Olympus 12mm f/2.0 vs Tokina 11-16mm which would you buy?

These chaps at SLR Magic are saying something about import duty. Did anyone have to pay that and how much?
 
The Hyperprime goes into hyperfocal pretty fast so just as I used to do with the Tokina 11-16 I find a nice focus setting that works for most of the shots. The overhead shot was made with my multijib.

Yeah, that's how I'm using my Oly 11-22. One nice thing with the Oly on the AF100 is that it actually gives an approximate distance. I just set it to where I know the depth of field and stay inside that. It gets pretty heavy on a blackbird with the AF-100. I was surprised how close you were able to get and still maintain focus, as you say, the lens goes into hyperfocal pretty fast.
 
STEADICAM/JIB SHOTS
I'm putting the Olympus on the AF100 with a blackbird, that's why the autofocus will be useful for me.
Autofocus-Face-recognition works almost telepathically according to a thread in the GH2 section.

I wonder how that AF would work on the AF-100. That's the crux of it for me. That and the character of that Hyperprime. The Olympus 12 is beautiful, no doubt and I agree that f2 is fine. The Hyperprime flares below there and vignettes a bunch.

I would love to use the blackbird with the GH2. I got it hoping to use it as a bcam. I think the video looks great but I can't get it to match the AF100... yet. I've done a few tests already using settings suggested by Barry and mcbob but I can't get it to match, which is probably more a testament to my post skills than anything else. I used the AF100 with the blackbird today with an 11 -22 Oly with a Sennheiser ME 66 on it and it was maxed out and so was I. My arm was ready to fall off.
 
I wonder how that AF would work on the AF-100. That's the crux of it for me. That and the character of that Hyperprime. The Olympus 12 is beautiful, no doubt and I agree that f2 is fine. The Hyperprime flares below there and vignettes a bunch.

I would love to use the blackbird with the GH2. I got it hoping to use it as a bcam. I think the video looks great but I can't get it to match the AF100... yet. I've done a few tests already using settings suggested by Barry and mcbob but I can't get it to match, which is probably more a testament to my post skills than anything else. I used the AF100 with the blackbird today with an 11 -22 Oly with a Sennheiser ME 66 on it and it was maxed out and so was I. My arm was ready to fall off.
Do you use a quick release bracket for your blackbird? As for matching, here's what I'm going to do, hope it helps: (definitely use one of the hacks, 44mb or 176mb) use my GH2 for my moving night shots and external shots in LA or London where I don't have permits - I'm only doing personal projects. Now if I need to get moving shots indoors, hell, I'll use the AF100 for short intervals to save the arm or rent the Merlin arm and vest for (£45 or $50), but if I do have to use the GH2, I won't intercut shots. If I'm forced to intercut shots which I can't see happening, I'll put it through color - it's not going to match from the camera - Barry said so. If It's a huge project (my feature) I'll have professional colorists match it. And this feature - involves a party in present and flashback, and interrogation, thus I could get away with pretending the differences are artistic choices. Otherwise on a wedding shoot? I wouldn't mix the two cameras, too much work. I'd shoot with two GH2s.

Oh, by the way, the chap who reviewed it on B&H said AF worked rather well on the AF100.



B&H REVIEWER:

I purchased this lens to be used on my Af100. I was tired of using adaptors with mixed results. This is a nice looking lens though when mounted on the AF100 it looks tiny and silly. If your EGO is easily affected by the size of your lens, don't get this!


Auto focus works well with the Af100, especially when using the focus selection square on the Af100. Aperture switches smoothly and quickly via the iris wheel.The manual "switch" on the lens, which reminds me of the way many Tamron lenses switch to manual focus,causes issues with the Af100. In order to manual focus you need to switch the camera to manual AF. Just switching the lens doesn't work, it causing this un-smooth motion when pulling focus. Smoothest manual focus is had when the camera is set to manual and the lens to Auto focus.
With such a high price and rave reviews I expected superior sharpness. It is sharp but it can't match my Tokina 11-16mm on the Af100. I also own the Olympus 45mm 1.8 and the Nokton 25mm. These two lenses are razor sharp and that is what I expected from the 12mm.


three stars because of the high price and that it isn't as stellar of a performer.
 
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Do you use a quick release bracket for your blackbird? As for matching, here's what I'm going to do, hope it helps: (definitely use of of the hacks, 44mb or 176mb) use my GH2 for my moving night shots and external shots in LA or London where I don't have permits - I'm only doing personal projects. Now if I need to get moving shots indoors, hell, I'll use the AF100 for short intervals to save the arm or rent the Merlin arm and vest for (£45 or $50), but if I do have to use the GH2, I won't intercut shots. If I'm forced to intercut shots which I can't see happening, I'll put it through color - it's not going to match from the camera - Barry said so. If It's a huge project (my feature) I'll have professional colorists match it. And this feature - involves a party in present and flashback, and interrogation, thus I could get away with pretending the differences are artistic choices. Otherwise on a wedding shoot? I wouldn't mix the two cameras, too much work. I'd shoot with two GH2s.

Oh, by the way, the chap who reviewed it on B&H said AF worked rather well on the AF100.

No, I currently don't use the quick release, if you mean the one for tripods. I just swap out the plate as I have rods on my tripod rig already.

Yeah, that makes sense. I was hoping to intercut them. That may not happen. I've tried and I can't get them to go together. I think your strategy is a good one. Thanks for the heads up on the AF.
 
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Yeah, that makes sense. I was hoping to intercut them. That may not happen. I've tried and I can't get them to go together. I think your strategy is a good one. Thanks for the heads up on the AF.
Very welcome. I've posted the B&H review for your convenience. If your project is super important, pay a professional colorist using your program to match twenty seconds each and see if he/she'll let you copy the grades. You could use and reuse them. Or have them come over to your station match the two on your system and copy those grades forever - make it a template in FCP Color. Or take a laptop to the colorist, whatever works man. Creatively solve the problem.
 
Yeah, that makes sense. I was hoping to intercut them. That may not happen. I've tried and I can't get them to go together. I think your strategy is a good one. Thanks for the heads up on the AF.
Did you use a quick release bracket on the blackbird? I haven't bought mine yet, I had an X10 glidecam before and the quick-release made balancing a 2-minute ordeal.
 
If you mean the quick release for the tripod, no. I don't have that. I just swap out the plate. The Blackbird has pretty clear marking so if you remember where you set it up, it sets up really fast. Plus it has these handy adjustment knobs and level indicators to fine tune it. Once you do it once it only takes a couple of minutes to get it going. I really like it.

Yeah, I use Premiere Pro now. I think your suggestion is a good one, to get a pro colorist to match them up. In the meantime I'll keep trying. I haven't given up yet!
 
The price just dropped to $704 on B&H. Like I said, I'll pull the trigger when it gets to $685 or thereabouts.
I wonder how many people would buy the Olympus if it was $650. I think there'd be a stampede, possibly.
 
Amazon is trying to keep up at $715, those two are just going back and forth. B&H was $718, Amazon went $715, now B&H is $704 I wonder what Amazon's response will be.
I think I'll pull the trigger shortly.
 
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