Oly f3.5 lens vs kit lens at f4 - worth it?

R

RandyQ

Well-known member
hi folks,
I'm doing a shoot in a factory in a week or so, and I'm concerned that light levels on the factory floor might be too dim for the GH1 kit lens. I have an Olympus 14-42 f3.5 - will the 1/3rd stop speed difference be too small to be relevant?

I currently shoot at 720P, shutter speed 1/60.

Last time I did something similar, I had to set the ISO at 1000 and above. I'm not sure if the image quality was degraded significantly, but I would like to keep the ISO below that if possible.

Another option I am considering is to shoot in 24P, and shoot at 1/30 shutter speed. Maybe that will squeeze a little more light out of the shot.

I'm considering getting another lens (most likely the Oly 14-54 f2.8 ser2), but I really like the kit lens because of its perfect integration with the GH1.
 
1000 ISO is way above my comfort zone for something I'd deliver to a client. If you have the budget, rent something faster like the Oly 14-35 f2. That way, if you don't have to shoot wide open, say around 2.8, then you will have a sharper image than shooting wide open on a 2.8 lens.
 
RandyQ said:
Another option I am considering is to shoot in 24P, and shoot at 1/30 shutter speed. Maybe that will squeeze a little more light out of the shot.
Click to expand...

You'll have different looking motion if you shoot a shutter speed different to half the frame rate (1/48 s for 24 fps). Go too slow, like 1/30, and you'll have lots of motion blur. If you must do this, use slow moving subjects and a locked off camera.

-Andrew
 
I don't like taking the GH1 above 400, maybe 640 at the most. I think Plasma's got the right idea -- rent a faster lens. f/3.5 won't make much of a difference from f/4, it's only a half-stop. But an f/2.0 like the Olympus would make a huge difference, that would mean that you could set the camera at ISO 250, versus the stock lens and ISO 1000.
 
Maybe I completely missed something along the way... How do you get the GH1 to have a 640 ISO??? Is there a way to unlock ISO that are in between???
 
Just buy some fast FD primes or something, the Olympus f2.0 lenses will be manual focus anyway.
 
It's available in the normal camera, you don't need the hack. Don't remember exactly where you do it, but IIRC you set it for still-camera mode and it just applies automatically in movie mode too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top