GH2 Voigtländer Nokton - 25mm or 17mm?

F

Fresno Bob

Well-known member
Hi,

I really wanted to get the Voigtländer Nokton 25mm f/0.95 ever since last year, but it's taken some saving.

Now I see there is a 17mm Voigtländer Nokton available too.

Which do people think is the best one to get?
I love the footage coming out of the 25mm - but I've been watching it all year!
The 17mm seems nice too, but are there any advantages to getting it over the 25mm?
 
If you're in the UK you can get the 25mm much cheaper so that would seal it for me. At the same price I'd go for the 17mm.

An advantage with the 17mm is the clickless aperture but you can get the 25mm declicked for around £70.
 
Gary Huff said:
I think the 17mm would be too wide after having used the 25mm over the weekend.
Click to expand...
You might have a point with that, I've been able to get a stage of musicians framed relatively close up even with the 25mm.
 
I originally thought I'd prefer to have the 17mm, and it's probably more of a viable choice on the AF-100/GH3 with it's 2x crop, but the GH2 has a 1.86x crop and the 25mm was plenty wide for my purposes (I used it on a 2 person interview and ended up about 3-5 feet away or so to get both of them in the frame).
 
17mm is way to wide, the widest for normal viewing I would get is 20mm, but if not 24-28mm is really normal focal length. On the flip side I just bought the Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 and it is a great lens for several hundred dollars less...
 
I'm ideally looking to get something wide that matches well with the Canon 50mm 1.4 and the Asahi Takurmur 50mm.

The Voigtländers are the best I've seen.
 
It's all personal preference. I could justify going "cheap" with the PL25/1.4 for that focal length, because I don't use it often. The 35mm equivalent FOV in that speed was too tempting to pass up and I jumped the moment it was available. That lens gets used at least once in just about everything I shoot.
 
Fresno Bob said:
I'm ideally looking to get something wide that matches well with the Canon 50mm 1.4 and the Asahi Takurmur 50mm.

The Voigtländers are the best I've seen.
Click to expand...


50mm is short telephoto and 17mm is neither really wide or normal and honestly a focal length that imo does not make sense on the GH2.

A perfect kit would be a 85mm, 50-45mm, 20-28mm, then your wide lenses 12mm or less. Also he best you seen is very subjective as you can get a Panasonic 25mm f/1.4 that is sharper, focuses faster etc. etc.....

Noktor Lenses look great, but imo not worth the price tag for what they offer. A Rokinon 24mm or Pansonic 25mm 1.4 is something I would be going for. Now for wide lenses I would look at the Tokina, or the Slr magic 12mm.

As always my $0.02
 
I love the SLR Magic 12mm, done both some good photography on it and one video, it allowed me to work in a space that would have been impracticle/impossible otherwise.

Philip Bloom used the 12mm on the GH3 trailer for the darker scenes despite the fact he's got the 25mm and also the 17mm so I don't understand why some people don't find a use for the 12mm as well.

You can have a lot of fun with a tight space, the 12mm and a gorillapod, and I'm not talking about anything kinky either. :undecided:cheesy:
 
Last edited:
J.F.R. said:
...17mm is neither really wide or normal and honestly a focal length that imo does not make sense on the GH2....
Click to expand...

and this is why 17.5 vs. 25 is purely a personal preference pick. Some folks think 17.5 is strange, others think 25 is boring, some folks may go a 3rd way and think a 30mm is the cat's pajamas. None of them are wrong for their personal uses. All of them are wrong if they attempt to universalize their preference.

The Voigts are both swell lenses, so you won't go wrong getting either. Just pick the focal length you're most likely to use. I get a ton of mileage out of the 17.5 and a Leica 35 and not a lot out of my PL25 and Leica 28, your mileage may vary.


As to ~12mm equivalent, I've tossed an old 0.7x wide angle converter on my 17.5... the optical results weren't incredible, but about as good as what I've seen from the SLRM.
 
I just think the SLR Magic reminds me too much of a toy lens, or CCTC lens.
It has a fisheye like effect when something is very close, and the bokeh has a weird swirly effect when almost wide open.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top