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Yup, prime, though I hear the AF speed is a bit slow compared to other native GH2 lenses. I'd say get that over the kit lens either way because of the significant difference in aperture. The kit lens is really only good in daylight unless you don't mind noise. Then just pick up a manual prime in a different focal length + adapter, and you have a good starter kit.

I still think you should get the 14-42mm but the Panasonic 14mm f2.8 is a really nice lens and very inexpensive. It looks like it's about the cheapest 14mm you can get: http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-Aspherical-Thirds-Interchangeable-Cameras/dp/B008R6F6HG/ref=pd_sim_sbs_p_2 Oh and check out this guys website where he does some really great scientific comparisons between different micro 4/3 lenses: http://m43photo.blogspot.com About Neutral Density filter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_density_filter Basically, it allows you to shoot wide open aperture in full daylight by cutting down the light entering the lens. It's so you can get that shallow depth of field look in brightly lit scenes. A variable ND filter is actually two pieces of specially coated glass that rotate against each other. The more you rotate the top glass, the less light gets through. It's an indispensable tool and great for outdoor shooting.

In FCP X, there are no 'issues' with the GH2. You also won't need 5D2RGB. Just skim through the import-window with patience, in order not to crash the program by to hecticly hopping between AVCHD files, choose your desired clips, hit 'import' and leave the 'optimized media' preset at it's default (ProRes like with 5D2RGB). Then meticulously tag and rename the clips in the event browser, avoid too fast skimming movements between clips. Once you are finished, the selected clips have been transcoded in the background and you can create a project. With this workflow and disciplin you won't see the beachball even on slower macs and will be faster than with every other NLE.

wait with the follow focus rig. For the start you need some decent primes and a decent tripod. Without a decent tripod you wont do good. Then later you can think about a decent microphone. But primes and tripod first. The gh2 onboard mic is ok for the start, not for professional work of course. I suggest you get a wide lens (14mm) and 28 or 35mm. Then perhaps a lens like 85mm. The kit lens is not that bad if you can get it cheaply. ND filters you need for filming with shallow depth of field during the day or with a lot of sunlight. But i tell you, you will need patience to get used to all kind of settings and till you find out how things work. It took me quite a while when i entered the DSLR-world (although technically the gh2 is not a dslr) to start figuring out which option does what. This forum is a good place to learn about things. Same as personal-view. But always try to search the forums first, because most of the starting questions have been asked many times.

Yup, I've got one of those for my Nikon G (electronic aperture) lenses and it works just fine. Just be aware that if you're also using lenses with electronically actuated apertures, the adjustment ring on that adapter is very coarse, with a very short adjustment range (still goes from min to max aperture). It's pretty much impossible to get any type of repeatable precision when setting the aperture. If you're just adjusting aperture based on the appearance of the light and/or bokeh in the scene, that adapter is fine. But if you need to know the precise aperture setting being used, and/or be able to return to it later, you'll need an expensive adapter with a fine adjustment. One of the biggest reasons to get fully manual primes.

Canon and Nikon are pretty similar, though Nikons tend to be a bit sharper more often than not, especially when you get to the higher end primes that are also more contrasty and colorful. There are adapters for each specific brand/lens mount. Even the cheap ones work (around $25), though may need a bit of tightening (slip a knife in the prongs of the mount). If you look hard enough, you can probably get an old F/1.8-2.8 prime between 28-55mm without issues for as low as $50, though they usually hover around $100. Go wider/longer/faster and the price starts to go up. The biggest limitation when using primes on a GH2 is when it comes to wide angles. You'll usually find down to 28mm cheaply enough, but things start to get more expensive past that. Primes tend to bottom out at 20mm, too, which is about a 40mm equivalent on the GH2. Not very wide. I have a Nikon-mount Tokina 11-16mm F/2.8 so I can go wider than that (about 22-32, wide enough), though it's above your suggested budget at $650 (and needs a slightly more expensive adapter because no aperture ring). Sigma makes a cheaper, slower, wide angle lens that can work, too. A bonus to these is that under good lighting, you can use ETC mode's additional 2.6x crop for a normal field of view. Like having two lenses in one! :)

Yes, that adaptor will work on the GH2. Now for that particular lens, I'm going to offer my personal opinion. ;-) First off, I have a lens almost exactly like it but I paid about $40 for it. It's a Minolta 50mm f1.4. 50mm is about the most common lens you can find out there. Check ebay and I'm sure you'll see what I'm talking about. But here, there is a slight issue you should be aware of. The sensor in the GH2 is a micro 4/3 size. That means it's smaller then an APS-C sensor and even smaller then a full frame sensor. So, if you had a full frame sensor camera, a 50mm lens would be a 50mm lens just fine. But on a micro 4/3 camera, The sensor is actually crops the lens by 2x more then a full frame sensor. So a 50mm (which is about medium focal length on a full frame camera) is actually 100mm on the GH2! This means that a medium lens is actually a telephoto! Now, this is both good news and bad for some people. I love the look of telephoto. To me, I have this cool, 70's, raw documentary kind of romantic vision in my head. So this is right up my alley. However, a lot of people are really into wide angle or even fisheye lenses. If you look through the listings on ebay, you'll quickly see that wide angle lenses are some of the most expensive out there. To make things worse, what is considered wide to a full frame camera is actually medium focal length on a GH2 because of the 2x crop. So a 24mm lens is almost a 50mm on a GH2. So, you need to go down further and further in focal length to to actually get a wide angle look. The kit lens is 14mm-42mm so with the crop that's actually 28mm-84mm (which is actually perfect for most people's taste). So, the kind of lens that you'll be wanting to get is either something wider then 14mm (like a 7mm or 10mm) if you want to shoot skateboard videos... Or, something longer then 42 mm (like 100mm... well, you get the idea). But wait, there's a special trick that GH2 has that allows you to push in on the sensor to get a 2X telephoto zoom. It's kind of like digital zoom but it actually just grabs the middle 1920x1080 pixels of the full 16 megapixel image and gives you a 1:1 pixel ratio. So it is for all practical purposes a regular 2X zoom with the flick of a switch. One thing I also wanted to say about the Nikon lens you picked out. That lens is pretty expensive due in part to a lot of features that you wouldn't even be able to use on that camera. So, you need to keep in mind that even though Nikon lenses and Canon lenses and whatever lenses can be adapted to micro 4/3, the GH2 won't be able to use auto focus, in-body aperture control or optical image stabilization. Only the full manual lenses are of any use. If you really want those features, take a look at the Panasonic micro 4/3 lenses out there. They are expensive but very sharp. If you don't care about auto control, cruse ebay for old lenses. Search for "Nikon F mount", "Canon FD mount", "minolta MD", "Pentax PK", "Olympus OM" and "M42". These are all manual lens mounts and in general, pretty safe for the GH2. I have PK, F, and MD adaptors for my lenses and they all work great. The last thing I wanted to add was, if you have money burning a whole in your pocket, think about investing in some of the other tools you might need. Like a really nice tripod or a follow focus rig ( [url="http://www.amazon.com/Camera-Shoulder-Support-Handles-Standard/dp/B008MTRGJY/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=2JCTXBQZ88F4F&coliid=IXXSDLH9NRU1G"]I've had my eye on this[/url] ) or a nice veriable-ND filter with some stepper rings. Reflectors, lights, soft boxes, etc, etc... [edit: hmmm. Looks like I took so long responding that two other got there before I could! :-D]

I double all of the above.. I'm also glad you posted this here instead of Personal View... It's good to see you still have a good self-esteem:) A GH2 with the 64gb, 95mbps Sandisk Extreme Pro card... Others will disagree, but this is the only card that has "never" stopped recording on me from 2 years of personal experience.. So don't skimp on that... Get it if you can afford it and plan on using patches with bit rates around 150+ A GH2 with a set of old fast manual Nikon AIS's or Canon FD's (especially the older 'ssc' ones) - will make it sing. Then buy the proper corresponding adapter for around $30. (Sorry.. I'm sure Novoflex is awesome for $200... But come on.). Get a variable ND, and make a movie man.

My grandma used to say: "The food enters first though the eyes" She was right. This design is like a sticky divorce, it doesn't match the modern design of the camera.

Which adaptor you buy depends on the mount of the lens you buy. So for example, if you get a nikon lens, then you'll need a Nikon F mount to micro 4/3 adaptor or if you get a minolta lens, you need a minolta MD mount to micro 4/3 adaptor etc., etc. I feel like lenses are kind of a subjective thing. They arguably have the largest influence on you final image. So what lens you need will be dictated by what kind of look you are going for. At least that's what I think anyway. :-) I would definitely recommend getting the kit lens with the camera. I got a GH1 body only because I already had a bunch of old lenses but now I'm really wishing I had a nice simple zooming autofocus lens with image stabilization so that I would just quickly pop off a shot now and then or shoot hand held any time I felt like it. As it is, I always need to use some kind of rig and I often miss a shot because I'm busy focusing. Not that I would use it all the time it's just nice to have for those quick, in the moment times. From what I hear, the panasonic 14-42mm is actually a really nice lens. In fact, I would recommend starting with that, shooting with it for a while and seeing what it is that you feel it's lacking and then using that to inform your next lens purchase.

Looks like a starfighter from Star Wars - not bad! And I'm sure it's well crafted, but for €750 + tax? A-aa.

Have you considered the GH2? Bang for a buck especially with the GH3 around the corner. You also get a lot of very nice old prime lenses on ebay for little money.

[quote name='sanveer' timestamp='1348017279' post='18545'] Vitaly just makes Tall Claims. He has an opinion on Every programmer on the Planet. If he were so smart, Panasonic would have had him, on board, by now. They have their reasons. And,obviously, he has his. [/quote] :lol: LOL!! Probably very true. [quote name='sanveer' timestamp='1348017279' post='18545'] He did hack the GH2, and maybe, it made colouring and grading a little easier. But, the picture Profile is Exactly the same. Whether he says than in Russian, or in French, or in English. That won't affect the truth. [/quote] Yep...If they hacked the picture profile and made curves possible and got the I Dynamic function working properly. I would buy two more, not just one as I am now planning.