Oly 17mm f2.8 pancake - reasonably fast/wide prime?

R

RandyQ

Well-known member
Like many folks, I'm looking for a reasonably fast/wide prime.

Is anyone using the Oly 17mm f2.8 for shooting video? Hows it doing?

I didn't think the reviewers at DPReview were that enthusiastic about the lens, but I think the folks who will be using this for shooting VIDEO may have a different opinion.
 
Trust me,

just shell out the extra 70 bucks for the 20mm 1.7 (I've seen it as low as $365.00

1. Extra Stop
2. First party lens meant for the GH1
3. It's sharp as any canon L lens
 
Every little bit counts on the wide end with these cameras. I could see having both lenses. I'm curious about this too - I don't have the kit lens so I am looking for something wide and reasonably fast.

At first I was thinking of getting the Canon FD 17mm f/4, but I almost don't think it would be worth it since this Olympus lens is quite inexpensive...a stop faster, has AF, etc., those are a lot of pluses, and you can pick up the Olympus lens used for a song right now from folks who aren't using them on their Olympus m4/3 cams.

The 20mm f1.7 has it's place, no question about that, but a 20mm and a 17mm are pretty different, and there aren't just a whole lot of 17mm 2.8s out there...even fewer 20mm 1.7s. I'm really happy that both exist and as lenses go, very affordable.

I should say that I'm also going to be using at least one of them with the Panny anamorphic adapter, and so I don't think I'll be able to use the 20mm @1.7 anyways, as it seems the anamorphics want things stopped down to f2-f2.8 as a minimum...although 20mm is pretty wide...maybe it would work, maybe I'll be the first to test it! But even then video at f1.7 doesn't give you much room for error. I wonder how well AF will work with the anamorphic adapter. Hmmm....

I'd also like to see some 17mm 2.8 video if anyone has it!
 
I believe that Panasonic is going to introduce a 14mm f2.8 pancake in the first quarter of 2010. So there's some food for thought, as well.
 
From just about every review I've seen, the Panasonic focuses faster than the Olympus. You will find a lot of Olympus EP1 owners on DP Review and Amazon raving about the 20mm, f/1.7 lens.
 
Psynema said:
just shell out the extra 70 bucks for the 20mm 1.7 (I've seen it as low as $365.00
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I'm going to get this for sure - I think its a no-brainer to have this in your kit.

But its more like a normal lens than a wide, hence my question on the 17mm Oly. Its not that fast - only f2.8, which means there are other alternatives. My personal choice is the Oly 12-60 (thats 12mm at f2.8) but the price difference vs. 17mm pancake is quite a big jump, hence my question.
 
As the wide angle looks to be the holy grail for the GH1, I jumped in and put to use some of my wide angle adapters: A Raynox x0.72 and a Fotodiox O.5.
If you use the camera only for the video, you can get away with these adaptors.
Tested a FD prime (24mm f2, and a Nikon 17-36mm f2.8 with the adaptor using a ISO 12233 chart. The camera in video mode doesn't go much beyond 700 lines per picture height anyway, as seen on a 50" Panasonic plasma TV.
The lenses with the adaptors seem to resolve only 1300 lines/picture height but that can only be seen in the stills, not on the video. There is some CA towards the corners but not so visible in the video mode.
I used this combo with other lenses recently on video clip (shot in 720p 50fps) and could not pick the difference on the screen: in real life we don't shoot ISO charts.
 
Psynema said:
Where does this belief come from?

make believe or did you hear birdies?

http://lensbuyersguide.com/en/lens/show/Panasonic/Lumix_G_14mm_f2.8
Click to expand...

I know for a fact that the lens is in the Panasonic roadmap for 2010. Rumor around the 'tubes has it that Panny's new lenses (including the 14mm f2.8 pancake) will come out in February, but that's not confirmed. Even still, I "believe" that we'll see those lenses in the first quarter of '10.

http://43rumors.com/ft5-panasonic-lens-roadmap/
 
pix2pixels said:
in real life we don't shoot ISO charts.
Click to expand...

Indeed, no matter how well I can shoot an ISO chart, it's rare that I can find anyone who considers it a fine art form.

However, I am really wary of wide angle attachments for lenses - I've never been happy with them, however, if you have some footage you could post shot with them, I'd love to see it.

Wides are indeed the holy grail when it comes to the GH1, and with good reason.

In preparation for an upcoming feature that I'm shooting, I've been watching a lot of hollywood movies, and from looking at them, it seems obvious that wides are used *a lot* - even on rather tight shots of say, 2 people talking, where you *could* use a mid-tele lens if you wanted to. Instead it looks like they are using wide lenses and getting in close.

I can only assume that the reason for this is so they can use wider apertures and still have plenty of DOF to work with, the actors entire head (front to back) is in focus, before the background starts blurring...as opposed to having just the face in focus and everything falling off quickly after that like you see when you shoot someone with a 50mm @F2.

I could be wrong on this but the more I watch Hollywood films, the more it seems like lots of them are using really wide lenses more often than not, even on shots that you wouldn't *think* are that wide. I'm also noticing that seriously shallow DOF is not nearly as prevalent in films as one might think - it depends on the genre, but in general they are much, much less used than I had originally thought, with a number of these films only having 2-3 shots (for the whole movie) with really shallow DOF - I'm really starting to feel that the "hollywood" look has more to do with wides than it does shallow DOF. In mainstream films I'm just not seeing a whole lot of really-shallow DOF use.
 
thisisapocalypse said:
Instead it looks like they are using wide lenses and getting in close. <snip> I'm really starting to feel that the "hollywood" look has more to do with wides than it does shallow DOF.
Click to expand...

I myself use wides practically all the time, and my biggest influence was the movie Schindler's List, where Janusz Kaminsky shot the ghetto riot scene with wide lenses, but very, very close to the action. The effect was so powerful, that since then I have been trying to get "inside" the action of my footage ever since.

This scene also reminded me of a photojournalist cameraman who taught me that shooting wide and sticking your cam inside was the way to shoot a riot. This fellow was a legend who said that he sometimes uses his bolex to block a truncheon being swung at him (he eventually got shot doing this, but thats another story).

Anyway, so much for that, and yes this is why I've been looking for the right wide lens for the GH1, AND why I am wondering if the Oly 17mm pancake will do it.

BTW, the SIZE of the pancake lens is an attractive feature, too - as i said I like to shoot wide and get "inside" the action, and being so small makes it much easier to do that.
 
I am also looking for a wide fast prime, any other suggestions guys?

I wish the new 14mm 2.8 was a bit faster.
 
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