GH2 Need siggestions: Best f2.8 medium zoom lens?

salils

salils

Well-known member
I'm looking for a reasonably fast (about f2.8 constant aperture) medium wide zoom lens. Something a little wider than canon's 24-70 f2.8 would be good. Does this exist? The 14-140 is just way too slow and before you suggest, I'm not looking for primes. Primarily looking to shoot video, I can deal with not having AF if I have to. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
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There are a number of zooms in the 16-50 and 17-50 f2.8 range. I suggest trying them and picking one that you feel works for your shooting style.

All the Best!

Dave
 
I use the Tokina 28-70 f2.6-2.8. Pretty good, costing about $400 these days - ideally get Nikon mount as it has manual aperture.
Tamron 17-50 f2.8 DX is good, but doesn't have manual aperture I believe
 
ed_lee83 said:
I use the Tokina 28-70 f2.6-2.8. Pretty good, costing about $400 these days - ideally get Nikon mount as it has manual aperture.
Tamron 17-50 f2.8 DX is good, but doesn't have manual aperture I believe
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Do you mean that the Tokina has aperture control ring on the lens (like the old manual focus lenses)?
Or just that the aperture can be controlled manually via the right adapter?

Because I recall the Tokina 28-70 2.8 being a more modern autofocus lens, and a quick ebay search shows no manual rings for adjusting iris size.
That being said, Nikon's auto-aperture system can be controlled via a physical pin on the back of the lens. A good adapter will give you control of that with its own ring, turning any automatic aperture lens into a manually controlled one.

This would be true both in the Tokina and Tamron. That being said, I have no experience with the Tokina, but can attest that the Tamron is pretty sharp and a good zoom range.
 
There are a couple of Olympus and Sigma lenses for 4/3 that may fit the bill. The Olympus 14-35mm f2.0 constant aperture is an exceptional lens that will give you autofocus and autoaperture ($2300 new, $1950 used at Amazon; $1710 off rental at lensrentals.com). Or you can rent it from lensrentals for $83.25 + $29 shipping for 4 days.

Here is a terrific video from Glenn Przyborski shot with the Oly 14-35 and a couple of Canon FD lenses: http://vimeo.com/30501667

The other constant aperture 4/3 option is a discontinued lens, the Sigma 18-50mm f2.8. You can find them periodically on eBay for a couple of hundred bucks. If you don't want to wait for one to show up at auction, you can rent one from lensrentals for $28.50 + $22 for shipping for 4 days.

For either of these lenses, you would also need a $106 Panasonic DMW-MA1 adapter (or you can rent one of those too).

Hope this is helpful,

Bill
 
EDIT:

Dude, it is NOT constant aperture, but 2,8 - 4 instead! I was 100% sure...
But still, I highly recommend that lens. 4,0 @ 60mm is not problematic at all. I was so happy with that lens, it made me believe it was constant aperture... :)
// Edit

The best lens I´ve ever had on my GH1 (back then) was the Olympus 12-60mm 2,8. I only sold it, because I needed the money and wasn´t shooting anything.
I will very likely re-buy it soon. I am just waiting for the next lineup from panasonic to evaluate.
You need the 4/3 to m4/3 adapter but on a Gh2 I believe it even auto focusses, which it didn´t on the GH1...and still it was the very best glass I had!

Crazy sharp, super wide and long enough too, NO, not constant 2,8 and most importantly: Mechanical focus ring... and today not so expensive. Read for yourself here: Link (dpreview)
 
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I also have the Tokina ATX Pro 28-70mm f2.6-2.8 in EOS mount as the "kit lens" on my 5d mark II. It is a sleeper lens that was designed by Angenieux. Great value for money.
It becomes soft at f 2.8 for stills above 50mm, but sharpens up nicely when you stop down even half a stop. Quite sharp at the wide end.
 
kostas said:
I also have the Tokina ATX Pro 28-70mm f2.6-2.8 in EOS mount as the "kit lens" on my 5d mark II. It is a sleeper lens that was designed by Angenieux. Great value for money.
It becomes soft at f 2.8 for stills above 50mm, but sharpens up nicely when you stop down even half a stop. Quite sharp at the wide end.
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I had four AT-X Pro I & Pro II's at one stage and found their quality varied wide open. Of course, you can only buy them used today so just be careful. Request sample pics if possible. In my experience, the Pro I is sharper. Too bad I broke it so had to use my Pro II ever since.
To be accurate, the lens is "based" on the optical formula of Angenieux's own 28-70. I have yet to hear anyone saying they're exactly the same. When I first researched the lens I also found this demo video comparing both lenses. Although there are some minute differences, it sealed the deal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKD98G59snA
 
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Nikon 17-55mm ( not cheap, but you get what you pay for ), Tamron 17-50mm NON-stabilized ( very cheap, and optically quite good ), or wait for the coming Panasonic 12-35mm which will likely be the best M4/3 solution available once it's here.
 
i'm also interested in these sort of lens for the GH2.

I was looking at the tokina 20-35 nikon mount and it keeps saying that it is a Nikon D mount...is this much different than the Nikon F mount?

because I can't find an adapter from Nikon D to m4/3rds.
 
I'm fairly certain all Nikon mounts are compatible with each other- I think part of their strategy was that every mount is backwards compatible.

Unless I am mistaken, the F-mount was the original that was entirely mechanical and didn't need to interface with the camera. The G-mount replaced it, was physically identical, however offered electrical control for auto aperture and auto focus. You could still mount an F lens on a G mount, however you would lose the automatic controls of the camera body.

And vice versa- using a G-lens on an F-mount usually means you can't adjust the aperture since it is electronically controlled. I'm not familiar with the D mount, but I think it is the new pro-series that offers both full-auto and full-manual (aperture ring physically exists on the lens for manual operation, but can also be controlled internally by a compatible camera body). Sort of a merging of old and new.

This is ideal for those of us who are using adapters because we get the benefits of the newer general of lenses made for cropped sensors (wide fast zooms are a recent thing), with the control usually only granted by the vintage.

Long story short, unless I'm totally mistaken here, I think any Nikon adapter will work.
 
brunerww said:

The other constant aperture 4/3 option is a discontinued lens, the Sigma 18-50mm f2.8. You can find them periodically on eBay for a couple of hundred bucks. If you don't want to wait for one to show up at auction, you can rent one from lensrentals for $28.50 + $22 for shipping for 4 days.

For either of these lenses, you would also need a $106 Panasonic DMW-MA1 adapter (or you can rent one of those too).

Hope this is helpful,

Bill
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Thanks Bill, looks like a fantastic lens!

Thanks everyone else for your suggestions if there's any other lenses to suggest around the 18-50 f2.8 range I'd love to hear!
 
M. Gilden said:
Long story short, unless I'm totally mistaken here, I think any Nikon adapter will work.
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With the exception of the very oldest (pre 1977-1979) lenses, referred to as pre-AI. They have a protrusion that will damage AI and later (1977 and later) F mounts.
 
so maybe im misunderstanding, i know next to nothing about nikon, but do almost all their lenses have a manual aperture ring? and how do you find the ones that do? i would love something in the 17-50 f2.8 range, with an aperture ring. ive searched on end and cant find a lens like that with the ring.
 
Ben Totman said:
so maybe im misunderstanding, i know next to nothing about nikon, but do almost all their lenses have a manual aperture ring? and how do you find the ones that do? i would love something in the 17-50 f2.8 range, with an aperture ring. ive searched on end and cant find a lens like that with the ring.
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The older F-mount manual lenses have a ring. The newer G-mount ones do not (controlled by an internal lever). However, the right adapter will let you adjust that lever manually to set the aperture (however there are no markings to indicate what F-stop you are actually at, so you'll have to eyeball it).
There are newer lenses that support both electronic AND manual ring aperture (I think they are called D lenses?), but those are usually the more expensive "pro" options.

Meanwhile, I like that inexpensive Sigma option. I've been looking for a G-mount Tamron 17-50 2.8, since I particularly like how sharp that lens is. But if this sigma covers approximatly the same range and speed for less, I'd definitely consider it. Has anyone compared these two side by side? Is the Sigma as sharp (or at least same ballpark)?
 
No Nikon 17-50mm f2.8 zooms with built-in manual aperture ring, but you can buy a Nikon G mount adapter that lets you manually control the aperture on the new Nikon lenses that do not have a manual aperture ring.
 
Lee Saxon said:
With the exception of the very oldest (pre 1977-1979) lenses, referred to as pre-AI. They have a protrusion that will damage AI and later (1977 and later) F mounts.
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Which doesn't affect the adapters (which is what we're talking about), since metering is not used at all. The safest way to use any pre-AI Nikon lens, is to mount it on a non-Nikon DSLR.
 
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