Just got our first shipment of the new Panasonic H-X015 15mm F1.7 Auto Focus lens:
Panasonic H-X015K 15mm F1.7 Auto Focus Lens $599.99
Panasonic H-X015K 15mm F1.7 Auto Focus Lens $599.99
GH4 New Panasonic 15mm F1.7 H-X015K Lens Has Started Shipping: Texas Media Systems
- Thread starter delete
- Start date
I love than Panny is putting aperture rings on their new lenses. But...why is Panasonic building their lenses backwards? The de facto standard is for the aperture ring to go nearest the lens mount, rotating counter-clockwise to open. The focus ring goes farthest from the lens mount. (And for zooms, they always go in the middle.)
It's like Panny put the mount on the wrong side of the barrel with this and the new 45mm.
I've seen SLR Magic and Voightlander doing the same. It's rather frustrating trying to focus and grabbing the aperture ring, or when muscle memory forces the counter-clockwise rotation to open up the iris, and with these backwards lenses we get a bit of darkening (or brightening) before remembering to rotate opposite the normal direction.
It's like Panny put the mount on the wrong side of the barrel with this and the new 45mm.
I've seen SLR Magic and Voightlander doing the same. It's rather frustrating trying to focus and grabbing the aperture ring, or when muscle memory forces the counter-clockwise rotation to open up the iris, and with these backwards lenses we get a bit of darkening (or brightening) before remembering to rotate opposite the normal direction.
It's an interesting choice, but relatively normal for me as I come from Olympus OM cams. All the primes in the OM lineup except the 350mm f/2.8 ED have their aperture rings in front of the focus ring. All their zooms have the aperture ring closest to the cam like canon and Nikon.
This is the Leica style. Go take a look at their lenses. Aperture ring is at the front, ahead of the focusing ring.
Johnny Utah
Member
Not all the time, sometimes the aperture is behind the focus ring
Camerapilot
Active member
Zeiss super speeds are like that too. Iris in front of focus...
Thomas Smet
Veteran
Very tempted to get this lens. I was recently on a shoot getting shots in large crowds of people tightly packed. 25mm was just too tight and tough to keep manually focusing. Ended up switching to my 14-140 to use the 14mm which was perfect for the shoot albeit slightly more noise. Now I really want a faster lens in the 14mm range area and this 15mm might be a much better option then the 14mm f2.5. Well I know it would be much better and I doubt the extra 1mm would make a huge difference for what I was shooting. Thought about going 12mm but since 14mm was wide enough for what I was shooting I don't think I need to go wider. Besides since this is a Leica I hope it will be a good match for my 25mm f1.4.
Now I just need to convince my wife to let me get it. We are going back to South Africa in December to see her family. Typically I like to buy longer lenses for those trips but maybe I can squeeze this lens into my purchases for this trip.
Hmmm upgrade my GH3 to a GH4 or buy this lens and a couple of longer lens options? Tough choices.
Now I just need to convince my wife to let me get it. We are going back to South Africa in December to see her family. Typically I like to buy longer lenses for those trips but maybe I can squeeze this lens into my purchases for this trip.
Hmmm upgrade my GH3 to a GH4 or buy this lens and a couple of longer lens options? Tough choices.
stoneinapond
Veteran
Upgrade to the GH4 AND get the lens!
Just spent a couple of days with the 15mm and it really is a lovely lens. A little pricey but then it does have the Leica name. I will be posting a video up top in the next few days.
Bern Caughey
Veteran
Picked up Panasonic's 15mm f/1.7 for an upcoming commercial & am impressed.
The campaign is destined for TV but consists solely of stills shot in the Street Photography style & since the deliverable is 16x9 we'd prefer to use cameras capable of framing this aspect ratio natively. For stylistic reasons we don't want to use large dSLRs & will restrict ourselves to primes with focal length equivalents between 28mm-to-50mm on the 135 Format, so I picked up a Lumix 15mm to check out on the GH4.
Always thought the Leica branded Lumix lenses were mostly a marketing gimmick but over the last few days of camera tests I've come to realize there is something more to the look of the 15mm & 25mm Summilux(s). Perhaps it's just the micro-contrast but they seem to pop more than comparable m4/3 primes, especially wide-open.
The campaign is destined for TV but consists solely of stills shot in the Street Photography style & since the deliverable is 16x9 we'd prefer to use cameras capable of framing this aspect ratio natively. For stylistic reasons we don't want to use large dSLRs & will restrict ourselves to primes with focal length equivalents between 28mm-to-50mm on the 135 Format, so I picked up a Lumix 15mm to check out on the GH4.
Always thought the Leica branded Lumix lenses were mostly a marketing gimmick but over the last few days of camera tests I've come to realize there is something more to the look of the 15mm & 25mm Summilux(s). Perhaps it's just the micro-contrast but they seem to pop more than comparable m4/3 primes, especially wide-open.