Lens for use on GH2 with Glidecam

I like the Olympus 9-18mm. I had great results on a recent trip. Other choices I'd recommend looking at are the Olympus 12mm and the Panasonic 7-14mm. I own the 9-18, but haven't tried the others. Though they are all said to have reliable autofocus, which will obviously be important while you're flying.

Personally, I wouldn't go narrower than those focal lengths, as I think the Glidecam is best served with a super wide.
 
If you had to pick one focal length what would you pick? You mentioned you like the Olympus 9-18mm but do you like it more towards the 9mm or the 18mm range? I have the 14-140 kit lens and have wondered if I should get a wider lens than the 14mm I have.
 
I prefer staying between 9-12mm. You do experience some barrel distortion if you are close to your subject and set to 9mm, but to me it's moderate and acceptable. I did stop down to about f/7.1 or f/8.0 for most scenarios. You don't want to go too far or risk diffraction.
 
Heartfelt said:
When using these, do you not ever choke down a bit and use infinity focus to make it easy?
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I've flown with the 14-42 kit, and stopped down to f8, virtually everything is in focus. AF is not at all necessary, which is why when I go for a dedicated wide angle, I will get the tokina 11-16 in nikon mount (unless I pick up a 14mm f2.5 to use temporarily because they are so cheap). And one tip for using the lumix lenses, if you want to make it really easy, is to use af-s, set your focus, and then turn it to mf. This ensures that even if you get closer or further from your subject, it will still be in focus. I do this for ski filming (I follow with the glide cam), and it is incredibly easy to keep everything in focus
 
Oh and here is a quick example of the Olympus lens on a Glidecam HD-1000. It's set to 9mm, no post-stabilization, and a basic S-curve color correction. Nostalgic, all to -2, and the old Vanilla 44 hack (running Cake now). It was a pretty random test, as I just grabbed the camera and went for it.

 
Yes, you get credit for running with them. Nice little video!

I am very partial to the 20mm pancake lens. No matter what lens you choose, pick the widest you have. I sold my Glidecam a few weeks ago due to the fact that I simply haven't used it in months... When I brought it to a buddy in town who was interested, he only had a 50mm (or longer focal length) on his AF100. It was impossible to show him how beautiful good glidecam footage can be... Must be a wide lens.
 
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