What Lenses and filters do you suggest to fill out a kit?

Crafters of Light

Crafters of Light

Active member
First I want to apologize if this has been asked before but my searches were not turning up anything that I was looking for. If this is a repeat question I would appreciate it if someone pointed me to the prior post.

To flesh out the question;
I have had the HMC40 for couple years now. I would like to get a kit of filters, wide angle lens(es), macro lens(es), tele lens(es). My main subjects of interest are nature shots, scenic landscapes, wildlife, coastal scenes, etc. I play quite a bit with the time lapse features at these locations as well.

What would you recommend to complete such a kit? What would you recommend I stay away from?
 
Crafters of Light said:
First I want to apologize if this has been asked before but my searches were not turning up anything that I was looking for. If this is a repeat question I would appreciate it if someone pointed me to the prior post.

To flesh out the question;
I have had the HMC40 for couple years now. I would like to get a kit of filters, wide angle lens(es), macro lens(es), tele lens(es). My main subjects of interest are nature shots, scenic landscapes, wildlife, coastal scenes, etc. I play quite a bit with the time lapse features at these locations as well.

What would you recommend to complete such a kit? What would you recommend I stay away from?
Click to expand...

This lens is Great with a step up ring
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/681989-REG/Panasonic_VW_W4607H.html
This shot was made with that, is as sharp in tele as in wide angle
http://video.felipehenao.com/San_Marcos.html
 
I remain a little uncomfortable about using a step-up ring with a wide angle converter, since it moves the auxiliary lens a little farther away from the front element than where it was designed to be attached. The Panasonic-recommended conversion lens for the HMC40/80 is the VWW4307HPPK, in native 43mm size:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...VW_W4307HPPK_VWW4307HPPK_0_7x_Wide_Angle.html

I think you will also want a set of neutral density filters (say 0.3, 0.6, 0.9) and a rotating circular polarizer. I tend to like B+W the best, but the multicoated Hoyas are decent on a smaller budget. For these, you might consider getting them in a larger size and using a step-up ring with the HMC, especially if you have other cameras/lenses you might use them with that require a bigger filter.

A set of close-up lenses (+1, +2, +3 diopters is common, and you can stack them for more power, but watch out for image quality) might also be handy.

- Greg
 
Felipe
Wonderful scenery. And great color. Did you touch any of the coloring in post or is that right from the camera?

Greg
"I remain a little uncomfortable about using a step-up ring with a wide angle converter, since it moves the auxiliary lens a little farther away from the front element than where it was designed to be attached."

What kind(s) of issues would this cause?
Would I ever need anything greater then a 0.9 on the NDs? I have worked with Macro lenses before (35 yrs ago on a Pentax K1000 and remember some of those distortions).

Thank you both for the information. Give me a great start to my list.
 
Felipe
Wonderful scenery. And great color. Did you touch any of the coloring in post or is that right from the camera?

Thank you Greg, The camera is set to Cine Gamma Type V, and has a minimum color adjustment with Sony Vegas Pro color curve.
I personally don't like to use polarizer or ND filters because of the color shift. I found that you can use high speeds in the shutter if necessary
as long as the camera movement is slow or steady, and motion blur is not desired.
This lens that I mentioned is way sharper than the VW-w4307, and is sharp corner to corner, at wide and tele.
 
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My -4307 adapter doesn't have any of the problems you mentioned, and came highly recommended by others here a few months ago when I bought it. I was very wary of sticking any kind of extra glass in front of the lens, but this one is about as good as I've seen in add-on adapters. I wish the lens was wide enough natively that it wasn't needed, but, as they say, you get what you pay for.

You really *need* ND filters with the HMC40/80 when shooting outdoors, because it will quickly stop down to apertures that induce diffraction-related loss of sharpness due to the teeny-tiny iris in that small-format lens. In fact, I regard not including built-in filters behind the lens as one of the more unfortunate design compromises in this camera series. If they're truly "neutral," they shouldn't introduce any color shift. I've never seen that problem with the ones I've owned (and it's why you white balance after every change in lighting or camera configuration, anyway).

- Greg
 
Greg Smith said:
You really *need* ND filters with the HMC40/80 when shooting outdoors, because it will quickly stop down to apertures that induce diffraction-related loss of sharpness

- Greg
Click to expand...

Yes Greg you are right F stop over F8 will cause diffraction, what I'm saying is that if light is too strong I work with speeds as high as 1/1000, as long as I don't consider that motion blur is desired, the high speed shows a lot of detail that could look sort of too active with the motion, but if you make slow camera movements, or steady tripod shots, action doesn't look electronic at all, Motion blur can or can not be desired depending of the idea-
Yes I also wish the camera would have ND filters, for scenes that I'll like to see with motion blur, for me motion blur is minority
 
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Felipe Henao said:
Yes Greg you are right F stop over F8 will cause diffraction, what I'm saying is that if light is too strong I work with speeds as high as 1/1000, as long as I don't consider that motion blur is desired, the high speed shows a lot of detail that could look sort of too active with the motion, but if you make slow camera movements, or steady tripod shots, action doesn't look electronic at all, Motion blur can or can not be desired depending of the idea-
Yes I also wish the camera would have ND filters, for scenes that I'll like to see with motion blur, for me motion blur is minority
Click to expand...

I shoot a ton at the beach for kiting and without an added gradient polarizer I wouldn't have got the shots I wanted. Looking to probably grab another thats a little stronger. I try to keep my shutter and iris as low as possible. I would imagine though for all other places its not really needed all that much.
 
Greg Smith said:
I remain a little uncomfortable about using a step-up ring with a wide angle converter, since it moves the auxiliary lens a little farther away from the front element than where it was designed to be attached. The Panasonic-recommended conversion lens for the HMC40/80 is the VWW4307HPPK, in native 43mm size:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...VW_W4307HPPK_VWW4307HPPK_0_7x_Wide_Angle.html

I think you will also want a set of neutral density filters (say 0.3, 0.6, 0.9) and a rotating circular polarizer. I tend to like B+W the best, but the multicoated Hoyas are decent on a smaller budget. For these, you might consider getting them in a larger size and using a step-up ring with the HMC, especially if you have other cameras/lenses you might use them with that require a bigger filter.

A set of close-up lenses (+1, +2, +3 diopters is common, and you can stack them for more power, but watch out for image quality) might also be handy.

- Greg
Click to expand...
I used a step up filter this morning with an ND filter, and you can't see the edges of the filter. If you have 2 filters, you can see slight changes.
 
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