Some more newb lens questions!

vcassel

vcassel

Veteran
First off, I'm loving what I'm seeing after :35 in this clip. It says he's using a Nikkor 50mm lens. The only Nikkor lenses I've read about are the AI ones. Is the lens this guy using in some series, or is it just a general use Nikkor 50mm lens?

Reading around on anamorphic lenses has been a bit confusing. I've gathered that the Lomo square fronts need to be mounted to Nikon (or was it Nikkor?) lenses. Is that true? Can you bypass this by using a PL mount like the one from Hot Rod Cameras?

Still a bit confused about the micro 4/3s thing. A few people here have said with great clarity that a 50mm lens adapted to the GH1 is still a 50mm lens with the same perspective and focal depth, just with a 2x crop. I believe this. If I want a 50mm I'll use a 50mm. I have a very convincing friend who's insisting that if I want a 50mm lens adapted on a GH1, I'll have to use a 24mm lens. I hate to keep bringing this question up, but I'm about to start spending a lot of money on lenses and I want to make sure I get this right.

Thanks again guys!
 
"Nikkor" is just pretty much the name of Nikon lenses (the exception is the series E, which don't have the "Nikkor" designation). Nikon has made several 50mm lenses, AI, AI-S, AF, AF-S, Series E, non-AI, with max aperture values from f/1.2 to f/2. Basically any of them are going to give a similar look on a GH1, since they are all optically similar. The main differences are the maximum aperture (shallow depth of filed), and the coatings (makes a difference with flare and such when shooting into bright light).
Also, the feel of the focus is a factor. Of course any lens that is not made for the m4/3 or 4/3 system is going to be manual focus on the GH1, so for filmmaking work you often want a nice, smooth, long throw on the focus ring (and a big ring). Often the newer AF lenses have a tiny plasticky focus ring (since they were designed for autofocus), so the older AI, AI-S, and non-AI Nikkor lenses are more desirable because they are made for manual focus and have a nice feel to the focus rings.

One thing you have to watch for when picking Nikon lenses for GH1 use is that to use the Nikon "G" lenses, you have to have a special GH1-Nikon adapter. Other than that, the operation of any of the Nikon lenses on the GH1 is going to be pretty much the same.

I suggest looking at http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/nikortek.htm or a similar site for more info on Nikon lenses.


I don't have any experience with anamorphic adapters so I'll let somebody else take that one.


A 50mm lens on the GH1 gives the same field of view as a 100mm lens on a 35mm still camera (2X crop), but the same perspective as a 50mm lens on a 35mm still camera. But the depth of field is a little bit greater/deeper/more on the GH1 because of the smaller sensor size.

A 24mm lens on the GH1 will give the same field of view as a 48mm lens on a 35mm still camera, but the perspective will be the same as a 24mm on the same 35mm still camera. The DOF will also be a little greater on the GH1.

DOF changes much much more with distance and focal length than it does with sensor size, but sensor size does have an effect.
DOF is a very confusing concept, especially when you bring in the appropriately named "Circle of Confusion" and has to do with a lot of stuff, including sensor size, subject distance, viewing size/distance, focal length and who knows what else. There's tons of stuff on the net about it but I suggest that you ignore all of it and get a 50mm Nikkor and start shooting with it :-D

The Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AI or AI-S is going to give you the best price/performance ratio, but any of them are going to be great - you really can hardly mess up getting any 50mm lens of any brand, but especially the Nikons.
 
lvlinux said:
"Nikkor" is just pretty much the name of Nikon lenses (the exception is the series E, which don't have the "Nikkor" designation). Nikon has made several 50mm lenses, AI, AI-S, AF, AF-S, Series E, non-AI, with max aperture values from f/1.2 to f/2. Basically any of them are going to give a similar look on a GH1, since they are all optically similar. The main differences are the maximum aperture (shallow depth of filed), and the coatings (makes a difference with flare and such when shooting into bright light).
Also, the feel of the focus is a factor. Of course any lens that is not made for the m4/3 or 4/3 system is going to be manual focus on the GH1, so for filmmaking work you often want a nice, smooth, long throw on the focus ring (and a big ring). Often the newer AF lenses have a tiny plasticky focus ring (since they were designed for autofocus), so the older AI, AI-S, and non-AI Nikkor lenses are more desirable because they are made for manual focus and have a nice feel to the focus rings.

One thing you have to watch for when picking Nikon lenses for GH1 use is that to use the Nikon "G" lenses, you have to have a special GH1-Nikon adapter. Other than that, the operation of any of the Nikon lenses on the GH1 is going to be pretty much the same.

I suggest looking at http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/nikortek.htm or a similar site for more info on Nikon lenses.


I don't have any experience with anamorphic adapters so I'll let somebody else take that one.


A 50mm lens on the GH1 gives the same field of view as a 100mm lens on a 35mm still camera (2X crop), but the same perspective as a 50mm lens on a 35mm still camera. But the depth of field is a little bit greater/deeper/more on the GH1 because of the smaller sensor size.

A 24mm lens on the GH1 will give the same field of view as a 48mm lens on a 35mm still camera, but the perspective will be the same as a 24mm on the same 35mm still camera. The DOF will also be a little greater on the GH1.

DOF changes much much more with distance and focal length than it does with sensor size, but sensor size does have an effect.
DOF is a very confusing concept, especially when you bring in the appropriately named "Circle of Confusion" and has to do with a lot of stuff, including sensor size, subject distance, viewing size/distance, focal length and who knows what else. There's tons of stuff on the net about it but I suggest that you ignore all of it and get a 50mm Nikkor and start shooting with it :-D

The Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AI or AI-S is going to give you the best price/performance ratio, but any of them are going to be great - you really can hardly mess up getting any 50mm lens of any brand, but especially the Nikons.
Click to expand...

Thanks man! I'm still glad I got the GH1 because the performace to price ratio seems unbeatable, but sometimes I feel maybe I shouldn't be starting with a micro 4/3s because a lot of the info out there has been pretty confusing!
 
The performance/price ratio of the GH1 _IS_ absolutely unbeatable. Yes a lot of this stuff is confusing - just look up DOF and you will find tons of equations and all kinds of stuff that is very hard to understand.

But it's equally hard with 35mm or 6x7 or any other format - it's just that we're more used to seeing one thing or another so everybody wants to compare "this vs. that".

Anyway good luck and God bless and happy shooting!
 
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On the square front question... I don't think you can adapt Lomo square fronts to Nikon mount (hopefully someone will figure that out). They come in Oct-19 (or Oct-18) mount, and can be modded to PL mount. You can buy adapters for the GH-1 for all three of those mounts.
 
You guys know what the Zeiss compact primes need in order to be adapted to the GH1. Is that just a PL adapter?
 
A couple of more for you beautiful geniuses:

1) If I adapted a 16mm or 18mm lens to the GH1 to get near a 35mm, would the image still suffer from the distorted perspective of the fisheye? If so, how do you guys go about getting wide angles with out weird look?

2) The micro 4/3s lenses such as the 20mm pancake, do you still multiply these lenses by two in order to understand the focal length on the GH1? Or are they measured as they would truly look?
 
vcassel said:
A couple of more for you beautiful geniuses:

1) If I adapted a 16mm or 18mm lens to the GH1 to get near a 35mm, would the image still suffer from the distorted perspective of the fisheye? If so, how do you guys go about getting wide angles with out weird look?

2) The micro 4/3s lenses such as the 20mm pancake, do you still multiply these lenses by two in order to understand the focal length on the GH1? Or are they measured as they would truly look?
Click to expand...

1) the image would still have the origional lenses DOF and wouldn't suffer any further optical distortion. A 17mm lens is effectively a 34mm lens on the GH1 because of the 2x sensor (smaller sensor uses less of the image projected from the lens).

2) The 20mm panasonic lens is effectively a 40mm lens on the GH1 (but with a 20mm f1.7 dof).

P.S. you can adapt anamorphic lenses as well as medium format lenses to the 4/3 format through an adapter (since the GH1 has the same properties as a rangefinder camera it doesn't matter what distance the lenses focus to so you can use any mount ie... MD, FD, etc...)

Hope this helps.-Adam
 
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Thanks, HD! Helps a lot.

One more - I'm looking into the Leica R series primes. So all stills primes need to be declicked in order to optimize them for video work? Do you recommend I pay the money to send them out and get them declicked and geared?
 
If they clear the sensor on the backend and you want to change the fstop while shooting without having the click then yes... None of my lenses have been declicked as I don't use onboard camera audio and I hardly ever change fstop during a take... Just not my style.
 
Also your question about suffering fisheye distortion is tricky on second read. If the lens in question is a fisheye then it would have some distortion at the corners of the image (as it would be a center crop of the full frame image) but because the sensor is only using the center of the projected image (assuming of course that the fisheye is not a digital lens but rather a full frame lens) it wouldn't be as pronounced.
 
Aren't all extreme wide angle lenses considered 'fisheye' though? Don't they all suffer that distortion if you want to use a wide (17mm to 35mm on the GH1)?
 
vcassel said:
Aren't all extreme wide angle lenses considered 'fisheye' though? Don't they all suffer that distortion if you want to use a wide (17mm to 35mm on the GH1)?
Click to expand...

All extreme wide angles are not considered fisheye. Not all lenses exibit barrel distortion, especially on a 2x crop camera.
 
I'd say that for the money your about to drop on those lenses it would be worth it to rent some lenses and test out where you like to shoot first. Leica glass is sexy, but $$$$$... Check out :

www.lensrentals.com

They've got a nice assortment of stuff that you could try out and see what focal lengths work for you.-Adam
 
You're probably right, thanks! A lot of people also say to get a zoom lens first in order to get used to the focal lengths I'll end up choosing to use the most.
 
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