videos showing shallow dof with panasonic 20mm f1.7 pancake lens

I love this lens what a super great value priced lens and it is awesome in low light.

I have a raw unedited no color correction clip i posted on vimeo - here--
 
all the interviews in this piece were shot with the 20mm wide open at f1.7 using a FaderND for proper exposure. love this lens! its also my fave compact lens when travelling lightly.

 
Now, I don't want to annoy 20mm pancake owners, but....Why am I not convinced by the images with this lens?

I am distracted by highlight aliasing on some videos, like the Aquaponics one (which is very well made by the way), and wonder if perhaps this is the real level of aliasing the GH cameras produce, shown clearly because this 20mm is so sharp, perhaps too sharp!!??!!

I certainly see much more pleasing images with Canon FD glass, for example, but most legacy lenses in fact. Like legacy glass, the new Voigtlander 25mm f0.95 is a touch softer too (as seen in that film strip link at the top of the page - that's not the 20mm pancake at all) but it is overall much more pleasing and there seems to be much less aliasing to my eyes.

It seems a bit whack to want softer lenses to effectively "mask" over the camera's aliasing, but for me, it's the nicest look I've seen from these cameras.

Then again, is it a simple case of sharpness/softness, or perhaps some other quality?? Discuss.
 
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Lucas, I hear what you're saying and I agree to a certain extent. My FDs do have a different look than the 20mm pancake. I go back and forth between feeling it's a better look or just different. I've gone on record as saying the FDs and most legacy glass in general has a more "filmic" look than the pancake, but now I'm not so sure it isn't just the fact that most guys shooting legacy glass don't quite nail focus, which smooths the image out nicely even if it doesn't look obviously OOF. Whereas the 20mm begs for AF so you just half-press and you're nuts-on, tack sharp.

Obviously there's more to the differences between FD glass and the pancake but in looking at all the videos online I can't help but think it's got more to do with just a wee bit of defocusing than anything else.
 
FD's imperfection gives the illusion of more pleasing image. Pancake is much sharper, and that's the issue. It can be toned down with filters to mitigate the aliasing issue. But why worry? Set contrast and sharpness settings at -2. Color grading helps. GH2 has less aliasing issue. Please stop bashing 20mm. Without it, M43 might have been a total failure.
 
If your comment was directed at me, I don't think I was bashing the pancake. I frikkin LOVE the pancake. I'm coming full circle back to it as my main lens, video or stills. Very much looking forward to the GH2's ETC so I can use it in situations where otherwise I'd swap it for a longer FD, so I could pretty much go with a GH2/20mm, Fader-ND, Z96, Gorillapod Focus, and Zoom H1 for most shoots. I could wrap it all up in a red bandana and tie the bundle to the end of a stick.
 
I think contrast is alot higher with actual m4/3 lenses, especially compared to lenses from around the FD era. But the focus definitely is harder with a MF lens, back when I use to use a Canon A1 with my FD lenses, I had so many photos which were out of focus :P photography is so much cheaper now a days.

I just got the 20mm f1.7 pancake myself recently. It is a fantastic lens, just loving the images I get with it both in stills and video.
 
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It's true that I don't know what settings people have on their videos, so 20mm can easily look awful and exhibit obvious aliasing due to +2 sharpening - yukk!

I'm not attacking the 20mm, it's just that I see footage on other lenses that I prefer, probably due to softness being more pleasing at times.
 
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