GH2 Which 25mm should I get?

M

mustangranch99

Active member
I want an amazing M 4/3rds lens for shooting video and ONLY video. Preferably, as beautiful as possible and with great colors.

Right now, I'm torn between the Leica 25mm F1.4 and the Voigtlander F0.95. Does anybody here have experience with either or both of these?

Also, will the GH2/GH3's focus assist (Hitting the touchscreen and having it zoom in for focusing) work the Voigtlander since it's manual?

Thank you for reading.
 
Tapping the touchscreen (or clicking the rear dial) zooms in for focus assist with manual lenses. What doesn't work (obviously) with manual lenses is turning the focus ring on the lens - which does trigger focus assist with Lumix and PanLeica lenses.
 
I wrote this in THIS thread, so I'm pasting it here:

I owned both the Voigtlander Nokton 25mm f/0.95 and the SLR Magic 25mm f/0.95 and used both side-by-side with my GH2. I ended up selling the Voigtlander Nokton and have kept the SLR Magic. The build quality of the Voigtlander is superb, but the image was way too blurry when wide open at f/0.95. If you stop down then it gets sharp, but the point of these lenses is to shoot wide open. The SLR Magic was much, MUCH sharper at f/0.95. The difference was quite noticeable. And it was much cheaper than the Voigtlander when I bought it as well.

I say get the SLR Magic 25mm f/0.95 lens. You can always add blurriness in post if you feel it is too sharp.
 
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Jaime Valles said:
I wrote this in THIS thread, so I'm pasting it here:

I owned both the Voigtlander Nokton 25mm f/0.95 and the SLR Magic 25mm f/0.95 and used both side-by-side with my GH2. I ended up selling the Voigtlander Nokton and have kept the SLR Magic. The build quality of the Voigtlander is superb, but the image was way too blurry when wide open at f/0.95. If you stop down then it gets sharp, but the point of these lenses is to shoot wide open. The SLR Magic was much, MUCH sharper at f/0.95. The difference was quite noticeable. And it was much cheaper than the Voigtlander when I bought it as well.

I say get the SLR Magic 25mm f/0.95 lens. You can always add blurriness in post if you feel it is too sharp.
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The SLR Magic is T/0.95, just being nit picky. :)

mustangranch99 said:
Really? They're both "Hyperprimes" so they'll have that distinct cinematic look right?

I'm seeing a $50-$80 price difference between the two.
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Not sure what hyperprime even means, but the price of the voigt has come down since I last looked. Either way, Id go with the SLR Magic myself.
 
The fact that you asked about focus assist makes me wonder how important that is to you.

since the gh3 doesn't have peaking, you will probably want to factor in the cost of an external monitor if you get a manual fast prime.

I have the 25mm 1.4 and love it. Really fast and very sharp. I have the Voightlander 17mm .95 (not the 25) and do find this sharp wide open but rely upon my Small HD DP4 for focus guidance since it has a very shallow DOF at .95.
 
Ianscreations said:
The fact that you asked about focus assist makes me wonder how important that is to you.

since the gh3 doesn't have peaking, you will probably want to factor in the cost of an external monitor if you get a manual fast prime.

I have the 25mm 1.4 and love it. Really fast and very sharp. I have the Voightlander 17mm .95 (not the 25) and do find this sharp wide open but rely upon my Small HD DP4 for focus guidance since it has a very shallow DOF at .95.
Click to expand...


Just at realized you wrote GH2, so perhaps you utilize a hack that provides peaking :)
 
The Panasonic 25mm is very sharp wide open. It has quite a "clinical" look, so if you're after flare and other "character", then it may not be the lens for you.

Of course the Panasonic has AF (and very fast AF at that), but this has little to no advantage when you're looking for a lens solely for video work. In fact, the Panasonic lens may actually prove to be more frustrating to use than a fully manual lens if you plan to pull focus during a shot. The reason is that the Panasonic's manual focus is actually fly-by-wire, which means you have no hard stops like a manual lens. This is further complicated by the variable focusing "feature", where it will focus to a greater degree the faster you turn the focus wheel. The end result is that consistently hitting marks with the Panasonic lens is pretty much impossible-- you have to do it all by eye...every time.
 
mustangranch99 said:
Oh sorry, I'm not referring to peaking.

I'm referring to the zoom in magnification that happens when you touch the screen with any AF lens.
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I have the focus magniication on a function button. I have gotten used to pushing that as opposed to tapping the screen. However it is nice to have that feature when you change the focus on the lens and of course the SLR won't do that.
 
No hack that provides peaking, I'm afraid. And the focus assist is only while the camera is not recording.
 
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