Need your advice on GH5 lenses

[howard]

Hello,

I currently own a Canon 24-70mm 2.8 mark i and the Canon 70-200mm 2.8 IS.  I have decided to get the GH5, but before I make the order, I have several questions I would like to ask for advice.

1. Should I keep my current lenses and buy the Speed booster? XL or Ultra? I inherited these lenses so not sure how good they are.

2. How well does Stabilization and Auto Focus work with the Speed Booster and Canon lenses on GH5 compared to native lenses or other lenses?

3. Would it be better to sell my lenses and get a different setup?  if so, which would you recommend?   Get native lenses or other lenses with Speed booster?

If I keep my Canons, my budget will be just for the Speed Booster.  But if I sell them, I'll have around an extra $2,000 dollars for lenses.

I will be mostly shooting for music videos.

I really liked these videos.  He is using the

Panasonic Leica 25mm 1.4
Panasonic Leica 42.5mm 1.2
Olympus 75mm 1.8

What do you think about it?

Thanks in advance!

-Howard

 

 

 

 

 

[jonpais]

I know many here will disagree, but I'd go with native lenses. One of the chief reasons for shooting m43 is its compactness. The lenses Robert John uses are among the very finest in the micro four thirds system. Focusing will also be much faster with native lenses. Whatever you decide, stabilization works fine with adapted lenses, so I wouldn't choose one over the other based solely on stabilization alone. 

[Rinad Amir]

Defiantly go native you wont regret 

its lighter you get fulll 5axis ibib autofocus 

 

[ntblowz]

We just finished a MV with GH5 and Zhiyan Crane, using Olympus 12mm f2, Pana 25mm 1.7, Pana 42.5mm 1.7, Voigtlander 17.5mm 0.95, footage look pretty good, shoot everything 4K50P,  We did have Sigma Art lens with Speedbooster but doesnt use them at end since it mostly shot on gimbal with few handheld on Voigtlander lens

We can change the 3 primes without rebalancing the gimbal which speed up the flow.

Having a good gaffer make scene look so much more amazing and higher production value.

[Andrew Reid]

How about the Voigtlander 10.5mm F0.95?

Anyone tried this yet?

[aldolega]

Native works only if the GH5's autofocus works well enough for your needs, or if you shoot exclusively locked-off shots with a fixed focus distance (sit-down interviews etc).

Otherwise, you will be manually focusing, and the native lenses kind of suck for manual focusing.

Personally I would keep the 70-200 and sell off the 24-70, because even with the XL booster the 24-70 will still only be a 32mm equivalent at the wide end, which is narrower than I would need. Then I would go with the Sigma 18-35mm f1.8, and hopefully add a fast 50mm at some point, to give you something between 35mm and 70mm, which is a sizable gap in coverage.

Or you could do the Canon 17-55mm f2.8. This is slower than the Sigma of course, but you likely won't notice the gap between 55mm and 70mm much, if at all. You will have to remove the plastic shroud around the rear element for it not to collide with the Speedbooster optics.

As for XL vs. Ultra, IMO that comes down to how willing you are to deal with vignetting and workarounds for it. The 18-35mm will vignette at the wide end with the XL, especially with IBIS working. You can either crop in post, or be sure to not zoom wider than 21mm or so. With the Ultra you should be fine to zoom to any length and use IBIS.

Not sure if the 17-55mm would do the same; if it has a larger image circle than the Sigma it shouldn't.

If you stay with the 24-70, go for the XL, as it won't vignette since it's a full-frame lens.

[Orangenz]

13 minutes ago, aldolega said:

Native works only if the GH5's autofocus works well enough for your needs, or if you shoot exclusively locked-off shots with a fixed focus distance (sit-down interviews etc).

Otherwise, you will be manually focusing, and the native lenses kind of suck for manual focusing.

Manual mode, touch to AF or AF unlock. Much easier and pretty important in 4k. 

[TheRenaissanceMan]

Veydra, Voigtlander, or SLR Magic. Not the most compact, but solid metal primes that provide lovely imagery with little fuss. 

Veydra are the sharpest and have the best mechanics.

Voigtlander have the fastest apertures and are the most widely available.

SLR Magic are the most affordable and (imo) have the nicest aesthetic.

[Teemu]

As others has mentioned it depends a lot of your shooting style and what you want from your lenses.

I had several m43 native lenses used them but never was quite happy. Too sharp, too digital, not good for manual use (which I use always) not enough charracter. So I sold everything and invested in Canon FD glass fully cine converted (machined to EF mount, clickless, standard mattebox/filter sizes) and haven't regred the decission a day.

Also have many old soviet lenses if I am even more charracter hungry.

Have used many Canon modern L lenses also: 16-35, 24-70, 70-200 and primes 24, 35, 50, 85, 135. Nice glass, sharp images and like the Canon warm tone. But those lenses are not for video use. Focus throw sucks, zooms are always loosing the focus when touched even a bit and also heavy compared to vintage FF lenses.

But consider your style and likes to shoot. It might be best for YOU to keep already owned glass and adapt them to new camera. Always invest in glass not in camera body. It's easier to invest good future proof glass than camera.

[jonpais]

Agree about investing in glass, but not sure what future proof means. I don't think m43 is going away any time soon. Sigma, Samyang/Rokinon, SLR Magic, Kowa, Voigtlander, DJI, Blackmagic, JVC and Schneider are just a few of the manufacturers who have joined the micro four thirds consortium, which demonstrates great confidence in the future of micro four thirds. Also, since the OP already says he thinks the above videos are wonderful, I'm guessing he doesn't necessarily buy the often repeated phrase that all m43 lenses are too sharp and digital looking. For every over-sharpened video I see shot on m43, I see just as many mushy ones taken with hybrid APS-C cameras. Thankfully, as @TheRenaissanceMan states, there also happen to be several third party manufacturers like Veydra and Voigtlander, whose lenses are not only wholly manual, but also excellent optically. In fact, there are few, if any, manufacturers who build lenses of old-world quality like Voigtlander; I think I recall someone once saying they even purchased a m43 camera because of the Nokton lenses alone. Additionally, some of these full frame lenses approach 1 Kg in weight, whereas a typical Panasonic prime or zoom might be around 300 gr. And as another forum member already said, the light weight of native glass has the added advantage of being able to fly the camera on an inexpensive single handed gimbal as well. Since the OP has said he'll be shooting music videos, I'm assuming a gimbal will come in very handy. Since he's also on a limited budget, a single-handed gimbal costs much less than something like the DJI Ronin. If you shoot with these small primes and zooms, it's very discreet, you can shoot just about anywhere without attracting unwanted attention. 

[BTM_Pix]

The versatility of the mount is writ large in this thread.

Makes it all the more baffling why Panasonic didn't make it at least an option on their new camera.

 

[jonpais]

As an added bonus, should the OP decide to shoot anamorphic, SLR Magic is there, and I wouldn't be at all surprised, given the popularity of the GH5, if Veydra decided to proceed with their plans to make an anamorphic lens as well.

[TwoScoops]

12 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

How about the Voigtlander 10.5mm F0.95?

Anyone tried this yet?

 

Had it last year. It's up to their usual standard; on par with the Voigt 25 and 42.5 and almost as good as the 17.5. 

[jonpais]

I have never used the Voigtlander 10.5mm, but according to Lenstip, the lens is a resounding failure. Among the list of cons:

weak image quality on the edge of the field of view,

huge vignetting,

monstrous coma,

high astigmatism,

visible spherical aberration,

significant field curvature,

ugly out of focus areas,

field of view over two degrees narrower than stated in the specifications,

weak price/optics quality ratio.

[mercer]

1 minute ago, jonpais said:

I have never used the Voigtlander 10.5mm, but according to Lenstip, the lens is a resounding failure. Among the list of cons:

weak image quality on the edge of the field of view,

huge vignetting,

monstrous coma,

high astigmatism,

visible spherical aberration,

significant field curvature,

ugly out of focus areas,

field of view over two degrees narrower than stated in the specifications,

weak price/optics quality ratio.

So it has some character?

[jonpais]

10 minutes ago, mercer said:

So it has some character?

You might say that!

[Fritz Pierre]

The slrmagic lenses are lovely...occasionally the 25 & 35 are offered as a pair at a great price....they balance beautifully with theGH4/5 for handheld...I have a set of FD primes on a speedbooster...the problem is below 20mm they get very expensive and slow...so if you go that route, you'd need to pair them with something like a Tokina 11-16 Not sure what that would do on IBIS on an Utra speedbooster, but you can simply zoom till any vignette dissapears or fix in post...personally I would sell the EFs and get the SLRmagics....the pricey one is the 10mm...I own the 12 and decided to stick with that...a 12, 17,25 & 35 make a lovely set...the 12 is 570 T1.7...the 10 is 700 T2.1 and comes with a variable no as part of a kit at B&H....