An adventure into the Panasonic GX85/80 begins - and a look at the Leica Nocticron for Micro Four Thirds

[jonpais]

Just now, Ronnie Amighetti said:

I beg to disagree, if you constantly shoot at 6400ISO or higher you'd better look for a brighter lens (even speed boosted) before changing camera and/or system. Just nitpicking I reckon. 

Okay.

[Dean]

A quick question if thats OK. I'm thinking of getting a SLR Magic 25/0.95 MTF. I realise I won't see any exposure data on the camera but will the exposure needle work? Will it tell me if I'm over or underexposed? Or will it be like it was on my BMPCC where I just have to look at the histogram? Cheers.

[aldolega]

Yea, you can get a faster lens, or switch to a booster system, but sometimes you need a deeper-than-two-inch DOF, though... and that's when high (6400+) ISO performance becomes irreplaceable. Shooting a naturally-dim/dark scene at F8 with very little noise is a unique look, and really only the Sonys can do it right now.

[jonpais]

56 minutes ago, Dean said:

A quick question if thats OK. I'm thinking of getting a SLR Magic 25/0.95 MTF. I realise I won't see any exposure data on the camera but will the exposure needle work? Will it tell me if I'm over or underexposed? Or will it be like it was on my BMPCC where I just have to look at the histogram? Cheers.

Don't worry - you'll still see exposure information in the camera. Be sure to enable 'shoot without lens' in the menu.

[Dean]

19 minutes ago, jonpais said:

Don't worry - you'll still see exposure information in the camera. Be sure to enable 'shoot without lens' in the menu.

Thank you, Jon !! Cheers.

 

[Dean]

21 hours ago, Dean said:

Thank you, Jon !! Cheers.

 

Another question ... If I'm using a 25mm manual lens on the camera, I'd enter 50mm into "Focal Length Set" wouldn't I?

[Ronnie Amighetti]

2 minutes ago, Dean said:

Another question ... If I'm using a 25mm manual lens on the camera, I'd enter 50mm into "Focal Length Set" wouldn't I?

My guess is no. Cropped or not it still is a 25mm.

[Mattias Burling]

Always put what the lens is.
The camera doesn't care what the working distance of that lens would be on other types of cameras.
It only cares what lens it is.

If using a speed booster though, then you need to adjust since the lens has changed.
But it is still uninterested in what distance it would be to fill the frame of a person on some old 35mm film camera.
So only reduce from the booster and leave "crop factor" out of it.
It has no relevance

[Dean]

Thanks gents. Will enter 25mm. Cheers !!

[Dean]

Few Test shots with the 25/0.95 SLR Magic on the GX85. SOOC ... no correction at all. Just exported ProRes422 Master on FCPX and uploaded to Vimeo.

Seems like a very nice lens. All these were taken @ 0.95 which seems usable up close but not from a distance (very low resolution @ 0.95 ... like my Nikon AiS 50/1.2 when used @ 1.2). By 1.4 things are looking good.

Focusing is silky on this lens and the IBIS makes using it handheld a dream !! Not sure I could ever use a no IBIS cam again.

I think these settings are fine for skin colours too. Looks very close to the actual colour of my wife's skin

The settings go well with FilmConvert GH4 Natural profile as well which I understand are developed to use at default levels anyway (Contrast & Saturation).

Natural

Contrast: 0

Sharpness: -5

Noise Reduction: -5

Saturation: 0

SLR Magic Vari ND

 

 

 

[Dean]

And some test shots with Film Convert (Film Convert (GH4 Profile / Natural / KD 5207 Vis3). Looks kinda filmic. LOL.

Same as above .. exported ProRes422 Master on FCPX and uploaded to Vimeo.

The last two scenes show what 0.95 is like when used at a distance. Not that nice

GX85

Natural

Contrast: 0

Sharpness: -5

Noise Reduction: -5

Saturation: 0

SLR Magic Vari ND

 

[kidzrevil]

not the gx85 but same sensor

 

[John Matthews]

9 minutes ago, kidzrevil said:

not the gx85 but same sensor

Nice look. Could you share settings and LUT that you applied? The NYPD sign looks like it belongs in Vegas. Cool.

[jonpais]

14 minutes ago, Dean said:

And some test shots with Film Convert (Film Convert (GH4 Profile / Natural / KD 5207 Vis3). Looks kinda filmic. LOL.

Same as above .. exported ProRes422 Master on FCPX and uploaded to Vimeo.

The last two scenes show what 0.95 is like when used at a distance. Not that nice

GX85

Natural

Contrast: 0

Sharpness: -5

Noise Reduction: -5

Saturation: 0

SLR Magic Vari ND

 

I prefer the colors straight out of the camera for this work to film convert. If you look at your mother's face, it appears to have less color, flatter, and the rosiness in her complexion disappears. But that could just be Vimeo, it won't stream for shit here in Vietnam, which is just one reason I prefer YouTube. Anyhow, looks like a decent lens, IBIS rules, and hope to see more stuff from you. Very good location for street photography.

[Dean]

3 hours ago, jonpais said:

I prefer the colors straight out of the camera for this work to film convert. If you look at your mother's face, it appears to have less color, flatter, and the rosiness in her complexion disappears. But that could just be Vimeo, it won't stream for shit here in Vietnam, which is just one reason I prefer YouTube. Anyhow, looks like a decent lens, IBIS rules, and hope to see more stuff from you. Very good location for street photography.

For street stuff, I much prefer some sort of gritty looking grade over a neutral look. But for close up skin tones like in the clip of my wife (not my mother btw  ... I won't tell her you said that. LOL) yes, for sure the first looks better.

HK is great for street photography ... very colourful and arty city with a broad mix of people. It's one of the many reasons I love living here  An amazing place for sure.

I have loads and loads of street clips I've shot with the GX85 & recently the G85 over the last two months but I've been to lazy to edit any of them but started going through them today looking for some interesting stuff. 

[dantheman]

4 hours ago, Dean said:

Few Test shots with the 25/0.95 SLR Magic on the GX85. SOOC ...

I think the close up from your wife look great, almost has a full frame look. It's a fact that these lenses get very soft wide open, at least from what I read in reviews but I prefer to have it like that because when you shoot close ups from faces it also hides skinimperfections better and gives more smooth skin which woman in particular will appreciate  

If you shoot from a distance then f0.95 doesn't make much sense to use so you normally would close the lens a few stops anyway, unless you are shooting in the dark. I do have to say it doesn't look as bad as I expected, your shots look pretty sharp compared to the very soft look I often see in films shot with a canon 5D

I was looking into getting a voighlander or slr magic lens but when it comes to price there are some hugh differences, in Belgium that slr magic 25mm lens is 1000euro but in the uk I can get it for 630euro (21% vat included in both cases), the voightlander 25mm is 950 in Belgium and 750 in the UK.

[Dean]

30 minutes ago, dantheman said:

I think the close up from your wife look great, almost has a full frame look. It's a fact that these lenses get very soft wide open, at least from what I read in reviews but I prefer to have it like that because when you shoot close ups from faces it also hides skinimperfections better and gives more smooth skin which woman in particular will appreciate  

If you shoot from a distance then f0.95 doesn't make much sense to use so you normally would close the lens a few stops anyway, unless you are shooting in the dark. I do have to say it doesn't look as bad as I expected, your shots look pretty sharp compared to the very soft look I often see in films shot with a canon 5D

I was looking into getting a voighlander or slr magic lens but when it comes to price there are some hugh differences, in Belgium that slr magic 25mm lens is 1000euro but in the uk I can get it for 630euro (21% vat included in both cases), the voightlander 25mm is 950 in Belgium and 750 in the UK.

That's crazy pricing !! 

I paid $3,800 HKD for it which is which is 460Euro. Why don't you just buy it from B&H ... $500 USD.

Luckily SLR Magic is a HK company. The lady from SLR Magic met me at the metro station near their office and sold it to me  

I must confess though, for street stuff, I reckon I'd mis a lot of shots with this lens because it's manual focus. Usually I just have the cam in AF-S, aim, acquire focus, press record then turn the ND or adjust ISO to get correct exposure and I'm off. Manual focusing is hard on the street. For controlled shooting no worries.

I'm getting a second hand 25/1.4 Panasonic tomorrow for $2,100 HKD which I'm looking forward to using. 50mm FOL is a nice length for street. Been using the 15/1.7 for a couple of months now and it's a bit to wide a lot of the times. The 25/1.4 will be a nice lens along with my 15/1.7 and my 42.5/1.7 ... a nice light trio for the GX85.

[dantheman]

It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on the 25mm f1./4 panasonic (which I have) vs your 25mm slr magic, if you think it's worth the purchase. 

Buying from B&H might be even more expensive for me, I would have to pay custom taxes, regular tax + sending costs, to bad we don't have a B&H in Europe

[kidzrevil]

I like the old nikkor ais lenses with speedbooster. They look so organic on the panny sensor . Very detailed without the oversharpened look

 

6 hours ago, John Matthews said:

Nice look. Could you share settings and LUT that you applied? The NYPD sign looks like it belongs in Vegas. Cool.

Its Cinelike D at default settings except -3 sharpness (terrible idea -5 works best) and -5 NR. I downscaled to 444 10bit 1080p & applied the Visioncolor Impulz LUT in the conversion process using Convert V4. The 1080p 10bit Cineon LOG files graded beautifully

[mercer]

4 hours ago, kidzrevil said:

I like the old nikkor ais lenses with speedbooster. They look so organic on the panny sensor . Very detailed without the oversharpened look

 

Its Cinelike D at default settings except -3 sharpness (terrible idea -5 works best) and -5 NR. I downscaled to 444 10bit 1080p & applied the Visioncolor Impulz LUT in the conversion process using Convert V4. The 1080p 10bit Cineon LOG files graded beautifully

Nice rack focus 0:57... seamless.