What lens to buy for GH1?

rundavids

rundavids

Well-known member
Hi, I'm wondering is the kit lens any good for a feature film? Also, what other lens would be good to use? I have to say I'm on a budget as well.

I know, I won't need any telephoto lens. I just need lens for medium close up shots and some wide shots for establishing scene. Nothing fancy or crazy through.
 
The stock lens is extremely good if theirs plenty of lighting. I think the first lens most people should buy is a fast one because you wont be always shooting in good lighting environments.

The Panasonic mm f/1.7 lens is what I have and it's bring praised all over the place. It also auto focuses just like the bundled 14-140mm lens.
 
Camera Expert said:
The stock lens is extremely good if theirs plenty of lighting. I think the first lens most people should buy is a fast one because you wont be always shooting in good lighting environments.

The Panasonic mm f/1.7 lens is what I have and it's bring praised all over the place. It also auto focuses just like the bundled 14-140mm lens.
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it's much noisier and slower than the kit's focusing though...
 
You hear the noise only if your in a very quite room. See if you can hear it in this video.
http://vimeo.com/7564010

The focusing is worse, that's for sure but when your outside it's better to have something like f/5.6 rather than something like f/1.7 so that more of the stuff in the frame is in focus. It'll hunt less often.
 
I agree, the first lens that you should purchase is Panasonic f/1.7. Even though its noiser and slower in autofocus compared to kit lens.... the image quality is awesome, specially in low light.
 
The f/1.7... Is that the pancake lens? I'm wondering is there a giant difference between a f/1.7 to a 2.8? I'm only asking because of maybe getting canon lens? Is that good idea?
 
Yea, the f/1.7 is the pancake.
In low-light and depth of field, that's a huge difference.
Plus, is that Canon lens as wide as the Panasonic? That's another thing to think about because a 50mm lens for example looks like 100mm on the GH1.
 
The canon lens is a 50mm, with the crop factor, you're right - it's long. I'm just wondering why is that pancake lens so cheap?
 
Just get an FD adapter and a buncha FD glass. It's so cheap and good. 24/2.8, 50/1.4, 80/1.2, 135/4 :dunno:
 
Revsta said:
Just get an FD adapter and a buncha FD glass. It's so cheap and good. 24/2.8, 50/1.4, 80/1.2, 135/4 :dunno:
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I got probably one of the best bang for the buck lenses - 50mm 1.4 asahi (pentax).

Usually $40 on ebay and sharp as hell esp. 2.8 and above
 
Wait, other lenses besides the GH1 stock lens autofocuses while shooting video? I bought the gh1 with kit lens only because I thought that lens was the ONLY one that autofocuses while shooting video. I don't even like that lens that much...guess I'll sell it and make that money back to get the 1.7 that autofocuses...total mind blow
 
rundavids said:
The f/1.7... Is that the pancake lens? I'm wondering is there a giant difference between a f/1.7 to a 2.8? I'm only asking because of maybe getting canon lens? Is that good idea?
Click to expand...

Huge difference between 1.7 and 2.8, it's about 1 1/2 stops...that's a lot of light and a good wide angle on the 20mm.

I'd also recommend picking up a 50mm f1.4 Canon FD lens - I say FD over Olympus, Pentax, etc., because there are so many FD lens options available, they're very good, and dirt cheap. The other reason to go for some FD glass is that, through the use of adapters going forward, you'll be likely able to continue using the FD glass well into oblivion, or it becomes common to have sensors larger than FF35mmm. The m4/3 lenses are nice, but they are limited to the m4/3 platform and its impossible to know what the future of this mount will be - I hope it is a long one though, because I very much like it, but even then, you'll probably never use m4/3 lenses on non m4/3 bodies, whereas with Canon, Nikon, Contax glass etc., you'll be able to use it on virtually anything with an adapter if the mirrorless trend takes over with DSLRs and certainly on video cameras down the line either with 35mm adapters like the Letus, or with interchangable lens video cameras.
 
bronxjragon said:
Wait, other lenses besides the GH1 stock lens autofocuses while shooting video? I bought the gh1 with kit lens only because I thought that lens was the ONLY one that autofocuses while shooting video. I don't even like that lens that much...guess I'll sell it and make that money back to get the 1.7 that autofocuses...total mind blow
Click to expand...
The 14-140 is a very good lens if theirs plenty of lighting.

The constant auto focusing is one of the reasons that 20mm lens costs $400 although it's also very sharp.
 
I just got my FD adapter (finally), so, in addition to the kit lens I now have a 28mm F2.8, a 50mm F1.4 and an old 50mm FL 1.8 which fits, but won't focus to infinity.

Manual focusing turns out to be easier to get used to and more fun that I'd have imagined.
 
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