jonpais

Precisely which cheaper Canon lenses are you referring to? And by 'not in the same league', do you mean the OIS, image quality, build, or what? Are you suggesting the OP buy a Canon lens and adaptor? And if so, which fast and wide Canon lens and adapter would you recommend he buy for the G7?

I just did a search of eBay as well, and can't find Damphousse's cheap 12-35mm either.

I paid way more for my 12-35mm, but not once did I think the stabilization sucked, nor did I ever regret my purchase. Though I do dislike the plasticky feel and fly-by-wire focusing, if the OP can find this lens for $500, it would still be a steal in my opinion. However, I would still caution against being trapped in the micro four thirds ecosystem, as much as I like it for video: even though more and more manufacturers are producing micro 4/3 mount lenses (Rokinon has announced a new 50mm f/1.2 for around $500-$600!), more affordable large sensor prosumer cameras are coming out each year, and my pile of 4/3 lenses will eventually become obsolete. I think it makes more sense to invest in the finest lenses you can afford, and choose the camera body according to your needs. Incidentally, Okamata, what exactly are you shooting? Are you even shooting video?

Can you share the link?

Flynn, cool down, will you?

Flynn, hold your horses.

I think they believe the OP asked what their favorite lens is You will without a doubt be very happy with the 12-35mm f/2.8, but it really isn't a great deal wider than what you've already got. And after a while, the relatively slow aperture of f/2.8 could be limiting. It took me a long while, but I just had to accept that most of the lenses I wanted for my GH4 weren't stabilized, so I went ahead and got them and never looked back. For the really wide lenses, stabilization isn't quite the problem it is with longer focal lengths anyway. Just pick up a Gorilla Pod or something to help stabilize the lens. Some of the clips shot with vintage lenses are pretty cool, but I would never recommend them as a primary lens. Buy the best you can afford, and if you like, add some inexpensive vintage lenses to your kit later.

All the above good suggestions: the Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 is crisp and lightweight, and the Sigma Art line offers great value. The Panasonic 42.5mm and Mitakon 25mm f/0.95 are not wide options; moreover, the Mitakon is unlikely to give as sharp results as the other recommendations above. But if you really want wide coverage and low light performance, I would also go with either the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 or the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 + Speed Booster XL 0.64. The newer Tokina 11-20mm is even better, but not sure if it is compatible with the Speed Booster. If you value stabilization above all else, only the Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 has OIS.

The Dell XPS weighs in at 11 pounds, or double the weight of the MacBook 15", and again, it is only $500 less than the MacBook. But yes, I think at $1,000 you get what you pay for, and Don's suggestions should point you in the right direction. You will regret buying a low-spec'd machine every time you boot it up: buy the very best you can afford.

barefoot - I don't think these two laptops are similarly spec'd at all. You will need the 16GB RAM if you plan on doing serious video editing, and the 5400 RPM HDD in the Acer is way too slow. From what I've read, the screen on the Acer is dim and battery life is dismal. You can upgrade, but that would bring the price up to around $1,500 or more - not worth it, in my opinion. I still fail to understand why working professionals are ready to spend $3,000 or more on a camera body but skimp when it comes to the computer and storage. I'm sure you can buy the MacBook and still afford to buy more lenses if you're a working pro. I didn't check prices for the other laptops, but the Lenovo P70 will run around $2,000, so the OP wouldn't be saving any money. The P70 weighs over 7.5 pounds, so it is hardly 'portable'. However, it appears to have quite good specs!

Did you run into any problems installing ver.2.4?

I must be dumb, but I don't see anywhere how to download Ver.2.3 firmware without the key provided by Panasonic. Can't anyone answer this question?

Super clean for such high ISO on GH4. I'm impressed.

I have 2 pleas: can anyone tell me if it's necessary to use an external monitor with LUT; and can anyone point me to a video on how exactly to download V2.3? I can't seem to find the bin files anywhere, just a cube file. Screen shots of the firmware upgrade V2.3 would be invaluable. I've upgraded several times at Panasonic's page, but this update is confusing as heck. Thanks in advance!

which one of these files am I supposed to download onto the SD card?

enough already, gentlemen. let's keep it civil.

Both Ming Thein and Lloyd Chambers were fortunate enough to be invited to spend a few days at Zeiss, and both came away highly impressed. Addressing videographers, Lloyd Chambers had this to say about the Milvus line: Another strength of the Milvus design is video—the focusing feel and throw are superb, the bokeh (out of focus blur style) is exceptionally uniform and pleasing across the field. Pulling focus with the Milvus lenses has to be as good as anything out there, short of cine lenses sporting dedicated mechanical features for video. Concerning lenses, Ming Thein had this to say: I think you can see by this point that the argument for a lens system as opposed to a camera system is starting to make a lot of sense: you have one set of lenses that works on everything, and simply pick the best body for the job. Like the OP, I also love my GH4; but I can't say that I won't be getting another camera system sometime in the future: so buying full-frame or APS-C primes makes more sense to me than purchasing micro four-thirds lenses.

This camera looks awesome, but yeah, probably have to tack on another grand for shoulder mount, extra batteries, memory cards - still a bargain as far as I can see. I also can't wait to see more footage.

Will it be absolutely essential to use a monitor with LUT when shooting V-LOG Lite? I'm asking because I'm seriously considering the soon-to-be-released Aputure 7" 1920X1080 external monitor, but it is very basic.

I found the article to be long, rambling and confused. There is no clear idea stated in the intro, and the conclusion mentions a bunch of cameras not even dicussed in the body paragraphs. And it is unclear exactly what 'sliding scale' refers to. what have the bible and crucifix got anything at all to do with this discussion?

Hi Fredrik, I haven't shot with either the Veydra or Milvus lineup yet, nor do I have any experience with the cheaper PanLeica lenses. I own a Panny 12-35 f/2.8 and 35-100 f/2.8, a Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 and Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8. I use a Metabones Speed Booster XL. Since working with adapted lenses, the crop factor and slower speed of many micro 4/3 lenses seems limiting. There is also something to be said about the build quality of lenses like the Voigtlander or Milvus, which makes handling them a pure joy. And yes, no more fly by wire focusing. And the focus peaking on the GH4 makes getting tack sharp images at apertures as wide as f/1.1 a breeze. Still, the Panasonic lenses are very compact and light and they deliver crisp images, and may be preferable under certain circumstances, such as when using a gimbal. While I love cine lenses, I am not a professional videographer, so stills lenses are fine by me.

why would you buy a cine lens if you shoot stills when for a touch more, you can buy a faster and optically superior Zeiss Milvus lens, which can be used when you upgrade to the Blackmagic Ursa mini if you're shooting video or other larger format stills cameras. At this point, I can't see the purpose of relatively slow primes when there are so many other reasonably-priced options out there, and weather-sealed to boot.

good video demonstration of the autofocus capabilities of the Metabones. I'd say unfortunately it doesn't work in video mode, but I no longer use autofocus when filming anyway.

Has anyone here tried using the new Tokina 11-20mm f/2.8 with the Metabones XL? I just read a glowing review of the Tokina over at LensTip...

I'm failing to see what's so special about this footage. I was struck by how clean it is though: it is reassuring that at base 800 ISO, there isn't a great deal of noise. But it appears as though the footage has been slightly overexposed - I notice when I shoot with the GH4, the image gets really noisy in the shadows when they are underexposed by as much as 1 stop. I'm not a fanboy by any means, but there is no way that this clip compares with some of the excellent color I've seen from Canon.