GH2 Re: 4/3 vs Micro 4/3

E

ectobuilder

Veteran
Re: 4/3 vs Micro 4/3

I'm a newbie for the 4/3 lens system. So here's my question: What is the difference between 4/3 and Micro 4/3?

Pertaining to the GH2/GH3, can a 4/3 Lens be mounted to the lens mount of the GH2/GH3 without an adapter?

Also, which lenses within the 4/3 and/or Micro 4/3 are equivalent in performance to the Canon L-Series?
 
ectobuilder said:
Pertaining to the GH2/GH3, can a 4/3 Lens be mounted to the lens mount of the GH2/GH3 without an adapter?
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As can be ascertained from the name alone, a 4/3 lens is going to have a larger mount than a m4/3 lens, meaning you have to use an adapter if you want to put a 4/3 lens on the micro4/3 GH2.
 
ectobuilder said:
Also, which lenses within the 4/3 and/or Micro 4/3 are equivalent in performance to the Canon L-Series?
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The 7-14/4, 12-35/2.8, & 35-100/2.8, are the LUMIX lenses I'd compare to L zooms.

Primes are a bit more tricky, & if practical I'd hold out to see what's coming to market. Currently the Olympus 12/2, Voigtlander 25/0.95, & Olympus 45/1.8, are my go to low light primes for documentary, but would jump on the LUMIX 42.5mm f/1.2 if it has Power OIS.

Much depends on what you want to do with them. The fly-by-wire manual focus control of LUMIX, & Olympus, m4/3 lenses can be maddening if your used to the linear performance of most other lenses, but they do AF well if that's important to you.

Any lens by Schneider, Zeiss, & Voigtlander, are likely to be great, & the new batch of budget cine primes is very tempting, but I want to see what apertures these perform well at. However the promise of budget Anamorphics may be too much for me to resist.

Now if someone would come out with a self contained EOS>m4/3 adapter I'd all over it too. The RRS Live Lens just doesn't turn my crank, especially with it's external battery, but that's just me, & others love it.
 
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Some legacy Four Thirds lenses focus quicker than others, nearly as fast as an MFT lens. These lenses also auto-focus on the GH1. Check out the Four Thirds lenses on this GH1 compatibility list:

http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/dsc/connect/g1.html

The most impressive Four Thirds lens I've tried is the Panasonic/Leica 25mm f1.4 L-X025 (not the micro 4/3 version). It's built like a tank and has virtually flawless Leica optics. It is also one of the very few Lumix lenses with a manual aperture ring, and auto-focuses very quickly on a GH2.

There's another fast Lumix lens with a manual aperture ring, the Leicasonic 14-50mm f2.8-3.5. Up until the new Lumix 12-35mm f2.8 MFT was released, this was the fastest auto-focus OIS zoom you could get for the GH2. It's still very useful for its wide range up to 50mm, but its auto-focus speed is pretty slow.

Another great Four Thirds lens is the Olympus 9-18mm f4-5.6 ED. The optics and controls on this lens are much better than the tiny micro 4/3 version, and the front lens barrel extends only a fraction of an inch when zoomed.

And finally, the unchallenged super-stars of the Four Thirds world are the Olympus 14-35mm f2.0 and 35-100mm f2.0. If you need that kind of speed in a zoom lens and don't mind the size and weight, nothing else comes close.
 
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Bern Caughey said:
The 7-14/4, 12-35/2.8, & 35-100/2.8, are the LUMIX lenses I'd compare to L zooms.

Primes are a bit more tricky, & if practical I'd hold out to see what's coming to market. Currently the Olympus 12/2, Voigtlander 25/0.95, & Olympus 45/1.8, are my go to low light primes for documentary, but would jump on the LUMIX 42.5mm f/1.2 if it has Power OIS.

Much depends on what you want to do with them. The fly-by-wire manual focus control of LUMIX, & Olympus, m4/3 lenses can be maddening if your used to the linear performance of most other lenses, but they do AF well if that's important to you.

Any lens by Schneider, Zeiss, & Voigtlander, are likely to be great, & the new batch of budget cine primes is very tempting, but I want to see what apertures these perform well at. However the promise of budget Anamorphics may be too much for me to resist.

Now if someone would come out with a self contained EOS>m4/3 adapter I'd all over it too. The RRS Live Lens just doesn't turn my crank, especially with it's external battery, but that's just me, & others love it.
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What exactly is fly by wire manual focus? I have a 14mm 2.5 prime lens and I honestly don;t even know how to manual focus as I feel like the focus ring does nothing.....
 
lpowell said:
Check out the Four Thirds lenses on this GH1 compatibility list:
Click to expand...

According to that list, not a single one of the 4/3 lenses will AFC on a m4/3 camera. I mean, who really cares if it will auto focus once when you push a button before you actually start recording. That's easy enough to do manually. When you need auto-focus, you need it done continually as you roll.
 
Jim Simon said:
According to that list, not a single one of the 4/3 lenses will AFC on a m4/3 camera.
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That's right, only Micro 4/3 lenses support continuous AFC on Lumix G-series cameras. Many of use auto-focus solely in AFS mode and have only rarely experimented with AFC.
 
Jim Simon said:
Can you elaborate?
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"Rokinon’s Intro to Cinema Lenses" by Matthew Duclos

http://matthewduclos.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/rokinons-intro-to-cinema-lenses/

Meanwhile SLR Magic has 12/1.6, & 50/0.95, Cine primes, & is developing a 35/1.4. And on another forum they're asking for feedback on anamorphics.

Photos of the 12/1.6 Cine are hard to come by, but luckily Kholi was kind enough to post one of his.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...U-S-!!&p=1986203718&viewfull=1#post1986203718

And DPReview's showing the 35/1.4 Cine.

http://4.static.img-dpreview.com/files/news/3393720521/SLR3514_2.jpg?v=1584
 
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