which lens for a low light walk-around-street scenario?

T

teuron

Active member
i recently bought a gh2 which i have wanted to get for a long time.
i got the one with the 14-140mm

i would like to buy a genaral-purpose walk around lens that is fast and good in low light.

im sort of torn between the 20mm1.7 and 25mm1.4

from the reviews i read, alot of people rave about the 20mm and say that it lives on their cameras 90% of the time.
im not sure but i think most of those reviews are from photographers and not videographers.

my priority is video by far.

what concerns me about the 20 is that it apparently is slow at auto-focus and notorious at seeking during low light.
also it has a very loud focus motor.
i will mostly be using manual focus anyway, but would like to use auto from time to time (with built-in mic)

what concerns me about the 25 is the focal length. im not sure if 25mm (50mmFF equalevent) is wide enough for my needs.

any recommendations?
is the 20 really that bad (and loud) for video?

any other suggestions?
 
One that I use and am satisfied with is Tokina RMC 24 mm f2.8. Excellent low cost manual focus lens. Sharpness is adequate at full aperture f2.8, unlike several faster and more expensive lenses that one needs to stop down to get sharp results. They are rather cheap, so it is not going to be a major investment. There is very little bluish chromatic aberration around high contrast edges in this lens in some situations, the only negative albeit minor issue. Only pixel peeping reveals this.
 
- If "low light" matters, a f2.8 lens can't be good enough.

- If you only shoot 200 photos or 40 video clips with one prime lens, you can certainly claim that you have left one prime on your camera 100% of the time. But if you shoot 10,000 photos or 2,000 video clips with just one prime lens... what a horribly boring world you have tried to bring to yourself!
 
I saw a video on Vimeo that might help you decide: A Journey through Vietnam


It was filmed over a month with the GH2 and the 25mm F/0.95 so this should give you an idea of what you can capture.
If this field of view works for you then the 25mm 1.4 is what I would get If I were you.
 
henryqiu said:
But if you shoot 10,000 photos or 2,000 video clips with just one prime lens... what a horribly boring world you have tried to bring to yourself!
Click to expand...

To think that most of the photographic masters only used one lens for 100's of thousands of shots.
 
True, a 24 mm f2.8 lens is not quite enough for shallow depth of field low light shots. But a Tokina RMC 24 costs around 80, not 800, and it is sharp at full aperture. That's why I can recommend people to try one for the low price, they might get a nice surprise. If it was f2 it would be perfect. The Nokton 25 mm f0.95 costs quite a bit and it has some focus breath. When one rack focuses on it (and I do that a lot), objects change size.
 
The 20mm pancake is a gorgeous lens. 1.7 is lightning fast and works phenomenally in low light. The autofocus is fast enough for most of the work I'm doing but it is not fast or slow, just competent.

As to the focus motor noise... I really don't get the complaints AT ALL. It is very quiet. Then again, I rarely use the built-in mics for anything except reference audio. You'd be better served to spend some cash on a wireless lav (interviews) or on-cam shotgun mounted via hot/cold-shoe. The on-cam mics will never work as a professional audio solution, unless its for 'crowd noise' or ambient feel.
 
I have a MD mount Rokkor 28mm F2.8, that does well in medium low light. My 20mm 1.7 even better, but I have to disagree with the poster above and say I do not find the auto focus speed adequate in most situations. Low light especially. And I'm not terribly fond of the way the electronic manual focus feels either. But for static focus shots in low light, the image is very good.
 
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