First m43 lens? Which one?

[Jason McDonald]

It may seem silly, I know...

I bought the BMPCC because I wanted to practice shooting RAW footage. I bought (And sold) the Panny 14-45mm f/3.5-4.5 just because it was cheap. Use a cheap adapter for all my Canon lenses (I'm a photography person who loves video...ML does some crazy stuff)

So, I managed to sell my BMPCC for (At the current bidding) 1000USD. That's what I'm going to be using to buy my lens(es). So far I've got my eye on the Panny 12-35 f2.8. This seems like the 'all around' lens I would recommend to most photographers...but as a photographer I have more primes than I do zooms, and wondered if getting 2 or 3 primes would be better than 1 zoom?

This is me having fun, I have no business associated with video. I just have some funds that allow me to indulge myself a little.

So what lens(es) would you recommend?

[Dave Partington]

Originally Posted by Jason McDonald

...but as a photographer I have more primes than I do zooms, and wondered if getting 2 or 3 primes would be better than 1 zoom?

Surely you are the best person to answer that based on your own experience of shooting primes vs zooms.

Why would M43 be any different for you than your other photography setup?

There is no right or wrong answer on the Primes vs Zooms question because it's always personal preference.

Some people like primes, others like zoom, most are happy with a mixture of the two.

[Pete Carney]

I would suggest that you get a wide 15mm f/1.7 or Oly 17mm f/1.8

The versatility of this type of lens with the ETC function gives you the option for amazing images from wide on a stabilizer to portrait in ETC mode.

In my experience with a G6 and now the GH4, it is imperative to have a lens much faster than f/2.8 to get that buttery smooth image these cams are capable of. f/2.8 just isn't shallow enough depth of field with the GH cams 2x+ crop factor. If shooting in UHD 4k on a GH4 it's actually a 2.49x crop factor and super fast lenses come highly recommended.

I'll trade ease of use all day to get that money shot when it counts. My kit now is simply a 7.5mm fisheye, 17mm f/1.8 and a 100-300 IS zoom. I also have a full set of Olympus OM lenses I'm using on a Metabones OM to m43 speed booster. This makes my vintage OM 50mm f/1.4 an 88mm f/0.994 and my 24mm f/2 a 42mm f/1.4 in UHD 4K on the GH4. Simply an amazing combos.

In any case I suggest getting something fast as a first lens unless you have some fast vintage lenses you can use in the mean time.

Cheers,
Pete

[Jason McDonald]

Originally Posted by Dave Partington

Surely you are the best person to answer that based on your own experience of shooting primes vs zooms.

Why would M43 be any different for you than your other photography setup?

There is no right or wrong answer on the Primes vs Zooms question because it's always personal preference.

Some people like primes, others like zoom, most are happy with a mixture of the two.

When it comes to purely photography, I know what I would get first. This is going to be for video mostly. If I were to buy for photography I'd get the 12-35 2.8 Panny lens. Then again, since I won't be using this for any professional photography work, I'd be happy with a prime on there as well. Or if they're small and light enough, I'd get 2 primes and play with that for a while.

Maybe I'll just have to play with a few of the lenses at the store first.

[Jeff Harper]

Originally Posted by Jason McDonald

If I were to buy for photography I'd get the 12-35 2.8 Panny lens.

Videography can be thought of as photography, except that the pictures move. The 12-35mm would be my first choice if I were beginning with M4/3.