Leaderboard

Reasonably well thanks - will write it up soon!

Since one of the stated reasons for documenting the journey was accountability, how did your first night of shooting go?

For AF-S, unless you're shooting really fast-moving subjects (sports, race cars, etc), nearly every AF lens made since 1995 will be fine. Even stinkers like the Canon EF 85/1.2L are workable. With DFD, Panasonic made AF-C CDAF about as good as it seems likely ever to be. If not for the pulsing on still subjects, it would probably be enough for most projects. My GH5 was always frustratingly close to being usable with AF. Sure - people make a big deal of super fast apertures and extreme shallow DOF these days, but f/5.6 at 140mm is still relatively shallow, even on M43. Heck, even the RF 800/11 has relatively shallow DOF on FF. I'd add "Don't make yourself miserable by hauling around a boat anchor on a strap around your neck all day and night."

(My bold) I agree - I'm often taking video of moving vehicles where I also want the background reasonably in focus to provide context for the image, so shallow DOF just doesn't work for me/isn't the 'look' I want. (I also often shoot wildlife stills and video - the inevitable shallow DOF due to long lenses is a real pain to deal with when you might only have a few seconds to get the shot and there are tree branches/twigs in the way - which the AF prefers to focus on of course...) One reason I often prefer the Pana 14-140 F3.5-F5.6 over the 12-60 F3.5-F5.6 (which I also own) is that the aperture drop off with focal length is slower over the wide to mid range - though the 12-60 is a bit smaller and lighter and much cheaper used.

The size and cost of the 14/2.5 and 20/1.7 sure make them compelling lenses to own and carry around with you, that's for sure. I don't know what the AF is like on the 20mm but all I do is frame up a composition, do a single AF-S via a custom button, then hit record and maintain the focus distance during the clip. I shoot short clips for the edit, so I don't need or want AF-C. From that perspective the 20mm might be just fine. The alternative is manually focusing with peaking, which would likely take longer than most AF. Speaking of AF speed, I read something the other day - it said that Panasonics DFD sped up their CDAF, and I realised that I never see a CDAF Panasonic camera doing that thing where the focus racks the whole way to one end and then the whole way to the other end before acquiring focus, it just seems to do a quick jitter and it's done. I never thought about that being DFD but I guess it is. I watched a lot of landscape photographer YT (Thomas Heaton etc) and they made a strong case for landscapes being shot with wide lenses and ultra-long lenses. Some of those shots that show just the jagged peak of the mountain or the lone tree or castle on a distant hilltop can be the most stunning. Some time ago I realised that DOF depends not only on aperture but also on focal length, so although a variable zoom gets slower as it gets longer (making the DOF deeper), it's also getting longer as it's getting longer (making the DOF shallower) and so I did a bunch of math to calculate DOF of the same composition. I posted the results in some other thread somewhere here, but the summary is that a lot of variable aperture zooms are almost constant DOF lenses, when taking the same composition (ie, if you double the focal length then you'd be twice as far away for the same composition). Here's the table of the 14-140mm lens. The "Mid DoF" column is the DoF of a mid portrait shot (chest and up) and the "Close DoF" is just top of shoulders and up: It's not constant DoF but it's pretty close. I then realised that for my environmental portraits, where I want the subject in focus but the background should at least be recognisable, I didn't want something that just had the subject floating in a sea of mush. Also, nailing focus is more important to me than shallower DoF, and if the focus isn't going to get it perfect every time, and also pick the right focus subject each time, or if there are two people next to each other but slightly different distances from the camera because I'm not standing exactly 90-degrees to the line between them, then I'd rather the DoF be a few meters rather than the shot be missed. The other reason to have a fast lens is the low-light capabilities. FF obviously has the advantage because, all else being equal it gets 4x the amount of light onto the sensor, but this has to be balanced against the DoF which will also be radically shallower for the same T-stop. So if you don't want to shoot with a razor-thin DoF in low-light then you have to stop down. I find that in practice this would level the playing field in many compositions. Not all of them of course, and the seemingly greater investment in sensor technology from Sony in the larger sensors is also a factor, but it makes the topic more complex and far less one-sided than it might first appear. Yeah, it's definitely a case of "get the shot" first, "make the scene better by not making everyone uncomfortable" second, and "have a rig with a great image quality" third.

Gotcha - if you're more comfortable with the 35mm equivalent FOV, a 17ish vs a 20ish mm m43 lens makes total sense - and if you value AF, it's not your best option by far. From what I remember, it's a bit noisy and slow. I'm sure the Olympus 17 or the Panasonic 15 is faster. For me, the 14/2.5 and the 20/1.7 were no brains to keep in my kit when I was still using M43 because they were just so tiny. It felt silly not to bring them, especially since they're both really decent lenses. For me, the 75/1.8 was always useful for either portraits (though one has to stand a little further away than I like) or for landscapes (as I age, I like telephoto landscapes more and more - just choose the little bit of the scene that I want). The fast aperture let me get pretty sharp stuff even when shooting from a moving car or train without having to crank the ISO on a smaller sensor. At this point, I have a Summicron-M 90/2 ASPH so unless I'd need autofocus, I'd just prefer it for that sort of landscape shot (and on FF, it's a really nice length for portraits, to boot). Anyway, if you don't mind the aperture limitations of the 14-140 when it's racked to 75mm, you're definitely set there. For me, my travel kit contains a few redundant focal length primes - though they're less for the faster aperture now and more for being smaller/lighter/nondescript. Does 1 extra stop on the Fujinon 63/2.8 make any substantial difference than the 32-64/4 racked out? Not really. Is there any appreciable difference in quality on the prime? Not really. Are people more likely to ignore me when it's on there? Yes.

I have a similar unbranded lens that's f1.6. With the 2.5K crop mode, it's almost perfectly usable throughout the range. It's a fun little lens, and very versatile. The only downsides are the rotating filter threads, slight vignette at certain focal lengths, the zooming mechanisms/runners showing up in bokeh when shooting wide open, and spikey party-favor bokeh when closed down. So, there are some compromises. I was looking around the ZLKC storefront on AliExpress and there are lots of neat 1.1" c-mount lenses on offer. I would imagine that they would cover S16, but I can't find any reviews. Have you installed Crop Mood yet? The M becomes a whole new camera. Ah, yes. I remember that mod. It was one of my favorite threads on this site. Once you start getting into 1/2" lenses and smaller, it really is uncharted territory. Too bad there aren't many interchangeable lens cameras that can work with them.

If your looking at used S1, make sure it has the vlog upgrade or you'll need to figure that into the cost. Between the S1 and S5 I have both and prefer the S1, the full size HDMI will one day serve you well if you want to shoot RAW. If you haven't held either then visit somewhere that will let you experience the difference, the S1 is solid and feels reassuring but it is heavier which for me is a preference. The S1 viewfinder is more than twice the resolution and a joy to use. Both are great cameras but for me the S1 stands out. Good luck.