Appropriate focal length ?

[craigbuckley]

Trying to find a good focal length for my gh2 and its sensor crop.  I have the 12mm but its too wide and the 50mm is too much of a close up. I am either thinking the samyang 24mm or 35mm, and would like to some feedback on these two lenses with the gh2.

[matt2491]

Appropriate focal length for what? It all depends on what you're shooting.

[jgharding]

For a standard lens? Traditional thinking is that a 25mm lens will give you closest to 50mm on full frame, which is pretty much "standard".

 

Keep your 50mm for portraits and your 12mm for wides and you're good.

 

The 35mm is approaching the portrait range. A wide-portrait, if you will.

[craigbuckley]

Sorry yes I am looking for a medium/standard shot. The 12 is too wide and the 50mm is too close. And I thought the 35mm would be a little too close.

 

So 24/25mm it is. I thought I was shooting for 35mm not 50mm , so thats why I was looking at the 17.5mm focal length.

 

I have been looking at the Canon L series lenses to achieve the best quality, but I also found the rokinon/samyang 24mm and wondered if anyone could give me a comparison? Does the samyang/rokinon compare to the L series lens - quality wise? The samyang is half the price of the L lens..

[Julian]

For 2-megapixel (1080p) you don't need L-glass for the best quality. Samyang is pretty good. Cheap because it lacks AF, but the glass is very good.

[jgharding]

I like the look of Samyang, yes. They make good lenses for the cash. 

 

I'm not a big fan of L-glass anyway. It wins resolution tests and other such anal things against Zeiss and Leica, but the resulting image is lifeless in comparison, IMO.

[jgharding]

Here's an interesting and/or anal comparison of the higher end.

 

http://www.hurlbutvisuals.com/blog/2011/12/lens-test/

 

You could use any of them realistically. Once again though, in this test, I find the Canon ones to be a bit plastic and cartoony.