GH2 Will 16mm film Arri Standard mount camera lenses work for the GH2?

J

jesgueira

New member
Hi everyone,

Shopping for a digital video camera, I've stumbled upon the following trick question:
Will my collection of standard Arri lenses and Bayonet mount Arri lenses work on a GH2? (The lenses are various Schneider cine Xenon primes, Angenieux Zoom Bayonet mount, see attached pic)
The lenses are for a 16mm cinema camera, not a 35mm cinema camera. I understand that I will need an adapter.
Will there be any vignetting ?
If they arent usable, is there a more appropriate Video DSLR or similar ?
Simple question but boy have I been digging for 2 days straight!!!
Any help appreciated!!
Jorge in SA
 

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They will vignette at full 4/3 frame but cover nicely in the ETC crop mode which is slightly smaller than a 16mm frame. Some longer focal length 16mm prime lenses will cover the full 4/3 frame. You will need a PL mount adapter for the camera and for the lenses. GH2 is arguably the best choice for low cost camera for this.
You can find user groups and many example stills of 16mm vintage lenses on m4/3 cameras at Flickr.
 
Razz16mm said:
They will vignette at full 4/3 frame but cover nicely in the ETC crop mode which is slightly smaller than a 16mm frame. Some longer focal length 16mm prime lenses will cover the full 4/3 frame. You will need a PL mount adapter for the camera and for the lenses. GH2 is arguably the best choice for low cost camera for this.
You can find user groups and many example stills of 16mm vintage lenses on m4/3 cameras at Flickr.
Click to expand...

Careful - if you have Arri Std and Bayonet lenses, you will need Arri Std to m4/3 and Arri Bayonet to m4/3 adapters -- different from Arri PL to m4/3.

Cheers,

Bill
 
L1N3ARX said:
Here is what 16mm lenses look like with etc crop >> http://vimeo.com/33761833

It will probably look comparable to your arri's
Click to expand...

Thanks for linking, sir. There's also some more footage up for night etc. I dunno how M4/3 to Standard works out but I'd imagine it to be a bit flimsy? The S16 Zeiss set I use is PL, and then the 10-100/2 zoom has a Std to PL mount on the back of it. Then I use the www.hotrodcameras.com GH2 Pl mount.




Razz16mm said:
They will vignette at full 4/3 frame but cover nicely in the ETC crop mode which is slightly smaller than a 16mm frame. Some longer focal length 16mm prime lenses will cover the full 4/3 frame. You will need a PL mount adapter for the camera and for the lenses. GH2 is arguably the best choice for low cost camera for this.
You can find user groups and many example stills of 16mm vintage lenses on m4/3 cameras at Flickr.
Click to expand...

You can also crop 160 percent in post or use the 2x zoom i ncamera to get a little more FOV out of them, at the expense of aliasing and other image issues (overall softness, etc) but you could probably get away with it in a pinch. It worked all the way down to the 8mm, I am sure it'll work with the 5.9mm but I have to check.

I agree, to me the best camera for PL operations is the GH2, especially S16 goodness.

What lenses do you have, Razz?

SO you guys looking to use S16 lenses know, the major issue is the increased presence of noise at high ISOs. Where with non ETC I am confident in getting away with 1600 ISO with a mild noise reduction, when ETC is on I am hesitant to hit 800, but I think it's usable with noise reduction.

The best image will come from using 200 ISO at all times, with a stretch to 320 if you must. That's the only reservation I have about it, otherwise it's glorious.
 
Thanks for those uploads.
My question now is, in ETC mode, does the GH2 still compare to the canon 7D or 5D?
If not, then I think I should have to find alternatives to the 16mm film Arri lenses, because my main aim is to get top-notch video quality that rivals film and Canon 5D or 7D.
Any suggestions?
 
jesgueira said:
Thanks for those uploads.
My question now is, in ETC mode, does the GH2 still compare to the canon 7D or 5D?
If not, then I think I should have to find alternatives to the 16mm film Arri lenses, because my main aim is to get top-notch video quality that rivals film and Canon 5D or 7D.
Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

What do you mean compare? It's still the same image with an increased amount of noise. That means it's still going to out-resolve Canons. Even less aliasing/moire than with non ETC, and you're going to have to deal with the film modes the same, banding, and DR. Some people say that you get a little less "jello" or "skew" as well, I actually agree. On the 100 end of the 10-100/2 Zoom I definitely notice a lot less wave and wobble with my shaky hands.

You will have to make an extra effort to rival Canon footage, namely by blurring your image in post and denoising it until most of the true detail is gone.
 
By compare I mean in terms of sharpness and detail. Would I get better sharpness on a GH2 in ETC mode than a canon 7d?
 
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