GH2 Some questions

E

edruga

Member
I've been researching cameras (mainly DSLR's) the past couple weeks and the Panasonic GH2 caught my attention. I was originally going to go Nikon (my dad owns a Nikon D300 with a bunch of lenses), but none of Nikon's cameras convinced me. I'd use it for mainly video and the Nikon's have restricted frame rates and video settings in general.

I was wondering what you guys think I should do? I am not made of money and would prefer to go the bang-for-your-buck route. I have 2 options when buying the camera: 1) Body only (about $1000) or 2) Body w/ the 14-140mm kit lens ($1600). I was thinking about just buying the body and getting the 20mm f1.7 pancake. What do you guys think? 14-140mm kit lens for $600, or the pancake for $500?

Secondly, my dad has some pretty expensive Nikon lenses. I read that the Panasonic Lumix's are great when it comes to lens adapters. I don't know how to find out whether or not my dads' lenses will work on the GH2. I don't care about auto focus or any other similar gimmick. These are my dads' lenses:

AF VR-NIKKOR 80-400mm 1:4.5-5.6D
AF-S VR-NIKKOR 70-200mm 1:2.8G
AF-S NIKKOR 16-85mm 1:3.5-5.6G ED
TOKINA SD 11-16 F2.8 (IF) DX
SIGMA 150mm 1:2.8 APO MACRO DG HSM
AF-S NIKKOR 35mm 1:1:8G

I was wondering if you guys could tell me if any of these lenses would work on the GH2 with an adapter. I tried researching this multiple times, however I guess I was looking in the wrong places or I'm just too big of a noob.

I would greatly appreciate any kind of help.

Edward
 
Well, the problem with the DX lenses is that none of them have manual aperture rings, which makes them harder to use with an adapter. There are 2 kinds of m4/3 adapters, those with and without aperture control. On older Nikon lenses with manual aperture rings (my favorite kind because I also shoot a lot of timelapse and nothing beats a manual aperture ring) you can use the simpler and cheaper adapter (I use a Rainbow Imaging adapter that was $20 on Amazon).

With those lenses (I'm assuming their DX type lenses) you'll need the more expensive adapter. They're harder to find and can cost $150-$200 for a good one. My understanding is that they have a way to manually close the aperture, although I don't believe there are any hard stops like you get with a lens that already has an aperture ring. So ultimately you won't really know what f-stop you're at (although that may not matter). Once you've adjusted the aperture, you then tighten a little thumb screw to hold it in place.

So it'll work with those lenses (probably) but not as easily as older lenses with manual aperture rings.

Having said that, the GH2 is a great camera. The 14-140 is an all around really good lens, but I'm actually thinking the 20mm might be the best option. It all depends what you're going to be shooting. If you're planning on shooting scripts, then the 20mm pancake will serve you well as a prime. It's fast and the equivalent to 40mm on a 35mm camera. Then again, for $100 more you can get the excellent Nikkor 20mm, which does have a manual aperture ring.

I also have the 7-14mm which I absolutely love for stills and timelapse work, but that's a harder one to justify for video.

Cheers!
 
Thanks for the response keylight. I looked at the camera in-person recently. Definitely a difficult decision for me to pick between the 14 - 140mm kit or 20mm pancake.
 
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