GH2 Panny 25mm/1.4 any good for video? Worth moving to from 20mm?

peripatew

Well-known member
I've got the 20mm, it was my first good lens on MFT. It's great for photos, if not a little slow with autofocus. I've heard the 25mm is faster at focusing, and comparable in terms of optical quality.

BUT how is the focusing? I normally shoot video with Canon FD Primes. Love my 24mm/2 35mm/2 and 50mm/1.4. But, there are times when I'd like to just have one lens on, that I can use for quick pics and decent manual focus.

Is it any better than the 20mm? Thoughts?
 
I just upgraded from the 20mm f/1.7 to the 25mm f/1.4 and I think it's worth it. Specifically, I was looking to improve the continuous autofocus speed and noise. The image quality and color rendition is slightly better, though not by huge bounds. It is an expensive lens though, for what you get.
 
I've got the 20mm, it was my first good lens on MFT. It's great for photos, if not a little slow with autofocus. I've heard the 25mm is faster at focusing, and comparable in terms of optical quality.

BUT how is the focusing? I normally shoot video with Canon FD Primes. Love my 24mm/2 35mm/2 and 50mm/1.4. But, there are times when I'd like to just have one lens on, that I can use for quick pics and decent manual focus.

Is it any better than the 20mm? Thoughts?
I am not a pro, nor do I make money from filming; I am simply a grandfather doing video of my family. I am so pleased with this lens that I had to post. I recently had the entire extended family together, 15 of us, and we do drink. In spite of this, the video clips I took were absolutely awesome (I have Ralph's SANITY hacked in my GH2, and was taking 720p which ended up around 41Mbps). There is one clip where I am slowly panning and some of my grands where close and some where farther. The lens focused very fast and without any perceptible noise. I admit there was a lot of chatter from the family while doing this, so perhaps even the 20 would not have recorded much sound. However, I have never been pleased with the 20 under these types of recordings. I am incredibly pleased with this lens, and wanted to share this experience with you... Al
 
I also would like to know the 20mm w/V1.1 firmware vs. the 25mm autofocus speed - comparable?
 
It focuses faster than the 20 and (so far) I've never accidentally gotten my fingertips in the shot like I have with the pancake. Slightly less compact, though.

I prefer the look of the 25/1.4 overall, but then that's all largely subjective.
 
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