had with the previous lens. Now, I'm not going to zoom up a storm while recording video for all the reasons mentioned above, but I can zoom very slightly without aperture flicker or focus hunting (like maybe 5mm-worth of focal length), which is all I wanted for my purposes (very tiny, slow, zooms which are almost imperceptible - just enough to destabilize the frame).

Also, big kudos to B&H - I didn't have to pay for shipping and they were super fast in turnaround once they received the lens, shipped a replacement to me immediately. I guess I'm staying with B&H for my future purchases... lesson learned, loyalty earned.

Thank you everybody who chimed in, I benefited from your collective experience and wisdom.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top