GH4 What is your native MFT lens collection?

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filmguy123

Veteran
Do you invest in native MFT glass? If so, what is your set, and what is your rationale in terms of investing natively instead of the commonly held view of investing in FF glass and going the adaptors route?

Does anyone here own an entire native MFT glass set? Would it be crazy to own a set such as:

4x Nokton 10.5, 17.5, 25, 42.5 f/.95
Lumix 12-35 f/2.8
Olympus 60mm Macro f/2.8
Olympus 75mm f/1.8
Olympus 7-14 f/2.8

Why or why not?
 
I have the following

Panasonic 20mm F/1.7
Panasonic 42.5mm f/1.7
Panasonic 14-45 f/3.5-5.6

Although I love the primes low light ability, focus pulls are impossible with the fly by wire design. Maybe I will have better luck with the GH5's focus pull feature.
 
I have the following:

Panasonic 14-45
Olympus 60 macro
Panasonic 45-150
Olympus 75-300

I like to precisely frame the shot and movement is many times restricted. Thus my use of zooms. One really nice feature of the 45-150 is the zoom is internal with no lens extension. I wish they were all built this way.
 
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filmguy123 said:
Do you invest in native MFT glass? If so, what is your set, and what is your rationale in terms of investing natively instead of the commonly held view of investing in FF glass and going the adaptors route?
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I have both. I use the native lenses for the image stabilization, and as walking around lenses when I just want to take photos. For shooting video I usually use nikon mount primes with an adaptor.

20mm f1.7 (great walking around lens for stills)

14-42mm f3.5-5.6 (one of the cheapest lenses panasonic makes but good OIS)

45-150 f4.0-5.6 (OIS zoom)
 
My native MFT lens collection consists of the 14-140mm zoom which came with my GH1.

At one point I was a lens whore with over 75 lenses in my collection. Now on the down swing of my career I have kept a small set, and rent anything else needed. My goal was to cut down, and rather than having multiple sets which cover each sensor size, instead the majority of my lenses would cover a full frame sensor meaning they would also work with any sensor smaller like S35 and MFT. So now I have something like 20 lenses which cover FF, 6 which cover S35mm, and 1 which covers MFT.

But hey, that is just me. There is nothing wrong with owning a stack of native MFT lenses if that is what you need.
In my case I very rarely use lenses with auto-focus or electronic control, and mainly rely on manual focus and iris control. This also allows me to take advantage of using a SpeedBooster which can not be used with native MFT lenses. Giving the ability of S35mm size framing, and a stop faster to your MFT camera. In fact it's very rare that the SpeedBooster comes off of my MFT cameras.

Factor in your shooting style, what you do, and which lenses best support that. Then get what YOU need to take care of that business.
 
I have a decent collection of mft lenses now. I use them almost exclusively as they are so much lighter and smaller to carry than even my vintage set of Olympus OM Zuiko MC glass and especially those on a speedbooster.

Panasonic 100-300 f/4-5.6, 42.5mm f/1.7, 25mm f/1.4, 15mm f/1.7
Olympus 17mm f/1.8 (only because I can't sell it :) )
Rokinon 12mm f/2, 7.5mm f/3.5

Only thing I'd change is to add the Panasonic Leica 12mm f/1.4 to finish it off.

Cheers,
Pete
 
Panasonic 14-140 - All around lens great in good lighting and can be used a wide range of shots because of its focal range. Turns the GH4 into a camera much closer to a traditional video camera. Just not spectacular in low light and not as fine and detailed as some prime lenses.

Panasonic 25mm f1.4 - My favorite native lens. Almost a perfect "normal" lens on the GH4. Very organic look and stays sharp opened wide at f1.4 and very sharp at f2.0. When I don't need to change focal length this lens is my go to lens.

Olympus 60mm f2.8 - Macros lens for those very tiny subjects. Also a rather decent telephoto lens for the GH4 and doesn't have to be just a macro lens. A bit darker than some of the 45mm range f1.8 lenses but in terms of DOF 60mm f2.8 is about the same as 45mm f1.8. Optically not my favorite lens but I like it better than other macro lenses.



I am gradually making the transition to Rokinon lenses. Only reason I haven't yet is I find the native lenses much better for shooting stills. I do have a Rokinon 12mm t2.2 (f2.0) which I absolutely love. The image from the Rokinon isn't as enhanced as from the native lenses due to in body corrections but it looks very good and quickly becoming one of my new favorite lenses to shoot with. It only comes in small mount formats so no option for a Speedbooster but I typically only use a 12mm lens when I'm shooting something up close like a product video and it is very easy to light such subjects so the f2.0 is perfectly fine. In fact I tend to use it around f4.0 or f5.6 if possible.
 
Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8, 35-100mm f/2.8, 14-140mm
Olympus 17mm f/1.8, 45mm f/1.8
Sigma 30mm f/2.8

They all have varying uses for stills and video. My most used MTF lens is the 12-35; great for general photography and stabilized video. In a pinch, I use ETC mode to make it a 24-140mm FF equivalent. For weddings I love the 35-100mm because it gives me that perfect amount of reach in a very compact package.
 
14-45mm f3.5-5.6 - This lens came with my GH2 and I quickly sold it. Too slow for low light. Ramping aperture difficult for video work.

20mm f1.7 - This was my first MFT prime lens. It's super sharp wide open and great in low light. A little too wide for portraits/interviews, this is mostly a b-roll/landscape lens.

45mm f1.8 - Another super sharp lens when wide open. Great in low light. Good for portraits/interviews.

12mm f2 - Super sharp wide open. Good in low light. Nice flat wide image without distortion. Good for landscapes.

75-300mm f4.8-6.7 - Not sharp. No OIS. Felt flimsy. Sold it.

100-300mm f4-5.6 - Sharp. OIS. More robust. This is a nice long lens. Not terribly fast so shots must have lots of light.

12-35mm f2.8 - OK sharpness. OK in low light. OIS and range are the benefits to this lens. I use it for most of my hand-held shots.

35-100mm f2.8 - Same as above.

Voigtlander 25mm f0.95 - Fantastic lens. Excellent sharpness down to f1.4 (blooms a bit wide open). Manual focus like a pro. Solid construction. Close minimum focus 7". This was my interview lens until I got the following:

Sigma 18-35mm f1.8 w/ Metabones Speedbooster - Equal to the Voigtlander in sharpness and low light ability with the added benefit of a zoom. Drawback: heavy.

Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 w/ Metabones Speedbooster - Wide. Fast. Sharp. Zoom. This is great for indoor performances in dim, tight spaces.

These third-party lenses used with the Speedbooster are great for manual focusing. Something that's really frustrating is the fly-by-wire focusing of the Lumix & Olympus MFT lenses. If I turn off my camera to switch batteries I have to reset focus again too.

But with the MFT lenses you get OIS, super sharpness (Panasonic/Olympus camera bodies are designed to work better with their native lenses this way), and they're affordable.

Something else I should mention is that I use variable ND filters on all of these lenses so that I can maintain a constant aperture/shutter speed/ISO setting while adjusting for exposure with the filter. Very helpful.
 
Rokinon 7.5mm f/3.5
Panny 12-35mm f/2.8 (on camera 75% of the time)
Panny 14-140 from GH2?

other 25% would be other lenses with speebooster
 
When I had a GH4 I went full Panasonic native to take full advantage of the size and weight of MFT. I would probably do the same with the GH5.

7-14 f4
12-35 f2.8
35-100 f2.8

I see Panasonic has V2 of the 12-35 and 35-100 with updated AF.
 
Native m4/3: 7-14/4.0, 12-35/2.8, 14-45/3.5-5.6, 25/1.4, 100-300/4-5.6. Will prob. get the 12-60/2.8-4 w/GH5

Adapted 4/3 Pana-Leica 4/3 14-150 3.5-5.6 OIS (a slowish brick of a lens, but sharp throughout the range) - my favorite walk-arounder since the GH1, but 12-60 will replace it.

Nikkor Primes: 50/1.4, Micro Nikkor 55/3.5, 85/1.8, 135/3.5

Canon 100-400 II w/ Metabones Smart T adapter (all lens functions incl. 4-stop OIS)

Lensbaby Composer kit w/ "Sweet 35" and 9mm optics
 
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I have all Olympus lenses. Pair it up with EM1 mkii

12mm f/2
25mm f/1.2 pro
75mm f/1.8
12-40mm f/2.8 pro
12-100mm f/2 pro
40-150mm f/2.8 pro
300mm f/4 pro
 
Mostly use Nikon-mount Sigma arts for commercial and interview stuff. For most of my science shoots, I use an (almost) all MFT kit:

12-35/2.8
14-140/4-5.8 (OG version)
25/1.4 (probably not keeping this)
Voigt 17.5/.95 - actually can use this one with an adapter in my FS5. Soft, vignetty, but kinda neat look

The 12-60 is what I've wanted forever for the system. Also wouldn't mind expanding the voigtlander collection.
 
12-35 f2.8
25mm f1.7
14-140mm f3.5-5.6
45-150mm f4-5.6 (should probably sell this one at this point)
100-300m f4-5.6

Also Speedbooster Ultra for Canon EF lenses, Sigma Art 18-35mm f1.8, Canon 50mm f1.8
 
Is it only the Oly/Pana native prime lenses that are extra sharp by working with the bodies, or also the Voigtlanders?

Anyone have experience to compare native M43 Voigtlander glass against adapted Canon, Zeiss, Sigma lenses?
 
filmguy123 said:
Is it only the Oly/Pana native prime lenses that are extra sharp by working with the bodies, or also the Voigtlanders?

Anyone have experience to compare native M43 Voigtlander glass against adapted Canon, Zeiss, Sigma lenses?
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only lenses that communicate electronically with the camera. Panasonic, Olympus, Sigma m43 lenses and Tamron m43 lenses.
 
I have invested in native glass.

Panasonic 7-14 f4
Panasonic 12-35 f2.8
Panasonic 35-100 f2.8

I most often use the 12-35 and appreciate having OIS for handheld work. I've used the Canon 24-70 2.8, as well as a wide Sigma canon mount lens, and for my work I would rather have the OIS of the 12-35 and deal with the fly by wire focusing.

I end up using the 35-100 mostly for tripod mounted interviews. I could see replacing this with an adapted lens, but for now it's a good match with the 12-35.

I also use my Gh4 for stills work, so having the autofocus capabilities of the native m43 lenses influenced my decision to buy native lenses.
 
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