GH4 Lumix GH4 / S16 PL lens compatibility?

petermullett

petermullett

Well-known member
I'm considering getting a GH4, but would like to know if I can mount / use any of my S16 PL lenses on this camera. Has anyone tried this, and if so what extra "bits" would be needed to make it all work?
Thanks……..PM
 
You'd want a PL to m4/3 adapter. Solid Camera makes the best, in my opinion, but there's a bunch of cheaper ones out there as well (this might be the best of the cheaper ones: http://www.ebay.com/itm/171504402195.) Make sure you use one with a foot or with rod mounting, as the m4/3 mount is not sturdy enough to handle zooms by itself. If you're using native Arri Bayonet lenses, this adapter would be the best (http://www.ebay.com/itm/261285525539).

All S16 lenses will fit. The 25mm & 16mm Zeiss T1.3 Super Speeds should fully cover in 4K, while the 12mm will almost cover UHD (if you stop down you will.) The 25mm f1.4 Schneider will cover 4k as well.

With all lenses, including zooms, you could fully cover at least 3328x1872 and then up res or down res from that (or even shoot the same resolution of Amira, 3200x1800, which just requires a 1.2x upsample to 4k).

However, I've been doing some tests recently and found that you could use a lot of zooms combined with the new Olympus MC-14 1.4x teleconverter to fully cover the sensor. I've tested it with the Angenieux 7-81 and Zeiss 10-100mm T2 and it works great, just adding a bit of chromatic aberration.

Regular 16mm lenses with the MC-14 would fully cover cinema 4K, and Super 16 lenses with the MC-14 would cover the 1080p modes as well (which use a larger part of the sensor).

You just have to cut a small piece of plastic off of the MC-14 in order for it to work. I'm going to be posting a bit more details on another thread a bit later today.
 
Thanks Joshua, this is very helpful.
I have a full range of S16 glass, including a range of lenses from the 5.5mm & 8mm Optex, through the 9.5 / 12 / 25 / 50mm MkIII SS's, Canon 8mm-64mm and 11mm-138mm, a Cooke 10.4mm-52mm and a Fujinon 10mm-40mm.
I'd love to be able to have the lenses wider than 12mm work, but that doesn't seem to be possible with the GH4's MFT sensor.
Maybe I should go back to re-consider the BMPCC even though that doesn't produce 4K......Perhaps the next iteration of that camera will do so (?).....
 
Sweet collection of S16 glass! I'm envious.

Never used Solid Camera's PL>m43 adapter but have heard good things. Have used Hot Rod Camera's & think it's great. Not sure what Illya has planned for the PL mount for Hot Rod Cameras' Kung Fu Kit but you might try contacting him. The Kung Fu Kit would be a great choice for working with PL zooms & can accommodate a BMPCC or GH4.
 
Bern Caughey said:
Sweet collection of S16 glass! I'm envious.

Never used Solid Camera's PL>m43 adapter but have heard good things. Have used Hot Rod Camera's & think it's great. Not sure what Illya has planned for the PL mount for Hot Rod Cameras' Kung Fu Kit but you might try contacting him. The Kung Fu Kit would be a great choice for working with PL zooms & can accommodate a BMPCC or GH4.
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Yes Bern, thanks, it is a "sweet" collection of glass, one that I want to find an ongoing way of putting to use. I've always loved the S16 format, I guess that's why I still have my Xtera and A-Minima. But anyway all of the S16 lenses I have work fine with my Ikonoskop DII, even the Optex 5.5, but to find the "next" camera with which I can use all the range of lenses and focal lengths is proving illusive, especially at the wider ends of the range where I like to shoot…..I've tried to "like" the BMPPC, but just can't get to the point where I can pull the trigger and go that route, maybe if it ever goes 4K then that could be the tipping point. I hope though that there's a way to make the GH4 work with the wider glass, but as yet I haven't found any validation on that.
 
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