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Panasonic LUMIX S / G / GF / GH / GX Series
4K and AVCHD on a Full Frame or Micro Four Thirds system with interchangeable lenses.

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Old May 9th, 2014, 10:58 AM   #16
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Re: if I get a GH4, and just one lens...

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Originally Posted by Phil Goetz View Post
My dad shot on one lens and one lens only. A 50mm. On the GH4 that would be this lens: H-X025
On the GH4? Was this 8mm? It's 16x smaller than 35mm film.
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Old May 10th, 2014, 10:07 AM   #17
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Re: if I get a GH4, and just one lens...

I thought a 25mm lens would be 50mm on the GH4.
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Old May 10th, 2014, 11:09 AM   #18
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Re: if I get a GH4, and just one lens...

I don't think f/2.8 is fast enough for m43 cams. I have found my go to lens is the Olympus 17mm f/1.8. If I could only have one lens, that or the soon to be released Panasonic 15mm f/1.7 would be my choice.

You can run it on a stabilizer, bring it in super close without much distortion and hit ETC to give an additional focal length. It's an equivalent focal length of 34mm at 1080, 40mm at 4k and 82mm in ETC on the GH4.

The ability to use 3 times the light of an f/2.8 with a manageable depth of field to keep focus is the forte of the m43 system.

I've added a frame from video on my G6 with the 17mm as a reference for the kind of image this type of lens can create.

Cheers,
Pete
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Old May 10th, 2014, 12:49 PM   #19
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Re: if I get a GH4, and just one lens...

I use a Olympus 12mm f2.0 lens on my stabilizer in combination with a g6, great lens, focuses superfast and very accurate, the difference between a f2.8 and f2.0 lens is quite noticeable and the dof is still managable, on a full framelens at f2.0 keeping focus on a steadicam would not be an easy task.
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Old May 10th, 2014, 01:13 PM   #20
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Re: if I get a GH4, and just one lens...

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Originally Posted by Phil Goetz View Post
I thought a 25mm lens would be 50mm on the GH4.
25mm with GH4 2.3x 4K crop has the full frame eqiv FOV of a 57.5mm lens on a full frame camera like my VG900 camcorder. Here is a Voigtländer Nokton 25mm f/0.95 close focus test on my GH4 in 4K I shot today :
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Old May 11th, 2014, 06:16 PM   #21
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Re: if I get a GH4, and just one lens...

Hi all,
Thank you so much for the advice. I've been out of town for a few days but have now been able to connect to the internet, get this feedback, and make some notes.
A couple of quick questions, in case people are still interested in this thread.
Pete—you say (regarding your camera with the Olympus 17mm/f1.8 lens) that you "run it on a stabilizer", and Noa, you say you use your Olympus 12mm/f2.0 "on my stabilizer".
Are you two talking about the in-camera (or in-lens) stabilization, or are you using some sort of steadicam device as a stabilizer?
Also—Pete, I've googled the soon-to-be-released Panasonic 15mm/f1.7. Is it cheaper than the 12-35mm/f2.8 just because it's not a zoom, or are there other features it won't have?
Thanks again,
Malcolm
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Old May 11th, 2014, 11:56 PM   #22
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Re: if I get a GH4, and just one lens...

Yes, I run the 17mm f/1.8 on a jib pole stabilizer I've been developing. The 17mm creates an amazing image when in motion like you get with a steadicam.

The 15mm is less expensive due to being a much simpler design. Zooms add a lot of glass and mechanical functions, but are not as fast and generally speaking not as pleasing an image to me. Obviously the 12-35 and 35-100 zooms are incredible lenses, but if I could only have one it would be something I could do more with. A lens like the 25mm f/1.4 gives 4 times the light gathering of the f/2.8 zooms. It's just such a crazy advantage for creativity and versatility. The only advantage of the zooms is to have multiple perspectives in one lens. I find I can cover many of the perspectives by simply moving closer or further away with a wider lens. If are shooting in 1080 mode the ETC function really doubles down what you can capture with these new Panasonic cams.

To be able to shoot low light, landscape, portrait and moving action all with one fast lens is such an advantage. There really is no other system and body that can do what the GH4 can do with one fast wide like the 15 or 17mm.

Cheers,
Pete
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Old May 12th, 2014, 01:48 AM   #23
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Re: if I get a GH4, and just one lens...

I use my 12mm on a blackbird steadicam, you write you have used a ex1 and now have a pmw200 so if I understand right you don't have any experience with shooting a dslr?

I think you still think to much in terms of a regular videocamera, allthough the gh4 will give some features that are found back on real videocamera's it will still be very limited in use and functionality to what you are used to with your pmw200. Autofocus would not be nearly as good as on a videocamera, a powerzoom is non exsisting so you need to zoom manually but it will be not smooth at all, nd filtyer will be missing so you will have to use a screw on filter which you need to take off inside, exposure cannot be changed stepless, unless you get a Samyang cinelens but you"ll loose autofocus and stabilisation, I think a speedbooster with a all manual lens could be a option to get stepless exposurechanges but not that sure about that.
You will also notice stabilisation is a must if you shoot handheld and while you could use a 25mm prime lens handheld you will get jitters in your image, unless you use a Omympus omd series that has incamera stabilization but that camera has a weak and very limited codecs, any lens with a longer focal range that is not stabilized will be virtually impossible to get smooth looking images out of it handheld.
You will need to find workarounds for good audio because in camera audio moslty sucks on dslr's, there are probably some more limitations compared to videocamera's if I think about it but in any way, expect a a big change in the way you are used to operate your real videocamera's.
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Old May 12th, 2014, 01:54 AM   #24
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Re: if I get a GH4, and just one lens...

If I had to get just one lens it would be the 12-35mm f2.8.
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Old May 12th, 2014, 02:14 PM   #25
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Re: if I get a GH4, and just one lens...

Pete—the main points that I take away from your posts are that a fast lens (for example, the Panasonic 15mm f/1.7) would give me more to work with than a slower lens that zooms, as long as I’m prepared to move around… which I am.
There are limits to this thinking, of course, as others have pointed out, and the fact that the super-fast Voigtlander 17.5mm f/0.95 doesn’t have any stabilization or autofocus would make it much harder to work with than a Panasonic lens. I'm used to focussing manually, but I'm getting the sense that this will be harder to do with a GH4 than with my PMW-200. I also always use my PMW-200's image stabilization feature, so I'm not used to working without that.
The other key point I'm taking away from your posts is that you use a camera stabilizer (that you’re developing). Is this because your lens (the Olympus 17mm f/1.8) doesn't have built-in image stabilization? Or would you use your jib-pole stabilizer even if you were using the Panasonic lens you mentioned (the 15mm, f/1.7) that does have image-stabilization?

Noa, you also like very fast lenses, and you make it very clear that for a camera like the GH4, “stabilization is a must” for handheld shooting (you use the Blackbird Steadicam, which I’m investigating). For you, it seems to me, a stabilization system is a must, even if a person were to use a lens that has image stabilization built in. Is that right?

By the way, Pete, your freezeframe of the fellow holding the cutthroat trout is gorgeous! Was this in Utah somewhere? It reminds me of the barren lands in northern Canada, but I don’t think cutthroat trout live up there. I think it must be a mountain lake, above the treeline?
And Noa—your work (I checked out some of your Personal videos) is incredibly beautiful. Much more beautifully composed visuals than anything I’ve ever recorded. It all makes me wonder if I should forget about gorgeous shallow-depth-of-field visuals and just stick with my PMW-200 video camera. Very humbling... but also inspiring!
Anyway, I do appreciate the advice from all of you.
Malcolm
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Old May 12th, 2014, 04:28 PM   #26
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Re: if I get a GH4, and just one lens...

My recommendation is to get a GH3 or GH4, a couple of lenses, and practice your photographic technique, if you have money to spare, with stills and video. If you search the forums you'll find a few people who have ditched their DSLR and M4/3 cameras for a return to regular video cameras in specific situations. The reason: The DSLR cameras are really hard to use in point and shoot situations such as weddings, parties, sports, etc. The focus, the zoom, the audio. None of these are easy on a DSLR. Neither on a consumer video camera but the semi-pro and pro video cameras have these down to a science.

I just filmed an interview, single person shooter situation, where the interviewee had to be in and out as fast as I could manage. I would rather have used my GH3 and a 20mm or 45mm lens but between the quick set-up and the complications with a using a Zoom recorder for the audio, I chose to use a JVC HM-600. Lit the room with 2 point lighting, set-up the camera and microphone all in ten minutes, sat the subject down, recorded and finished. Everybody happy. The background could have used some DOF but I would have needed another ten minutes to set up properly with the GH3. Also the subject was prone to leaning back and forth and then suddenly during the filming picked up a prop which I zoomed in on following the description of the subject. The leaning would have been hard to deal with with shallow DOF and forget the zooming in on the prop with a 20 or 45.
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Old May 19th, 2014, 02:13 AM   #27
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Re: if I get a GH4, and just one lens...

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Originally Posted by Malcolm Hamilton View Post
Learning to use a camera in all manual mode was difficult, and I still struggle with things sometimes when I'm shooting under pressure, on-the-fly (luckily I'm the person who edits the stuff that I shoot, so I'm forgiving). I do videos for NGOs whose cause I like, and short and longer documentaries when I manage to piece together a shoestring budget, and other things, and I really do enjoy it. Recently my daughter asked me to shoot a music video for her and of course I couldn't say no.
...I don't really mind not being able to zoom (if I want a tighter shot I'll walk closer), but image-stabilization would be good. I need to be able to seamlessly change exposure as I move around.
Yours hopefully,
Malcolm
Malcolm,

You mentioned that you struggle sometimes so I am going to respond based upon that and some other things not mentioned yet. While it might be nice to have a GH4, you might consider getting 2 cameras and multiple lens so you have more material to work with after the fact. I suggest you might look at the Panasonic G6 because it has wifi which you can control remotely even though it records AVCHD. You can buy several of those and still have money left over for multiple lens.

As you can see there is a wide range of recommendations for lenses. I am not sure what you mean when you say you need to change exposure seamlessly as you move around, but you won't find that you can do that with the Panasonic lenses easily unless you allow the camera to do it for you.

The Voigtlander and Rokinon lenses give you manual controls and the Rokinon Cine lenses have gear rings that would allow you to more easily control focus.

If you have lights for your subjects then the zooms people mentioned are good options but depending on how much of the environment you can control shooting music videos, you might want lenses that can do a better job in lower light situations.

You didn't mention if you would be using the camera at the same time as your Sony but if that is the case you might want to consider having a separate audio recorder as well.
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Old May 19th, 2014, 05:15 PM   #28
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Re: if I get a GH4, and just one lens...

Bill, and William, thanks for your posts. I do understand that a GH4 (and anything like it) will be much harder to use for any run-and-gun type shooting. I'll use my bona-fide video camera (the PMW-200) for that kind of stuff. My intention is to use the GH4 for interviews (for a start, anyway). I think I'll be able (given that I'll have the camera on a tripod for this kind of thing) to record good audio using my Sennheiser G2 set (I really hope I don't have to invest in the $2,000 interface that would allow XLR input). I agree with everything you say about a proper video camera allowing for faster set-up, and I'll keep that in mind, William.
The G6 does look like a very nice camera, Bill, but there are so many things I like about the GH4. I've been thinking about a camera like this ever since I first heard about the GH2. The GH3 then came along and I liked it, but kept a mental list of things I'd like to see improved and changed. I think the GH4 had everything on the list! (that so rarely happens).
I know I'll face some challenges, but I think I will indeed get it. And I've settled on the Panasonic 12-35mm lens, because it'll be the most versatile.
Regards everyone,
Malcolm
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Old May 20th, 2014, 01:02 PM   #29
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Re: if I get a GH4, and just one lens...

Here is a test I just did of my GH4 in 4K with 28-300mm Tamron.

With my 10-24mm and 28-300mm Tamron zooms I could cover a very wide range.
https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2915/...8615769c_k.jpg
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Old June 1st, 2014, 07:40 PM   #30
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Re: if I get a GH4, and just one lens...

Nice! Love the flowers and backyard shooting.
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