the new 14-42mm lens and AF lenses for steadicam in general

T

trorvik

Member
First time posting here. Bought the AF100 a few months back with the 14-140mm and 20mm lenses, and have some questions that I haven't seen answered here or elsewhere on the net.

Have anyone actually tried the new version of the kit lens 14-42mm II on the AF100? From what I can see it is not listed (at least not yet) on the compatibility chart. If anyone have tried it I wonder if it will work with continuous autofocus on the AF100? And if the autofocus works well?

I have the 14-140mm lens (version 1), and not too happy with its autofocus performance. I use it on a steadicam pilot much of the time so I am totally dependent on the AF. It works well with most stuff, but it looks like it is having big problems as soon as I get close to people to do an interview or a reporter doing a "stand-up". Then the AF just lives its own life and focuses anywhere it likes. I suspect this either has to do with peoples faces not having a lot of contrast compared to objects so the AF does not have any sharp "edges" to work with. Or maybe it is because i tend to get just a little bit closer than the minimum focus distance of 0.5 meters in these situations. If the minimum focus distance is the problem then the 0.3m limit of the new kit zoom might help (plus I get an extra f-stop, and I really don't need any more zoom than this lens offer).

Also thinking about buying the 14-42mm power zoom if the new kit lens wont work on the camera. But don't like that it doesn't have a focus ring (for handheld, or tripod shots). On the Panasonic chart it looks like it will work well with AF on the camera (being a X premium lens and all), but wonder if anyone has actually tried it and can tell if it works just as well or better than the 14-140mm? All the reviews I have tried seem to focus on stills and its video performance with cameras like the GH2 and from experience this doesnt always translate to the AF100. The good thing about this lens is that I also need a stills camera, and I can get this lens almost for free when buying it with a G5 og G6.

Have also been thinking about the 12-35mm 2.8 lens for steadicam use. Have anyone tried both this and the 14-140mm and can comment on its AF performance, particularly in interview/portrait settings compared to the 14-140mm? The lens is kind of expensive, so if the AF performance is the same as the lens I already have I am not sure if it is worth it. If I am going to spend money on that lens I might go for an GH3 for stills instead of the G5/G6 since the package deals with the 12-35mm deals around here are not that much more expensive then buying the lens seperatly. If I do this I might sometime try to use the GH3 as a second camera. Have anyone tried this combination and know if this will need a lot of post process grading or is it possible to get the two cameras to match close enough (not looking for perfect, but an OK result) just by using a settings profile on one of the cameras?


Sorry for asking so many questions, and drifting in the topic. Will be very thankful for any answers or suggestions on these subjects.
 
I bought the GF3 with the 14-42 kit lens and I'm using this lens also on the AF100. The autofocus works well, however, sometimes it hunts around. To focus on faces you can try the "face-detect" feature of the AF100.
I noticed that when I start zooming that there is some shaky movement at the beginning. Probably, this was fixed in version 2 of the lens. Another problem is that you can not attach a light shield. So, when there is light shining from the side, it makes the picture milky.
I use this lens most of the time with my GF3 stills camera.

In the following video I used solely the 14-42 lens, but disabled auto-focus. Iris was in auto-mode.
 
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Thanks for the answer, very helpful :) Just didn't reflect enough about the fact that the power zoom design rules out using a lens hood, with its implications. So this kind of rules out this lens for me for video. The face-detect function on the AF100 frustratingly only work with the iris set to auto (why????). And at least on the 14-140mm lens auto iris makes the video unusable since the picture "flickers" every time it changes f-stop. From what I have read this is the case with most (if not all?) lumix lenses.
 
I also owned the 14-140 mm lens and the flickering with this lens is very strong. With the Lumix X lenses it is almost gone. In the above video you can't see any flickering. But, I have to say that I used the scene file settings "Coral" from Mr. Green's book and these settings tell the iris to overexpose. So, the iris might stay most of the time fully open.

By the way: Welcome to the forum :)
 
Thanks :) I think I can see just a little bit of "flickering" when changing aperture in the video (when driving out of the tunnel etc). But it is totally different from the one I get with the 14-140mm lens. This looks much more like auto iris on a "normal" video camera like the HVX200. Much more natural. So if the light conditions are relative stable I might be able to use the auto iris with the face recognition with a x-lens. Which would be a nice option to have. In particular if I in one single shot would have to move from a single shot of a person to a shot of two people sitting next to each other. With normal AF or spot AF the camera would have focused on the centre of the shot (which is the area between the two people and it would have focused on the background). Face recognition is the only AF option I can see working in that situation. The power zoom lens still has the problem with the missing lens hood. So the 12-35mm X-lens might be my only option.
 
Autofocus isn't great with the power zoom 14-42 lens. Has the same problem that you mentioned, where sometimes the autofocus just lives in a world of its own. Really hoping the GH5 has similar autofocus capabilities to the new Canon 70d.
 
If someone else with steadicam or other needs for great auto focus is interested....I finally decided to upgrade to the 12-35mm lens. Got it from a dealer in Japan for almost half the price I would have to pay for it around here right now. Was skeptical at first but took a chance based on thousands of great Ebay feedback. And happily it turned out to be a real genuine brand new Panasonic lens with everything in its original box. And whooow what a lens. This one is in a totally different league than the others I have (the 20mm and the 14-140mm). The autofocus is faster and MUCH MORE accurate than the 14-140mm lens. Was out all day on sunday testing it and was also stunned by the quality of the video I got with it. And how easy it was to work with it. It would have been even more perfect if it was 2.0 instead of 2.8., but as it is it will give you an OK enough amount of shallow depth of field in an interview situation, even at 12mm if your composition is quite close. Closer to 35mm there is plenty of shallow depth of field. And also if you do a close up of an object at 12mm. And the quality of the bookeh is stunning. Looks really beautiful. For most run and gun, and steadicam use in particular, a 2.8 aperture is (at least in my opinion) as much as you are able to handle to be in full control of the focus if someone (or you) move around at all. But in some controlled situations it would of course be nice to have the option to open the lens up a little bit more.

Today I tried the lens and camera on my Steadicam Pilot. The 14-140mm on Steadicam (which I work with most of the time) was so hard and frustrating to work with that I considered selling the whole camera or just use it for other stuff. But with the 12-35mm its almost like using a HVX200 again in ease of use. The autofocus is reliable and fast enough to follow you around and let you concentrate on moving around steadily and framing. Even wide open. So with this lens I have fallen back in love with this camera again and it will hopefully become the best friend of me and the steadicam for years to come.

But....a little complaint. The face detect function with this lens works wonders in situations where you move between different people. It is really fast and accurate and keeps the faces you want in focus while moving around amazingly well. And if there is no face in the frame it will just do its great normal autofocus work. But sadly you have to turn on auto iris to make this function work. Auto iris is a bit better with this lens than the 14-140mm, it is on the edge of being just about good enough for a news/documentary shoot, but it is far from stepless so you don't really want to use it. The aperture shifts just doesn't look good enough on screen. If Panasonic would please let me use the face detect function with manual iris, (can this really be impossible or even hard to implement??) the whole camera would be 100% perfect to me. As it is I will use face detection with auto iris if there is absolutely no other option and try to live with the results. Other than that I will just use the regular auto focus (which is as stated great but would have been even better with the addition of face detect).

And if someone plan to use the lens for on-camera zooms I wouldn't buy it. As far as I can tell the aperture is identical for the whole range, but it seems like it makes some kind of short "flash" at the point you stop the zoom. I havent tried this a lot, but from what I have seen I would have considered this to not be good enough to use. Personally I never zoom anyway on footage, so this doesnt really matter to me. Having worked 90% of the time with steadicam (where zooming is out of the question unless you use a remote) for a while you get used to never zooming and this has made me stop (mis)using it when working with a shoulder camera as well. The only time I would zoom on camera would be if you film a football or hockey match. And in my opinion this lens wouldnt work well for that.

So if someone wants to use the AF100 for run and gun steadicam work, THIS is in my opinion the only lens you need (and that will work well enough). It gives you the whole range of zooming that you could actually use on a steadicam (more zoom is too hard to keep steady and frame while moving, more wide angle could be useful but you dont need it for most situations). And it gives you as much shallow depth of field as you are able to handle and keep things in focus in situations like these. Forget about the 14-140mm. This lens is worth more than its full price for this use.
 
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