SLR Magic and Rokinon primes versus Panasonics: a bit soft?

B

Brian Siano

New member
I'm going over footage for a project. My main camera was my GH4, using Vlog, and using mostly an SLR Magic 12mm cine prime and a Rokinon 25mm cine prime for the focus-pulling capabilities. My partner used his GX7 with Panasonic autofocus lenses.

Most of the time, we used the same settings for ISO and white balance, but my stuff looks a lot softer than his. His GX7 footage is vivid, sharply focused, and smooth. Mine is a bit dull, a bit soft, and a bit noisy. (Okay, a lot of this was in low-light conditions, so we had our apertures wide open lots of the time.)

But has this been anyone else's experience? That the GH4 or manual-focus lenses are softer than cheaper cameras and lenses?
 
I have a 7.5mm Rokinon, 12mm Samyang and the Olympus 17mm. They are definitely softer than my 25, 42.5 and 100-300 Panasonics. I attribute it to in cam sharpening with the native lenses. All my off brand or vintage Olympus OM lenses have about the same slightly softer look. It's similar to turning sharpening and contrast down to -5 with the native lenses.

As for noise, it appears from most peoples testing that the GX7 has a different sensor and about a 1/2 stop better low light capability.

Just turn down the sharpening, contrast and saturation with the GX7 and they should work well together.

Cheers,
Pete
 
I would suspect it's because you used VLOG. The GX7 likely added internal sharpening and did more noise reduction on the footage. If you processed your VLOG footage to a similar level, it may have delivered a look more comparable to what the GX7 did.

Of course, the ideal way to tell would be for you two to swap lenses. If the GH4 became the sharper, more vivid camera, then yes you could attribute it to the lens. But if the situation remains, then it's all about how you have to process the VLOG footage.
 
I have both a Rokinon 35mm cinema (non-DS version, EF mount with a basic non-optical adapter) and the Panasonic 12-35 2.8. The Panasonic is definitely sharper. I typically shoot using the 'natural' preset with slight tweaks on my GH4 with a Shogun recorder.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top