G85 my next step?

[aldolega]

4 hours ago, Dustin said:

What would be my cheapest route to convert the tamron f mount 17-50 f2.8? I actually have a decent kit of vintage primes as I shoot 35mm film and have a few different film cameras. Vintage lenses I could convert include a Olympus OM 50mm 1.8 (fantastically sharp on film anyways), Nikon E Series 28mm 2.8 and 50mm 1.8. Not sure how much the 5axis stabilization would help but surely I could use these until I could by a Panasonic lens. Also not sure if I'd want a speed booster/focal reducer? I know the Panasonic prime 1.7's are fairly cheap at under $200.

Cheapest way would be a simple ~$15 adapter, slightly more for an adapter with an aperture control ring/lever.

The difference in sensor size will give you the FOV of 34-100mm (FF equivalent), however, versus the lens being a 26-75mm equivalent on your D5300.

So really, with a simple adapter, it will be a very different lens on the G85 than on the Nikon. Really, you want to be using a speedbooster to adapt your Nikon stuff, as this will make the G85's sensor effectively the same size as your Nikon's, and your lenses will look/feel the same as they do now. The speedbooster also helps counteract the Panasonic's weaker ISO performance, as it makes the exposure one stop brighter, allowing you to use a lower ISO.

The Mitakon/Zhongyi Lens Turbo II is the only halfway decent affordable speedbooster in my experience, and even then I got a lot of flaring/hazing in bright sunlight. The Metabones is the gold standard and you can find the first generation used in Nikon-m4/3 for around $250 on eBay.

OM will not really adapt to Nikon unfortunately; there are adapters with optical elements but those are garbage. A quick google search is bringing up replacement rear mounts, though, so that might work. Really though, the Olympus is like a $50 lens, you can easily grab a Nikon 50mm to replace it for not a whole lot more than the replacement mount for the Olympus.

IBIS works fantastically with adapted/manual/non-OIS lenses. I was skeptical that it would really get the job done by itself, and was planning on getting some native OIS lenses so I could run Dual IS, but I haven't needed it at all, and am running all manual lenses.

The native lenses are nice for having AF, auto-exposure, etc for photos. The Olympus 45mm f1.8 is pretty amazing and very affordable, I've had two; and I've heard the Panasonic 25mm f1.7 is pretty great too. The only thing that really sucks about native glass is manual focusing, if you want to do any sort of semi-controlled/repeatable focus pull you need manual glass.

[IronFilm]

4 hours ago, webrunner5 said:

Some have a Aperture control in them, about 125 bucks,

 Waaaay too high! Try less than 10% of that figure for Nikon G adapters.

[webrunner5]

Good to know.

[Inazuma]

8 hours ago, Dustin said:

What would be my cheapest route to convert the tamron f mount 17-50 f2.8? I actually have a decent kit of vintage primes as I shoot 35mm film and have a few different film cameras. Vintage lenses I could convert include a Olympus OM 50mm 1.8 (fantastically sharp on film anyways), Nikon E Series 28mm 2.8 and 50mm 1.8. Not sure how much the 5axis stabilization would help but surely I could use these until I could by a Panasonic lens. Also not sure if I'd want a speed booster/focal reducer? I know the Panasonic prime 1.7's are fairly cheap at under $200.

If you can afford it, get the Metabones Nikon G to Micro Four Thirds Speed Booster. If not, then get the cheaper Chinese knock offs. The Metabones is well worth the extra money though imo. 

[Dustin]

Thanks guys! Any reason my video didn't post with the playable thumbnail? It always has before?

[Dustin]

13 hours ago, aldolega said:

Cheapest way would be a simple ~$15 adapter, slightly more for an adapter with an aperture control ring/lever.

The difference in sensor size will give you the FOV of 34-100mm (FF equivalent), however, versus the lens being a 26-75mm equivalent on your D5300.

So really, with a simple adapter, it will be a very different lens on the G85 than on the Nikon. Really, you want to be using a speedbooster to adapt your Nikon stuff, as this will make the G85's sensor effectively the same size as your Nikon's, and your lenses will look/feel the same as they do now. The speedbooster also helps counteract the Panasonic's weaker ISO performance, as it makes the exposure one stop brighter, allowing you to use a lower ISO.

The Mitakon/Zhongyi Lens Turbo II is the only halfway decent affordable speedbooster in my experience, and even then I got a lot of flaring/hazing in bright sunlight. The Metabones is the gold standard and you can find the first generation used in Nikon-m4/3 for around $250 on eBay.

OM will not really adapt to Nikon unfortunately; there are adapters with optical elements but those are garbage. A quick google search is bringing up replacement rear mounts, though, so that might work. Really though, the Olympus is like a $50 lens, you can easily grab a Nikon 50mm to replace it for not a whole lot more than the replacement mount for the Olympus.

IBIS works fantastically with adapted/manual/non-OIS lenses. I was skeptical that it would really get the job done by itself, and was planning on getting some native OIS lenses so I could run Dual IS, but I haven't needed it at all, and am running all manual lenses.

The native lenses are nice for having AF, auto-exposure, etc for photos. The Olympus 45mm f1.8 is pretty amazing and very affordable, I've had two; and I've heard the Panasonic 25mm f1.7 is pretty great too. The only thing that really sucks about native glass is manual focusing, if you want to do any sort of semi-controlled/repeatable focus pull you need manual glass.

I misread this! Thanks!  So does it matter which speedbooster I need? I just re-read Andrews review and it sounded like he picked up the Xl which is $450   a bit out of my budget. I would already be stretching to get the g85 because I'm going to keep my d5300 for stills/b cam.

[Dustin]

10 hours ago, Inazuma said:

If you can afford it, get the Metabones Nikon G to Micro Four Thirds Speed Booster. If not, then get the cheaper Chinese knock offs. The Metabones is well worth the extra money though imo. 

What's the difference in this one and the ultra? Will both get me closer to the 35mm look?

 

http://www.metabones.com/products/details/MB_NFG-m43-BM1

[aldolega]

Your link is to the plain adapter, not a speedbooster. A plain adapter simply mounts the lens to the camera at the correct distance from the sensor, and does nothing to change/compensate for the smaller sensor size. It has no optical elements, basically just a tube with your camera's mount on one end and the lens mount on the other. You can get decent plain adapters for much less than Metabones' versions, however... Fotodiox is decent and usually around $20.

The Ultra is the newest Metabones booster in the .71x strength. This will take the G85 sensor up to about the size of your Nikon (actually slightly larger in 1080p, and slightly smaller in 4K, but very close).

The first .71x Metabones booster is a little less sharp than the Ultra, and has a touch more vignetting and corner softness, but is still miles better than any of the imitators IMO. Better build, aperture ring, less flaring, etc. This is the version you can usually find used for around $250. Same power/magnification as the Ultra.

The XL .64x is a little bit stronger power/magnification, and will take your effective sensor size up to around APS-H (1.3x) crop. Which is great but at this point many lenses designed for APS-C (like possibly your Tamron) will vignette, as they aren't designed to cover that large of a sensor. So your best bet is to stay with one of the .71x models.

[Dustin]

So early thoughts on the manfrotto evo 2...pretty cool! 

After shooting a bit with it I did notice it seemed to stabilize a bit better depending on how you held it. Nothing ground breaking but it does seem to possibly help a tad.

Where this actually will find the most use I'm thinking is maybe exactly as it intends, an out of the way portable tripod. I can also see this being a super awesome little mini lightstand to mount my aperture 198 on! At $30 I think it's a tad expensive but I think I will get plenty use of it even if I don't use it as a vlogging stick/stabilizer as intended.

[Cassius McGowan]

On 12/18/2017 at 4:36 PM, aldolega said:

I got my G85 for about $550 (got an open-box kit for $800, sold the kit lens for $250), and it was worth every penny just to get IBIS. The slightly improved lowlight and colors over my GH4 were also nice bonuses.

By far the best value for money for video right now IMO.

So would you consider the G85 better than the GH4 if you have both?

[webrunner5]

55 minutes ago, Cassius McGowan said:

So would you consider the G85 better than the GH4 if you have both?

Heck a Panny G7 is better than a GH4 for colors, and a few other goodies let alone a G85 being a Lot better with IBIS helping a ton alone just for that reason and even better colors etc...

Now they don't have all the Anamorphic stuff etc, that a GH4 has but most people only use 40% of what a GH4 had to offer anyways. Things have moved forward surprisingly fast over at Panasonic Land!

[aldolega]

On 12/21/2017 at 9:18 PM, Cassius McGowan said:

So would you consider the G85 better than the GH4 if you have both?

For my uses, yes. I do miss a few things about the GH4, but they’re easily outweighed by the things the G85 does better.

Im sure there’s a few people who the GH4 would be better suited for, but I think for the vast majority of shooters the G85 is the better choice.

[IronFilm]

On 12/20/2017 at 10:02 PM, aldolega said:

The XL .64x is a little bit stronger power/magnification, and will take your effective sensor size up to around APS-H (1.3x) crop. Which is great but at this point many lenses designed for APS-C (like possibly your Tamron) will vignette, as they aren't designed to cover that large of a sensor. So your best bet is to stay with one of the .71x models.

Plus you could get a non-Metabones focal reducer which is 0.71x, such as the RJ Lens Turbo which is dirt dirt cheap. 

Is what I use myself with my MFT cameras.

On 12/20/2017 at 10:02 PM, aldolega said:

Your link is to the plain adapter, not a speedbooster. A plain adapter simply mounts the lens to the camera at the correct distance from the sensor, and does nothing to change/compensate for the smaller sensor size. It has no optical elements, basically just a tube with your camera's mount on one end and the lens mount on the other. You can get decent plain adapters for much less than Metabones' versions, however... Fotodiox is decent and usually around $20.

This is one of the benefits of the Nikon lens system, their plain adapters are a tiny fraction of the cost of a Canon adapter. 

On 12/22/2017 at 4:13 PM, webrunner5 said:

Heck a Panny G7 is better than a GH4 for colors, and a few other goodies let alone a G85 being a Lot better with IBIS helping a ton alone just for that reason and even better colors etc...

Now they don't have all the Anamorphic stuff etc, that a GH4 has but most people only use 40% of what a GH4 had to offer anyways. Things have moved forward surprisingly fast over at Panasonic Land!

Yeah, and if you're going to buy the GH4 for the benefits its has (such as anamorphic or 10bit external) then you likely are not on a budget for a G85 anyway! And you should just buy a GH5 instead. 

So in short: a G85 beats a GH4 in every way*

(Exceptions: being in a few ways that are usually not relevant to a G85 buyer anyway, and if they matter to you... you should buy a GH5 instead! For instance who'd buy a GH4 for the 10bit external today?! For the cost of a GH4 + 4K recorder, you could just buy a GH5!!))

[Dustin]

@IronFilm definitely looking at the RJ Lens Turbo. Still debating the GX85/G85 in my mind but I know that I did want a stock flat profile, and IBIS so really it's just convincing myself to save a little extra even though I am already nearly half there used thanks to some gift cards.  

Also even though I've never used the mic input on my d5300 and just recorded sound separately to my tascam dr-07mkii, not having one kind of makes me worry. Granted as this will be my film camera anyway, I suppose I could always rig it up with a cage/top handle and just mount the tascam if need be. 

 

Ill probably just save a bit and go for the g85, sorry for the rant lol. I'll def need to get a cheap speedbooster as even a used 250-300 metabones is too expensive for me right now 

[mercer]

41 minutes ago, Dustin said:

Ill probably just save a bit and go for the g85, sorry for the rant lol. I'll def need to get a cheap speedbooster as even a used 250-300 metabones is too expensive for me right now 

Hey Dustin, although I agree that you should save the extra money and go for the G85, you can get CineLikeD and CineLikeV with the GX85 hack. There is a huge thread about it on here. But to be honest, I think the added weight of the G85 will help with the IBIS. When I owned the GX85, I found the IBIS to be really good but it wasn’t tripod steady, it had a floaty feeling to it.

Also, just in case you’re unsure how the IBIS works... if you’re using a non native zoom lens, then you will have to set the focal length every time you zoom in and out and if you are using a Speedbooster with the zoom, you will have to set the adjusted focal length, every time you zoom in or out.

[Dustin]

16 minutes ago, mercer said:

Hey Dustin, although I agree that you should save the extra money and go for the G85, you can get CineLikeD and CineLikeV with the GX85 hack. There is a huge thread about it on here. But to be honest, I think the added weight of the G85 will help with the IBIS. When I owned the GX85, I found the IBIS to be really good but it wasn’t tripod steady, it had a floaty feeling to it.

Also, just in case you’re unsure how the IBIS works... if you’re using a non native zoom lens, then you will have to set the focal length every time you zoom in and out and if you are using a Speedbooster with the zoom, you will have to set the adjusted focal length, every time you zoom in or out.

Thanks man! Yeah that's another thing that has me thinking! How quick is that process? Enough of a distraction to avoid shooting with a non-native zoom? I'm used to quirks being a d5300 owner just wanted to ask if it's enough of a quirk to bug you when shooting?

 I do have a Nikon 28mm 2.8 e series prime I'm quite fond of so I could throw that or pick up an cheap native prime I guess. And I wouldn't mind saving up in the long term for the 12-32 2.8 but in the short term I'd rather just go the adapter route

[mercer]

29 minutes ago, Dustin said:

Thanks man! Yeah that's another thing that has me thinking! How quick is that process? Enough of a distraction to avoid shooting with a non-native zoom? I'm used to quirks being a d5300 owner just wanted to ask if it's enough of a quirk to bug you when shooting?

 I do have a Nikon 28mm 2.8 e series prime I'm quite fond of so I could throw that or pick up an cheap native prime I guess. And I wouldn't mind saving up in the long term for the 12-32 2.8 but in the short term I'd rather just go the adapter route

You can set a button for it so it’s painless with a prime, but with a zoom it may get annoying fast if you change focal lengths often.

Now if you’re just punching in or out a little where the focal length change is less than 5mm, you probably wouldn’t have to bother changing it. And I’ve heard of some people just setting the middle focal length of a zoom and the IBIS still works... okay. I have a Minolta 24-35mm zoom I used with the GX85 and I would set the IBIS at 30mm and it was not a big deal but for a bigger zoom range it may be noticeable.

If you do decide to go native, I’d take a look at the Olympus 12-40mm, instead of the Panny, the manual clutch focus ring makes it feel more like a manual lens when focusing.

[Dustin]

@mercer Yeah definetly something to consider. I feel like the d5300 image even on my manfrotto tripod stick or monopod seems to get wobbly fast! I shot a Christmas video this weekend to try the evo-2 out and it definetly did seem to help but probably not as good as 5-AXIS stabilization. The kit zoom seems to be ok minus the non-constant f stop. But all things considered I'm certainly not going into debt over something that right now is a hobby and I still have a perfectly capable camera. Gonna save up a bit and ponder because although I want the g85, I'm pretty sure it would be a bit more upgrade than I can afford as I'd really need not only the speedbooster but a new memory card. We will see! I might consider posting the b roll from the family Christmas video as a demo if anyone's interested in picking up the manfrotto evo-2.

[mercer]

@Dustin yeah it’s tough to spend money on a hobby, I’ve spent a small fortune over the past couple of years. Honestly, you seem happy with the D5300, so maybe you should just consider keeping it or selling it and upgrade to the D5500 for the Flat Profile. You get consistently good images with the Nikon, so why mess with a good thing?

Maybe look into a small slider you can use with your monopod. The RatRig V2 slider is great and light and was recommended to me on here. Also, a lens with good OIS will be nearly as good as the GX85’s IBIS. My Canon 24-70mm f/4 is as steady as IBIS from the GX85. Anyway, just some thoughts.

[Dustin]

21 minutes ago, mercer said:

@Dustin maybe you should just consider keeping it or selling it and upgrade to the D5500 for the Flat Profile. You get consistently good images with the Nikon, so why mess with a good thing?

Also, a lens with good OIS will be nearly as good as the GX85’s IBIS. My Canon 24-70mm f/4 is as steady as IBIS from the GX85. Anyway, just some thoughts.

Yeah that's another thought I've had. One quirk I've really come to loathe though is changing aperture in video mode. I could get around this with d7500 I guess but that's out of the budget and for that price...

 I think I will disagree on the Lens comment as far as the tamron is concerned. The Tamron's built in IS isn't bad but for me but I want something better. Was hoping the g85 would be that ticket to help it. With used prices I could get into the d5500 for nothing so that's definitely something to consider.

 

edit: Maybe if I want something to play around with the G7 isn't a bad option...being that I have the tripod stick for handheld, it certainly helps and if I get a light prime on their perhaps that would be a nice mobile 4K rig? Then just save up and use it as a b-cam.