the editman.com

One of the great things about Panasonic AF101 is you can use almost any lens. The lens that is hard to come by is a fast zoom lens made for shooting video. Non of the m4/3 lenses can do smooth zoom action. You have the choice of getting a very expensive cine zoom made for 35mm film cameras or go the B4-lens route just like I have.

Thanks to the low noise in this camera you can crank ISO way up and end up with a good looking image. The image above is from a shoot I did this week, Prores LT 4:2:2 ISO1000 and the lens at roughly F5.6.

Something that would have suited a 1/3-2/3 chip ENG camera but the AF101 with a B4 lens works really good as a substitute. The downside is you loose two stops of light when using the 2x extender but other than that it's a great combination.

I still hope for affordable lenses made for m4/3 that works as nice as these ENG lenses. I have a Canon J17ax7.7 and made a cable to power the zoom but it would be exciting to see something innovative in the future in lenses made for these type of large sensors cameras.

I haven't had a Nikon lens for years but I got hold of this used Nikon 35-70/2.8 for a decent price. 35-70mm is  a very nice range when it comes to doing sit down interviews and I'll try it on my AF101. Nikon lenses even work on Canon cameras and it can be nice to have at least one Nikon lens to play with in case I stumble across a Nikon camera.

This is my second Canon EF 50/1.2 L lens I've bought. I liked the first one and I like this one. I still have Zeiss 50/1.4 and I regard that lens to have better image quality than this Canon L lens. At F1.2 it's so soft and compared to the Voigtländer 25/0.95 it's fuzzy. Stopped down it looks really good but I have to admit this is not the best L lens in the Canon lineup. Even the 24-70/2.8 L puts in a better performance. But these super fast lenses has that feel to them that despite being perfect they are still worth having.

Welcome back Canon 50/1.2L!

Just got a new Canon 35/1.4L - again. Two years ago I had another copy of this lens and liked it but after buying a Zeiss 35/2 I sold it. Well it turns out I missed the little bastard so I got another one!

One interesting fact about all of my Canon lenses. I've never bought a new one! Every Canon L lens I've got comes from the used market. Why? Well the beauty of these lenses is they keep their value once they're used. I can buy and sell as much as I want and still not loose a dime!

Anyway it's a lovely lens. Great quality despite chromatic aberration on F1.4. Next stop is to find one used 24/1.4!

I really dig my Voigtländer lenses for the Panasonic AF101. They are not dirt cheap but for shooting video they are inexpensive. So it was with great excitement I heard of the SLR Magic Hyperprime 12/1.6. This lens had the promise of completing my set of fast lenses for micro 4/3.



Inside the small box was this little lens. It's all metal so in comparison with the Voigtländers it holds its own. Very nice quality and feel to it. Aperture goes from F1.6 to F11 and it's step-less. Smooth as butter.



Looking into the front it's a tiny opening that at the back of the lens becomes much larger to cover the m 4/3 sensor. Just as with the Voigtländer 25/0.95 it's obvious m 4/3 is a size that brings many advantages. It would be hard to do a full frame lens at 12mm and F1.6.



Marking on the lens for focus shows it quickly falls into hyperfocal. That is, after about 3 meters everything is in focus. I noticed there's a tiny bit of play between the actual lens and the rear m4/3 mount part. So when you adjust focus or aperture the lens body turns slightly. This results in image shift when you turn the focus ring from one of the ends.

The slight play is no problem when turning focus in general, it's just when you reach the limit it can shift a bit. But I guess the use of this lens means having focus set before hitting recording or the trigger.

I hardly think this lens will be optimal to use with a follow focus and barely needed. The close position, near the camera body, of the focus ring makes it hard to mount a Zipgear or such to make use of a follow focus. But then again I've never used a FF unit on any of my Voigtländer lenses either.



This lens do have shallow dof when you get really close but on wider shots shallow dof is about non existing and everything is in focus. I can see three prime uses for this lens. First it's a very nice wide angle lens for m4/3. Secondly it's really fast for a 12mm lens and third you can use it as a macro lens.



I got the SLR Magic Hyperprime 12/1.6 today so I'll think of something to use this lens for in a video together with either my AF101 or GH1. Price for this lens when it's release will be USD $499.99 plus shipping.

The front thread is 58mm and to make it 77mm (like I do for all of my lenses) I attached a 58-77mm step up ring and no vignetting appeared which is great. Even the lens cap is all metal and screws in but because I want all my lenses to be 77mm it wont be needed.

This lens will be great whenever I need a really wide shot or for use on my crane as an alternative to the Tokina 11-16/2.8. It does fit nicely besides the Voigtländer lenses and although not the same quality as these it's very close.



A local pizzaguy posing for that SLR Magic Hyperprime 12/1.6. If you point this lens straight into any light source it flares like crazy. It flares in all the rainbow colours but stepping down the aperture to about F1.8-2.0 takes care of any disturbing flare and the light loss is minimal.



I had to try this lens on my AF101 with mattebox and I'm glad to report it works without the Cinematics mattebox getting in the way.



Pushing the front of the lens just a bit inside the mattebox and it was clear in the corners. I could remove the 4x4 filters so it works even with a 12mm lens.



As often as I can I try to do without a mattebox. But because this lens is so tiny and frankly the camera with smaller lenses on looks like a toy, I can see myself using the Hyperprime with a mattebox. It's a compact setup that feels solid.

My first macro lens - Leica Elmarit 45/2.8 for my AF101/GH1 cameras.



I will use this lens as a counterpart to the excellent Canon 100L macro on my 5DmkII to have about the same field of view and sensitivity on my AF101.

It's a tiny lens but I kinda like the focus ring despite focusing works by wire.

I've updated this article with some sample images using my Panasonic DMC-GH1. It's really a lovely lens for micro four third cameras. A portrait lens with image stabilization and on the GH1 it feels really nice balanced.

Having it on the GH1 it might not be the fastest lens in terms of focusing speed but I guess the newer GH2 and G3 makes this lens faster.

I have been getting many questions on how I've provided power to a B4 lens on the AF100/101 camera and the image above shows how it looks mounted on my AF101 using a Canon 17ax7.7B4 lens. I got this lens on ebay and also found a power cable with Hirose 12-pin connector and a D-tap connector in the other end. As it turned out the solder joints came loose and I had to re-solder the Hirose connector to make it work. In the process I contacted the seller of this cable and found out you have to use pin3 as ground and pin6 as +12V. But I felt the Hirose to D-tap cable had a much to large cable making it hard to solder and frankly way overkill for 12V. So I took a smaller cable I had at home and solder that together with a 3.5mm DC plug that fitted a rechargeable battery I had in my camera bag to power all sorts of things. You can find the cable here and the battery here. This battery is 6.5Ah so it will last very long since you only use it when zooming. Any 12V source will do but I had this battery and I can use the same one to power a 5V add-on at the same time if I please.

The battery mounts with velcro on both camera and battery so you just stick it on the side and it's there. I've removed the sidegrip on my AF101 since I never use it.

Finally I got power working for B4 lenses and I now have power zoom in a real ENG style. Just a short testvideo using a rechargeable 12v battery supply and a Canon J17ax7.7 on the AF101.

A cool feature on this lens is you can memorize two positions on the zoom and go between by the press of a button. Zoom speed can also be adjusted and it's so nice having the ability to zoom really slow or fast if you please with that smooth rocker. If you're looking to power a B4 lens with the Hirose 12 pin connector you have to wire pin no 3 with ground and no 6 with +12v to make it work. Next step is to get that "rec" button on the grip to work with the AF101.

Today a Canon J17ax7.7B4 arrived to complete my B4 lens on micro 4/3 project. This lens can be used just like the other B4 lenses on a Panasonic AF101 if you use the extender. This gives you a super zoom lens at F3.6 except for the last bit on the zoom range which goes to F4.6. If you set the lens to F2.8 (it goes toF1.8) you get a true F5.6 without any change in light input. CA is somewhat strong at F1.8 but much reduced when you hit F4-F5.6. But you can shoot at F1.8 with great result as long as there's no harsh contrast objects in the scene.

One of my favourite lenses on the AF101 is my Voigtländer 50/1.1. It's so nice to do interviews with this lens but it is a fixed lens and depth of field can be super narrow. So in search for alternatives, not to shallow and with zoom just like the Lumix 14-140 lens I've now tested three B4 lenses - J13x9, J20ax8 and J17ax7.7. The numbers refer to how many times zoom and then the widest focal. If you compare the angle on the this J17ax7. to a full frame DSLR it's 30,8mm to 524mm or if you compare it to the Lumix 14-140 it's 15.4mm to 262mm at about F4. That's faster and longer than the lumix so you can see why this can be desirable.



Buying these lenses used you can't be sure the condition they are in. To have them cheap you must buy the SD lenses since HD lenses are to expensive for the AF101 in my opinion. Sometimes you get caps and hood and sometimes you just get the lens. Iris and zoom can be smooth or they can get stuck or be uneven. But looking on the condition of the lens tells you much so look at fine looking samples.



Here's the same chart I've used for the other lenses and except for the corners it's sharp enough for the AF101. How you adjust back focus influence how much sharpness loss there is in the corners but I find this J17ax7.7 to preform just as good as the J20ax8. Lenses with internal focus seams to be better in achieving better sharpness across the frame.

To have a reference chart I took the same chart with the Lumix 14-140 so you can see how it compares. You can right click on each image to view it in 1920x1080. Both images are frame grabs from a recorded 1080p from the SD-card.




So to recap this experience and to give some advice if you're looking for these lenses. Get as new and good looking lens as possible. There are wider lenses but if you really want wide lenses I would wait for the Lumix X 12-35 lens since it will be faster and smaller. These lenses are great if you want to have a decent wide angle like around 30mm and still be able to zoom really close. Near limit on these are excellent and they are parfocal so you can zoom in, set focus and zoom out with retained focus. Something you don't get with still lenses.

Another way to do this B4 lens on micro 4/3 is to use the HDx2 adapters. They will set you back about €4100 but at the same time have better image quality with sharpness all over the frame and reduced chromatic aberration. I found this video showing how the HDx2 adapter compares. Shallow DOF is one of the reasons to use the AF101 but consider using B4 super zoom lenses on the AF101. You can use this camera as an excellent film camera or ENG camera just by changing lens!

I just got this used and tired Canon J20ax8B4 lens and wanted to compare it to the other not so tired J13x9 lens.

Using a testpattern displayed on my laptop I took one sample image of each showing how they look and how much fall off there is. First is the J13x9B4 lens. It's the oldest and as I believe was used on BETASP camcorders.



The testpattern clearly shows how soft this lens gets outside of the 11mm circle when you use the 2x extender to cover the sensor on the AF101. There's one thing that influences how much fall off there is and that's the back focus adjustment. You can make it look a bit better than this but then you wont have a parfocal lens that stays in focus through out the zoom range.



Next it's the J20ax8B4 lens and as you can see it looks better. There's still some softness in the corners but much less. There's also a tonal difference between these. The J13x9B4 is much warmer, something I like, and the J20ax8B4 seams to be more accurate in colours. This lens can also have the back focus adjusted but this time the best corner sharpness was at a position that retained the parfocal behaver and thus much better than the J13x9B4. You can right click on each image to take a closer look.

So is the J20ax8B4 better? I would say without a doubt. But the lens I got (rather cheap) is in bad shape. There's stiffness at the 40mm mark on the zoom and the grip is beaten so much I believe it wont work. I actually had to remove the grip to be able to zoom and adjust iris. The focus and iris is smooth and optical quality seams good but the rest leaves much to desire. But to be fair I got it for 1/4-1/3 of the usual asking price for a used one so what did I expect right?

Now, why would I ever put an ENG 2/3" lens on the AF101? As I see it the AF101 is such a versatile camera. You can adopt almost any lens and use this camera to shoot many different styles and the whole B4 lens on the AF thing opens up for this camera to operate almost like a 2/3" ENG camera and these are expensive! So I can have it both - an ENG style camera and a film style camera for the light price of $5k.

I even got a Hirose 12-pin to D-tap cable but so far I've had no luck to power the lens so I suspect the handgrip to be broken. I have no D-tap batteries so I re soldered the 12-pin connector and at the same time put in a trigger function to use with the AF101. I have one more lens to try before not digging to deep into this whole B4 to micro 4/3 thing. I think the J20ax8B4 is a very nice lens if one get hold of a pristine example. Next lens is a J17ax7.7 and we'll see how that compares to the others.

I had to take my Canon J13x9B4 lens and get a feel for how it works on my AF101. A couple of observations.

Running it without power zoom and it's very difficult to do slow smooth zoom actions. I need to power the zoom somehow... CA is not an issue when you get to F2-2.8 and even wide open can look good. Sharpness fall off is the big downside using a 2/3" lens on micro 4/3. But it's not consistent. Depending on focal and focus setting it varies from very noticeable to just a touch of softness. It can look a bit like a C-mount lens with swirly bokeh sometimes.



I also had the opportunity to try my knew Manfrotto 520 half ball on the slider and it was way better than using two tripods. Very solid and easy to level.

Well, well well. A little surprise from Panasonic, a whole new bread of HD-video lenses with power-zoom feature. It's about time we get another HD lens other than the Lumix 14-140.



It's apparent video in still cameras is a big thing for Panasonic and their micro 4/3 format. Lenses in the 14-42, 45-175, 12-35 and 35-100 are the first line and that's not bad at all. The 12-35 and 35-100 are suppose to be faster lenses (maybe F2.8) and that's very nice and will even suit my AF. But the really useful lens would be a 12-85mm and at least F2.8. That would make it a perfect interview lens.



During my last shoot I only used the 14-140 and I see great benefit to use Lumix HD lenses on the AF101. Smooth focus and iris and small.

I consider this to be a serious detour from where my usual track goes. This Bell Howell 85/1.4 lens in Canon EF mount isn't something I normally would look close at. A lens from Bell & Howell, who? Well that brand and this lens is the same as the more known Samyang 85/1.4 or Rokinon 85/1.4. A low price manufactur of lenses. Just looking at the box at first glance it had the appearance of a toy. Thankfully it's not a toy it's a fast portrait lens.



I've learned to collect lenses that can be used on my Panasonic AF101 and maintain full manual control. My excellent Zeiss ZE lenses are a bit useless on the AF101 since there's no way to control aperture. Really sad because they are all great lenses. I wanted to have a fast 85mm lens but didn't feel like getting an expensive lens. Despite being low priced it's solid, only the front part is somewhat weak. I have no need putting this on my 5DmkII because I already have a Zeiss 85/1.4 so it's only for use on the AF or maybe my little GH1.



The iris ring is clicking so no smooth changing of the iris but focusing is pretty smooth. Included is a plastic hood and I even got a complete set of UV and CPL filters with the lens. Near limit is at 1 meter and that's worse than on the Zeiss 85 which can manage 85cm.




I'll make something and maybe use it together with that tasty Canon J13x9B4! Let's see if it can deliver something decent to my AF camera.

I saw this concept over a year ago but at the time it was a bit out of reach getting an ENG lens on a micro 4/3 camera. But today I finally got it together. I found both the B4 to m4/3 adapter an a Canon J13x9B4 lens for not much dough.



A 2/3" lens like the J13x9 does not cover the sensor on the AF101 so you have to use the 2x extender that's built in. Doing this you cover the sensor but with one drawback - you loose two stops of light hitting the sensor. This lens is rated at 1:1.6 so using the 2x extender gives you something like F3.5. That's not fast by any means but faster than Lumix 14-140 at F4-5.8. The zoom on the J13x9 is 9-117 and when using the 2x extender you end up with 18-234 at F3.5! That's not to shabby.



An ENG lens has many advantages. It's parfocal which means you can zoom in set focus and zoom out and you'll stay in focus. The iris ring is smooth without clicks like on a DSLR lens. The whole lens is made out of metal and solid as few still lenses are. Even my Canon L or Zeiss lenses feel loose in comparison and these are great still lenses. You can pick these on ebay for a couple of hundred $ and that's dirt cheap for what you do get. Compare the zoom what you'd have on a full frame DSLR and you'll end up with 36-468. Cool!



All I had to do for it to stay in focus was to adjust back focus on the rear ring. The ability to power that zoom rocker (future project) will make an ENG camera out of the AF101. It's close with the Lumix 14-140 lens but to zoom in and out with it is anything but smooth. This Canon B4 lens runs fluid in and out. Love it and it's the first Canon on my AF101 with manual true iris control!

There are drawbacks of course. This lens is sharp no doubt but looking at corners it looses some sharpness and CA is visible on high contrast until you stop down. If you want shallow DOF this lens is the wrong choice. Sure you can get it shallow when zoomed in and it's buttery smooth bokeh but real shallow DOF with the AF101 demands lenses in the F1.4 or faster league.



This testpattern was shot with the lens and displayed on my laptop screen. I had the lens at about F2.8 and yes there's softening on the far edges but no disturbing CA and as sharp in the middle one could ask for.



Does it work for indoor shots? Sure if you light your scene I see no problem getting good images out of it. But it's not a low light workhorse.

The B4 adapter is a solid piece. It's made by a guy in Poland and I got it from him via ebay. He makes adapters for other mounts also and I can recommend them after having used this B4 to m4/3 adapter. I do have a soft spot for high quality hardware and both adapter and lens are so well made it makes me feel good :)

I tend to try out many different things in all directions to get grip of the technique and how to use it to achieve what I want. It's a great way to have this journey running and I did dip my toes into anamorphic half a year ago. This time I got hold of another thing to achieve anamorphic images. An old Proskar Anamorphic-16 lens.

The coolest thing with this lens was actually the lens case. One of those hard cases with leather on the outside and velvet on the inside. But the lens itself is pretty cool and a solid piece.



I intend to somehow make use of it on my AF101 but anamorphic is not the easiest thing to get right if you can't or wont spend thousand of money. This is a lens that focus and you need a normal lens on the back of it to get picture in focus. So you'll have two focus rings to turn before achieving focus. No that easy right? Difficult to say the least if you want it to operate as a normal lens.

I plan to shoot something but it has lower priority than my other projects and because it's difficult and time consuming to get it right I'll let it take the time it takes. The Proskar have to have 50mm or higher focal to work so forget wide angle lenses. Cool thing but a bit to complicated to make a quick and dirty test so I'll get back to it.

Canon 24-70/2.8 L is considered by many the standard lens for a full frame DSLR. I've tried it before and just didn't felt like this was a lens to get. However to get a used one for less made me try it out. If I attach it to the AF101 it becomes a very versatile lens. Go close and it behaves almost like a macro lens. Frame for an interview and use 35-70 to change framing fast. Use 24mm to establish a scene.

It is as heavy as one can put on the AF101 mount and I had to support it with the rear cap to avoid it to tip forward. Looking close at this lens it has a fair amount of use and micro scratches all over but it only adds to the charm. I even had to bend the front ring to get the UV filter to screw on...

This week I had a four day shoot in Båstad/Sweden during Swedish Tennis Open. I had both the AF101 and 5DmkII camera with respective lenses and crane, slider and such to get the shots I wanted. Me and the director John (to the left) hoped for sunny days but sadly it was cloudy and rained one whole day. Despite this we got some very nice footage especially during the sunset tennis match. I wanted to do a recap of how my tools worked during this week.


A framegrab from the 5DmkII and Canon 70-200/2.8 IS II lens.

I bought Zacutos EVF to get a decent monitor for my 5DmkII and it's just a great tool on DSLR cameras and something like Panasonics AF101. The only problem I had was the included LP-E6 style battery. It didn't charge in the charger so I had to use a spare LP-E6 battery instead. Back home I found out the pins does not fit to well with the charger and that was the cause. I had to put pressure sideways to get it to charge and I really dislike the fact this battery can't be charged or used with a 5D/7D. I will not use it since I got a decoded LP-E6 style battery from ebay that works with the charger for the 5D.

In total I brought 13 lenses but only used 8. Voigtländer 25 and 50 , Tokina 11-16 and Lumix 14-140 on the AF101. On my 5DmkII I used 50, 85, 100 and 70-200 lenses. The ultra wide Tokina works great on the AF when mounted to the crane and that 50mm Voigtländer is my favourite for interviews. Instead of using a pure macro lens Voigtländer 25 works almost like a macro. My kit lens for the GH1 - Lumix 14-140 might not be the most exciting lens but given it's 10x zoom lens it's so versatile. I shot alot of tennis action with this lens in 50p and it looks great. had to crank ISO up to 800 on some shots but that's not a problem on the AF camera.


A framegrab from the AF101 and Voigtländer 50mm lens.

Brian from Berkeysystem got me another handle for my light shoulder rig and I configured it to work with the Zacuto EVF and 5D camera. Even with something like the Zeiss 85mm lens looks steady. If the Voigtlände 50 is my favourite on the AF the Zeiss 85 is my favourite on the 5D for interviews. I didn't use my 5D to do any interviews this time and frankly the AF handles audio much better. I have two lenses with IS - 100 macro and 70-200. These got a fair amount of use. Neither I or the director felt the need for wide images except for the Tokina 11-16 on the crane. If you are worried about crop factor on the AF101 camera stop worrying! The Tokina 11-16 is the only ticket you need for wide images and they are pretty much undistorted. Set the lens at about 0,7m on the focus scale in you have a sharp image from near to far.


AF101 and Tokina 11-16 on the Hague crane.

Speaking of the Hague K10 crane it is a nice crane but due to how many floors flexed when people walked on them it became tricky to get shots without crane wobble. That's one of the negative sides of having a crane with a single bar. It does wobble alot if the ground isn't solid or something like the wind makes it wobble. It's also heavy to move. I guess we'll use about 7-8 shoots from the crane.

My slider had the same problem with flexing floors. Or it was a floor problem really. Nothing wrong with the slider. But I have to put a better support together for the slider. It is a heavy and smooth slider which I like but you can't have a center mounted tripod as the only support because it will start to go down when you get near the edge. To have two tripods, one on each end, works but I'm not to fond of that either... I guess I'll figure something out. This time I had two Manfrotto light stands and it worked okay. Not as steady as I would like.

To pick up audio I only used my Sennheiser EW100 G3 system with a wind shield. This is so easy to use and I hardly ever get any wind noise or pick up noise from clothing. Great and affordable audio! I had a handheld AT8010 and an AT875R mic tucked in my bag just in case but had no use of them this time. I even had a Sennheiser EW400 if I would have needed a microphone for my 5DmkII.

Did I miss something? Well I did miss to have a small camera to document the shoot. I left my GH1 at home this time and even if I'd had it with me I doubt I would have used it. I must get a small pocket camera next time.

Tokinas 11-16/2.8 lens has for a long time been a lens on my list. But there are many lenses I want and it took a while before I finally got one. It's a well built lens with excellent image quality and really wide.

I think this lens is versatile since I can use it on my AF101, GH1, 550D and even my 5DmkII can take advantage of it. On the 5DmkII you really can't use any focal except 16mm without getting heavy vignetting. So it doesn't provide me with anything I already have in my Canon 16-35/2.8. But on the micro 4/3 cameras it gives me a wide angle just like 22mm on the 5DmkII. It feels solid and full time focusing is provided by pushing the focus ring towards the MF mark on the barrel.



I have a Kipon adapter with built in aperture blades and with slight light fall off on the edges until "6" on the Kipon is useful. 11-16mm is a tiny focal span so I guess it will be used almost like an ultra wide prime lens. It's really sharp and the focusring feels smooth but has a short travelling distance. I guess it will fall into hyper focal fast.

So far so good. It's a great lens. My only beef is with the utterly unflexible and uncustomer oriented DHL! During the years I've got more packages than I can remember. With UPS or any other like Schenker I can always redirect the shipment to my work if I'm not at home. But with DHL it's just impossible. Even thou I have a DHL service point just five minutes walk from home I have to go to a remote location in Stockholm and pick it up. I even called them and pointed out that I will not be home but still they had the courier come to my house before I could do anything. Having visited their remote location it just feels like a place from the old east Europe. This company does not know what a customer need and I just hate their bad service! The thing is sometimes I don't know which shipper will be used and get a bad feeling everytime DHL is used.

For some, common sense on what's best for the customer is natural. But sadly DHL is something to be avoided!

Let's face it, anyway you look upon Canons 5DmkII it's a great camera and Canon makes great L class lenses. I know and have a few golden ones like the 100/2.8 L and 70-200/2.8 IS II L. My AF101 now eagerly awaits one of the best things this year - the Birger Engineering adapter for micro 4/3 mounts and Canon EF lenses. My original idea back in late 2010 was to have one set of lenses - all Canon and use them on both my DSLR and the AF101. It seams it will soon become reality!

There are a couple of key advantages to have this adapter and use it with the 5DmkII/AF101 combination. First I can bring one set of lenses that works on the two cameras. This makes it possible to take high quality stills and video when on set and use any camera for a particular shot without bringing more lenses. Then it opens up the possibility to use electronic focus controllers like the Manfrotto 521PFI I already have, or upcoming controllers from Birger.

What's even more interesting is Canons L series lenses are so common and it seams more adapters are coming for Sonys E-mount to use on their F3/FS100. I really love my Zeiss and Voigtländer lenses but this adapter might make me swing back into Canon lens land again! I would like to stuff my soon to arrive Lowepro X300 with a complete and versatile still/video kit.

I've heard late May and that's now so let's hope for at least a summer release!


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So here they are, my micro 4/3 puppies. A complete lensset for both the GH13 and AF101 covering 14mm to 140mm.

Left to right: Olympus 35-100/2, Olympus 14-35/2, Voigtländer 75/1.8, Voigtländer 25/0.95, Lumix 14-140,
Voigtländer 35/1.2, Voigtländer 50/1.1 and Photoex 50/2 TS

I've used steprings and Canon caps on each lens to make them 77mm filter thread and the Canon lenscap fits better than many other caps.

I got my fourth Voigtländer lens this week and that makes my Voigtkit complete. To take them for a swing I brought my AF101 to this weeks commercial shoot. I still use my 5DmkII as the Nr1 commercial camera since the directors love the way it looks. I worked as first AC on this job and we had a great team and finished 1½ hours ahead of schedule!




Check out the behind the scenes video featuring the AF101 and all of my Voigtländers.

This is my third Voigtländer lens and it's a Heliar Classic 75/1.8. These lenses are a very nice match for the AF101 since you have full control of aperture and they are great pieces of glass. They are also very compact and well built. The 25/0.95 still has the best quality but this one feels almost as smooth when turning the rings.



It's a tiny bit softer at F1.8 but still enough sharpness on a videocamera and 75mm is just about perfect for portraits so interviews is a nice use of this lens.

Optics are fun. I can't seam to get enough lenses and I manage to snatch an anamorphic adapter from ebay just to try it out.

The most popular is Panasonics LA7200 adapter but since I wanted to try one out before plunging more dough I got this cheaper adapter. It has a thread of 52mm making it compatible with some of my Voigtländer lenses to use with my AF101 or GH13. I only had my 50/1.1 at hand when I received the adapter so I couldn't make it fit for that lens without a stepring. I will do more testing this evening but here's a quick picture.



What I do expect is not great images but enough to get to know more about anamorphic adapters. I suspect to open aperture or to wide lenses wont work with this one but if I could make it work for the 25/0.95 that would be great. I really like the wide scope you get with an adapter. It might be something like my 50/2 TS lens, only for special shots. More to follow...

This 50/1.1 lens is a bit faster than my Zeiss 50/1.4 and will fit in my Voigtländer trio 25/50/75 for the GH1 and AF101. I got the Voigtländer 25/0.95 first and it's a sweet lens with no real drawbacks. It's sharp at 0.95 and is very versatile. This 50/1.1 maybe isn't as versatile but still fast and built quality is almost as good as the 25/0.95.

Comparing it to the Zeiss 50/1.4 it's about the same size and weight. My Zeiss has a longer focus travel and closer near limit making it a more versatile lens. But it's not as fast and as of now I can't control the aperture of the lens on my AF101. There is some colour fringing at 1.1 but it goes away at F2.0 and is actually much reduced already at F1.4.



The packaging is about the same as for the 25/0.95 but only one cap in 58mm and no extra cap like the one that fits on the 25/0.95 lenshood. This one actually reminds me very much of the Zeiss 50/1.4 even the hood feels similar. Can it be they are made at the same factory but a different lens design?



The Nokton 50/1.1 is made in Leica VM mount but I got an adapter to fit m4/3 and I'll get another one with the 75/1.8 when it arrives. I have a bunch of lenses for both my Canon DSLR and m 4/3 cameras and I plan to use my Olympus 14-35/2, the Voigtländers, the kit lens 14-140 and my 50/2 TS lens with my AF101/GH1. I have little use for the Olympus 35-100/2 because it's so heavy and has a dreadful focus by wire which I hate. But then again I bet it'll be great when doing interviews...

This week I picked up a Voigtländer 25/0.95 for my GH13 and AF101. I wanted to do a piece with the combo but the weather outdoors was so boring.

Then I looked at vimeo and saw the weekend project. Only one rule - use the music track "Catching The Simple But Happy Days". I also had to do my laundry so I came up with doing a piece on the laundry room.

As it happens this was also the last day with the old booking system. It's to be replaced with an electronic one which will make it more difficult to access the laundry room so I'm not to happy with that. So in line with the tune "Catching The Simple But Happy Days" this is my tribute to how the laundry room worked before the change. I had my AF101 on the Manfrotto 504/546 tripod and also made use of my skate dolly for a couple of shots.

Settings on the AF101:
Detail: -7
V Detail: -7
Coring: -2
Chroma: -5
Gamma: Cinelike V
Matrix: Norm1

1080p25 and most of the shots are with the Voigtländer at 0.95.

Weekend Project - SoundCloud Inspiration @ vimeo

After waiting one month I finally got my Voigtländer 25/0.95.

I've heard this lens is a great one but it's not until you handle it yourself you can get a feeling for something. This is a solid lens. I would say it's built just as good as my Zeiss primes or even better. Both aperture ring and focus ring are smooth as smooth can be. Putting it on my GH1 the whole camera takes on a more serious approach.



They even included a very nice lenshood with a much better cap then the one that attaches directly to the lens. It's one extremely shallow DOF at 0.95 and insanely fast. The aperture ring has clicks for the F stops and you can adjust it in ½ stop increment. It's also equipped with a near limit of just about 16 cm thus acting like a macro lens. Wow what a lens!

I just had to dip my toes in tilt/shift video and found a Photex 50/2 TS lens on ebay for only $299. Photex is not a brand I'm familiar with but since the price was low and it seams to be a fast lens I had not to much to loose.

First thing I noticed was the aperture ring is very stiff. After a couple of turns back and forth it became looser and really it's only a bit stuck at 2.0. Not a big problem since it is a special purpose lens. I plan to make use of the miniature style images and turning the focus plane to achieve this look.



Doing a quick test it sure can look miniature. I think it'll be a fun lens to use.



I tried the lens on my GH1 but I shouldn't have done that. The turning mechanism of the lens do hit the GH1 body so this lens is not to be used with one of the micro 4/3 DSLR cameras. I managed to cause a small scratch on my GH1 body when mounting the lens so this is a big no no or you have to be very careful. But it does work on the AF101. I've always though the lens mount on the AF101 looked funky with a large circle outside of the lens mount but now it only makes sense and I'm glad the AF101 is designed this way. Nothing hits the camera body and I can turn and skew the lens however I want!



I didn't expect this lens to be great but for what it is and that low price I think it's worth it even if just to play with. I found it easy to achieve what I wanted to achieve and despite the stiffness and maybe not the best lens ever built I think it will look great.

You have two screws to adjust tilt and shift and you can turn the whole lens 360 degrees around to get it just how you like it. I even got a small pouch to hold the lens. It focuses in the Nikon way so compare to every other lens I do have it's a bit wrong.

My latest lens Olympus 35-100/2 arrived and I wanted to do a short test on how manual focusing works. It sure looks big enough mounted on the GH1... well actually it's the GH1 mounted onto the lens!



I put the Olympus 35-100 on my GH1 and mounted it inside my "editman" cage and used my Shoot35 follow focus. It worked fine to use the grooves on the focus ring itself instead of using one of my Zipgears or Flexigears. As you can see I top mounted the FF unit because using that tripod collar on the lens raises the camera more than my 5D/7D which my cage is set up for.




I also shot this short video showing focus pulling, a bit course I know but I did it in a hurry...



You can't use repeatable marks on a follow focus to do focus pulls with this lens. Focus-by-wire is not made for that and it sucks since this is such a fine lens. Another thing that's somewhat irritating is that focus pulls takes a bit longer than I would like them to take. On the other hand you hardly miss a focus spot. It's also interesting that when you turn off the camera the lens parks itself at infinity.

I do think this lens will come in handy but at the same time I prefer my Zeiss lenses since they are much better to focus with. The big advantage now that I have both the Olympus 14-35/2 and the Olympus 35-100/2 is I cover all of the focal I tend to use. 14mm is wide enough and I seldom go closer than 100mm unless I'm doing a macro shot.

There are three adapters for using 4/3 lenses on a micro 4/3 camera body. Panasonic has the DMW-MA1 and Olympus MMF-1 and MMF-2. I decided to try both Olympus adapters since I already have tried Panasonics adapter.

Besides the obvious colour that differ these two adapters apart they are near identical if you look upon them. But picking one up it's also obvious that the MMF-1 is the one with better built quality. It weights almost twice as much as the MMF-2. It's worrying that the newer adapter, MMF-2, is so light weight and I don't get that sense of owning something exclusive when holding it. It will probably work with lenses up to 1kg but if I had a choice it would be the MMF-1 no doubt.



So why is the MMF-1 twice as heavy? First of the mount is solid steel as oppose to MMF-2's aluminium mount. I guess the MMF-1 adapter is also reinforced inside and that this adds to the weight. The answer could also be that the MMF-1 is made in Japan and the MMF-2 is made in China...



Besides MMF-1 being the better adapter it functions is no different than that of the MMF-2 or the Panasonic adapter. They could all be the same if it wasn't for the MMF-2's weak construction. I have tried both adapters on my GH1 with the Olympus 14-35 lens and when mounted I really can't tell which one I'm using except the colour of the adapter. They both feels solid but I can't dismiss what I know so I will use the MMF-1 on my AF101 as it is the better option.

Having EF lenses on a micro 4/3 camera pose one problem and that is to control aperture. Birger engineering is suppose to come with one adapter with electronic coupling that allows for many things like aperture, focus and IS function on EF lenses. But until it is a real product this adapter might come in handy.

At $125 it's a bit pricier than the plain EOS to m 4/3 adapters but it's a solid piece and got no less than 14 aperture blades to stop down the lens. The aperture ring is heavily damped and feels great to turn. It's numbered between 1 and 6 but you can go beyond the 6 mark albeit with the risk for introducing black spots according to the manual.




I took the adapter straight out of the box and fitted my Zeiss 50/1.4 ZE lens. It feels like a fine machined adapter. You can't use EF-S lenses because they will probably hit the blades. It's the same thing as EF-S lenses does not fit a 5D mkII.



Here's the adapter mounted without lens and the aperture open. Setting at "1". There is no glass so I suggest you open it up before removing the lens or adapter to protect the aperture blades.




Here the blades are closed to "6" on the aperture ring but you can close it even further. I will take a few snaps later tonight and show how it affects DOF and image quality.

More testing is needed but so far it feels great and finally I can use my Zeiss lenses on the GH1/13 and the AF101!

You can get it here on ebay!

Update 20 December:

Testvideo with the adapter.

I put this test together to try out if it would vignette on different lenses and how DOF would be affected. This video is updated with a pure vignette test in the second half.

Lenses used in the test:

Canon 70-200/2.8 IS II L
Canon 100/2.8 L Macro
Zeiss 85/1.4 ZE
Zeiss 50/1.4 ZE
Zeiss 35/2 ZE
Olympus 14-35/2
Canon 16-35/2.8 L

I would say this adapter is a great buy to make use of specially Zeiss ZE primes 35/50/85. It works perfectly with all of these to increase DOF and stop down the lens. On the other hand I don't think it works that good with the 70-200/2.8 since you get vignette after "3" and IS is not activated. Even the Canon 16-35/2.8 L turned out to work okay with only a slight vignette that could be tolerable.

I've tossed about on which lens to use on the wide end on a micro 4/3 camera. Frankly I would like a lens in the 14-85mm range at F2.0 but there are no lenses that can fit m 4/3 and that fast. It has to be fast and it has to cover the most used range 35-85mm and go wide. In the end this lens is the one for me.

I see this lens to be one half of a twin set of lenses, the other one being the Olympus 35-100/2. This is a 4/3 lens but as massive as my Canon 70-200/2.8 IS II lens but shorter and about 2/3 of it's weight. Most micro 4/3 lenses weights next to nothing so fitting this on the GH1 makes for one odd looking camera. The Olympus 14-35 is fully weather sealed and feels great to hold and pull focus with. The zoom ring is a bit stiff. Starting at 14mm the front element extrudes a little bit. At 24mm it's not extruding and at 35mm it extrudes at it's fullest. It's on par with my Zeiss lenses here so using it together with a mattebox should be okay. Give it some space and it wont hit anything inside the mattebox.

The 14-35/2 is very sharp with high contrast. It looks just as fine as my Zeiss 35/2 and I really love this lens on the Canon 5D mkII. I'm using an Olympus MMF-2 adapter to go from micro 4/3 to 4/3 and on the GH1 I can adjust aperture but no autofocus. Turning the focus ring activates zoom in so it's very easy to set focus. Focus travel is about 190 degrees so plenty of room to fine tune focus.

You can get pretty close with this lens - 35cm - and it renders a very fine out of focus background. Question is if it's worth it to go for the other twin, the 35-100/2? Both these lenses are very expensive and together they match the price of the AF101 and make a nice threesome!

Just trying out a Samyang 14/2.8 extreme wideangle lens on the 5D mkII.

So how does it perform and handles? It's really sharp but at the same time it's extremely hard to achieve perfect focus without live view. It looks pretty sharp in the viewfinder but often it's not so I would say until I get to know it I must use LW. The focus ring and aperture ring feels really nice and it's a solid well built lens. A bulby front lens as many other 14mm lenses so filters are a no no. Built in plastic sunshade.

I do love going close but I can get close enough before I hit the near limit at 28cm, it's just to wide. To go from 28cm to 1 meter is more than 180 degrees turn so when using LW you can nail focus pretty easy using the 10x magnify. Barrel distortion is pretty big but I think it's okay for such an inexpensive lens.

There are some lenses that just stands out and this is one of them. The new 70-200/2.8 with IS from Canon. A great piece of optics in a seriously heavy enclosure.

At almost 1.5kg it's way heavier than my 5D mkII and that is the downer. Everything else is just superb. I had a Sigma 70-200 for my Nikon cameras a couple of years ago and I've had Canons 70-200/4 IS. A really good lens but a bit slow and with a very noisy IS mechanism. The IS in the new 70-200/2.8 IS II is just silent. I had to put my ear to the lens to hear that IS doing it's crunching.

I can see one problem with this one vs the much lighter F4 version from Canon, it must have some sort of support when mounted on my cage rig. I wouldn't trust the lens mount to carry all that weight. Upside is the increased F stop and better overall. I guess there aren't any better standard zoom for the 5D mkII than this one. It's also only 20mm longer than the F4 version so I managed to fit it inside my lens/camera bag in the same space as the other zoom lens.

We'll see when I get to use it to shoot video but I do count on that IS to work it's magic.

I heard the expression "free-lensing" the other day for the first time and never thought I would do it myself. It seamed to be another trick for us under stimulated photographers. But when my brother whipped an ex-military lens in front of my face and I had my girlfriends Canon 550D at hand I just had to try it.

I have to say even my brother looks small behind that monster lens. Actually it's a big chunk of over-speced metal housing around the lens, just like any other military stuff. My guess it weights a good 10kg, maybe more and when doing this free-lensing I had to ask my brother have it on his shoulder so that I could try to frame something.



F:600, that's the name of the lens.




Judging by the plate on the lens the warranty expired in 1967 so if it breaks I guess one have to fix it without claiming any warrant :)




The only adjustment on this lens I could find was the aperture dial. F6.3-22. It's decent for a 602.5mm lens I guess...




Now to test this lens we went out on the balcony, my brother had it on his shoulder and I tried to frame something holding the 550D inside the back end. It was tricky to actually getting anything out if this since it was pitch dark outside but two "balls" on top of a shopping mall was lit and the picture above is for reference. I took it with the 17-55IS lens at 55mm. This was of course no free-lensing footage.



Next I struggled to get the balls in the frame and some sort of focus. Lens was at F6.3. This was what I got at 602.5mm and free-lensing! I admit this is the longest focal I ever have shot and the first ever free-lensing experience. Now if I only could mount that lens onto my GH1 I could take some interesting footage of the moon... ;)



Last a look at the lens front. 150mm filter thread and 602.5mm F6.3. Notice the geared aperture and I think you can see the blades inside the lens.

When I still was in Nikon-land I had a Sigma 70-200/2.8 II. It was a decent lens with a very good optical performance the only downside was the rather hefty weight. Now that I have Canon cameras a new classic 70-200 without the weight is what I was looking for.

I do not like "slow" lenses. That is above F2.8. But when it came to 70-200 I really had no choice but the Canon 70-200/4L IS. This lens is lighter than my 135L lens and is one of the sharpest lenses in the Canon line-up. Image Stabilizer is a must when you shoot video and have a greater focal length than 85mm, even 85mm is borderline unless you have a very good shoulder support. The next step up is Canons 70-200/2.8L IS II. It's an excellent lens but still to heavy and costs more than twice as much...

I already have a Canon 100/2.8L IS Macro but the IS engine inside the 70-200/4 IS is way noisier. I did expect my on camera microphone from Audio Technica to pick up the IS strongly but to my surprise it didn't! To use these lenses without IS, now that you can have it, is not a good idea. IS just takes the micro jitter out of the footage.

Before the 70-200/4 IS I had a Canon 200/2.8L. Besides the later being faster the 70-200/4 IS is way better and the smaller size, lighter weight and decent prize makes it a must unless you need that extra stop.

I got a Fader ND from Light Craft Workshop this week and this is the updated mk II version that is suppose to be sharper than the first version on longer focal lengths. Compared with my other Fader ND filters this one feels heavier. I will bring it tomorrow for a daylight shoot and see how well it fares on the 16-35L and 5D mkII.

The newer version is also a bit smaller so add that to the weight and it's a more solid construction. I got the 77mm version and I expect it to vignette on my widest lens and the 5D mkII.

Filters is a tricky thing. When doing run n gun I couldn't do without a Fader ND, but when mattebox mounted 4x4 filters are a much better solution and does not have the drawbacks of a Fader ND. Sadly the Fader ND still softens the image to the point that I don't want to use it for longer shots. Fixed ND filters are much better.

I picked up a Zeiss Distagon T 35/2 ZE lens today to add more Zeiss glass for commercial work. I have a Canon 35L and during the next month I'll compare these. Both lenses have about the same focus travel but the Zeiss lenses are superior because they are smoother and have hard stops. Quality is as always to a very high standard. A solid piece indeed.

I find it interesting that the front element is very curved but so is the 35L. You just don't think about it since there's a piece of flat glass in front. To pull manual focus is a joy, especially in the 0.3m to 1.0m range where you really can fine tune the focus. After comparing it to the 35L I believe the 35 ZE to be sharper so I'm going to use the 35 ZE instead. Loosing a bit of speed but the 50/1.4 can cover this when I have the need.

So after the Zeiss 85 I got I felt the need to invest in another Zeiss lens. This time one of the cheaper Zeisses - a Planar T50/1.4 ZE. In size it reminds me of the Nikon 50/1.4D and I would guess this lens is just as sharp and nice as the Nikon. But it has the built quality which is excellent and above the Nikon 50/1.4D. And then I think the Nikon is already pretty solid.

Just as the 85/1.4 it comes in a white box and includes a high quality metal lens hood. Filter diameter is 58mm, just like the Canon EF 50/1.4 lens but the Canon don't even compare when it comes the shear quality. Picture quality between the Nikon 50/1.4D, Canon 50/1.4, Canon 50/1.2L and the Zeiss is pretty much comparable. But the Zeiss is all metal and the focus ring is supersmooth.

The barrel turns about 270 degrees and compare that to the Nikon and Canons who turns less than 180 degrees. After using that 85/1.4 ZE from Zeiss to shoot stills for a day it felt a bit time consuming to manually pull focus. But as it turned out I got more gorgeous keepers with manual focus than I usually get with AF and the Canon lenses. It was also more fun to "work" when shooting and I became more creative selecting and pulling focus on my own.

One thing that I did cut back on when investing in lenses was the 85mm lens. I got the cheap Canon EF 85/1.8. Not a bad lens, actually it's great if you look how the images come out. But it's lacking in built quality. I've had my eye on the mighty Canon EF 85/1.2 lens. I think this is the best still lens you can get for a Canon camera! Pricey so one have to think twice before investing.

The more I use my Canon 7D cameras to do video jobs one thing is very apparent. They have a very short focus range on the ring.
A quarter of a turn from nearest to infinity. When you do marks on the FF wheel it's often a question of mm in-between and focus pulling is hard when it's so short.
So I began to look at alternatives and for a reasonable price the Zeiss still lenses seams to be one, if not the best compromise price/performance if you plan on using lenses for video work.

Zeiss has a series of lenses; 18/3.5, 21/2.8, 25/2.8, 28/2.0, 35/2.0, 50/1.4, 85/1.4, macro 50/2.0 and macro 100/2.0 that suits a video lens series quite well. I always found the fastest lenses the best since it makes it easy to lit scenes. Fast meaning 2.0 or faster.

To choose the Zeiss Planar T 85/1.4 ZE was in the end an easy choice. Couldn't really find any alternatives that fast. I can compare it to the Canon EF 50/1.2 L in size. Built quality is even better than the Canon 50/1.2 and the Canon is already a very solid piece! Focus ring is smooth all the way and just enough tension to feel great when turning that follow focus wheel. It has hard stops and goes a long 270 degrees around the barrel. It has marks from the near limit onto 15 meters and then a short leap to infinity in feet and meters. Did a fast comparison with the 85/1.8 lens and they seam to be about the same sharpness when in the nearest focus and zoomed in 10x on the 7D.

Zeiss is kind enough to put in a very decent lens hood. All metal with a velvet inside to avoid reflections near the front element. Since it's a EF mount (ZE) it's controlled through the camera when it comes to every parameter except focus. But it beeps when in focus so that's at least something for stills.



I had to put it on one of the cameras and attach a ff gear wheel. This lens sure looks and feels tasty on the 7D! Not sure if I'll be using this lens to make many stills but I'll sure give it a try next time I feel like bringing a 85mm lens. If it turns out as I hope, further on I might get the 35/2.0, 50/1.4 and 100/2.0 lenses from Zeiss for a series of video/film-lenses. This way I have a still series and another sets for my video jobs.

I'm on my sixth SLR camera and I've had some fine and mediocre lenses. They all are from Nikon, Canon, Sigma and Panasonic and here's how I rate them for stills and video.

Nikon 18-70/3.5-5.6 G

This is a really fine lens. A bit slow but I've made some pretty nice pictures with it on a Nikon D70, D40x and D90.
A good focal length for video and decent in light performance but nothing you would use to shoot in dim scenes.


Nikon 24/2.8D



Nikon makes great lenses and this is no exception. I love the quality of the "D" class lenses. I love the feeling of the focus ring.
Somewhat soft wide open for stills but very nice to shoot video. I would consider this to be a very nice lens to establish a scen.

Nikon 35/2.0D




Same wonderful quality as the 24/2.8. The aperture of 2.0 makes this lens a very good video lens.

Nikon 50/1.4D




If you consider the price this is the best lens of all Nikon lenses imho. Excellent built quality.
It works from 1.4 and up with superb low light capabilities.

Nikon 85/1.8D




If you are considering a sharp lens this is among the sharpest lenses you can buy. It does not have any problems at all!
F1.8 makes it great in low light.

Canon 16-35/2.8 L USM




I really like the feeling of this lens. Very good built quality. Decent picture quality. A bit slow but there are no fast Canon zoom lenses.
The best use is to have it on a steadycam but other than that I prefer the other Canon lenses.
It's not bad but when you can get in the region of 1.2 to 2.0 I think 2.8 is slow.

Canon 35/1.4 L USM




This is almost as nice as the Nikon 50/1.4 but it's wider and that's great. If I had to choose one lens to use on the 7D this would be the lens.
Excellent in every situation. The "L" series lenses are so well built (well most of them are). Autofocus is fast and the focus ring is smooth as can be.

Canon 50/1.4 USM




If you consider the optical quality of this lens it's on par with Nikons 50/1.4. But the Nikon has a better built quality.
It's hard to beat the price/performance and for stills it works like charm but for video and manual focusing the ring is a bit to narrow.

Canon 50/1.2 L USM




If there's one lens that is on the extreme edge this is it. F1.2 is among the lowest F numbers you can get (Canon had a F0.95 lens).
For stills I prefer the Canon 35/1.4, it's a better lens really. But for video this lens is ok and it's easier to make smoother focus pulls than the Canon 50/1.4
The focus ring is still a bit narrow but much better than the one on the Canon 1.4.

Probably the Nikon 50/1.4 is a better lens but if I have to have a 50mm lens that works for stills and video this is still the best compromise on the 7D.

Canon 85/1.8 USM




Just as the Nikon 85/1.8 this a lens with few faults. I'd like to get my hands on a Canon 85/1.2 L. But it's just to expensive.
Sharpness is superb and although it's not an "L" lens it's quality is great.

Canon 100/2.8 L IS USM




If there's on "L" lens that is lacking in built quality this is it. It feels like cheap plastic on the barrel.
But it's really sharp and fast as long as you don't go from macro to infinity where it can lose it self.

IS is great and very useful for video. A bit slow at 2.8 but when you do go macro DOF is narrow thin.


Canon 135/2.0 L USM




This is also something really nice when you shoot video. It's fast at 2.0 and it gives you a better reach than the 85/1.8. Great broad focus ring and built quality.
As sharp as the 85/1.8 but a bit less light throughput.

Sigma 24-70/2.8 (non USM)


One of the standard zoom lenses along the 70-200. On full frame cameras the 24-70 and 70-200 covers a wide spectrum and could be a perfect duo
I had the non USM version of this lens.

I don't like lenses that expands and with this lens it's even worse since it expands when going wider rather than most lenses that expands when going tele.
The lens will obscure the flash and since it's expanded at it widest it's really bad.
Built quality is okay but I never could get a consistent result with this one. It's soft wide open so you really have to stop down in order to have some useful sharpness.
DOF is shallow. I much more prefer the Canon 24-70/2.8 L lens which is sharp wide open.


Sigma 28-300/3.5-6.3



A bad and slow lens. Stiff zoom ring and just boring.


Sigma 30/1.4




This lens is fast and has a very sweet focal length. It's sharp in the centre but falls into blur at the edges.
Ok built quality but I like both the Nikon 35/2.0 and especially the Canon 35/1.4 much better.


Sigma 150/2.8 Macro



Of all Sigma lenses I had this is the best! It's sharp, it's picture quality is very good.
It works great for macros and it's a great tele lens. Very nice plastic housing.


Sigma 70-200/2.8 Makro




This is one of the standard lenses when it comes to focal length one would have. It has a buttery bokeh and feels very nice to handle.
It might not be super sharp but ok. It's on the heavy side so many times I prefer the Sigma 150/2.8 because it's lighter and better.
Great for close ups with nice smooth shallow DOF.

Panasonic 14-140/4-5.6



This lens is for the GH1 and it's a very good match for this camera. It got OIS, it's very sharp and makes the GH1 almost as user friendly as an ordinary camcorder.
It's not so great for low light scenes or indoor stills and I don't like to pull focus manually with it.

Panasonic 20/1.7




It's small, it's light, it makes the GH1 feel like a toy. But don't be fooled the images you can get from this one is amazing.
It makes the GH1 shine and works for stills and video. But the focus ring is to narrow, it has the focus by wire thing so to
pull any sort of manual focus is difficult to say the least. I would consider this a must on the GH1 since it makes such beautiful imagery.

So If I had to only choose three lenses?

The 20/1.7 on the GH1 is easy. The Canon 35/1.4 L USM on the 7D is also easy.
As for the third lens I would probably go for the Nikon 85/1.8 or the Canon 85/1.8.
But I want to get my hands on that Canon 85/1.2!!!

I had a Sigma 150/2.8 which was really great on the Nikon D90. I used it as a tele lens and sometimes as a macro.
Everytime I have used my Camera equipment to shoot commercials a macro lens would came in handy.
I had two choices; Canon EF100/2.8 Macro and the more expensive Canon Ef 100/2.8 L Macro. I went for the "L" lens.

Here it is mounted on my filmrig. I had a chance to test drive it tonight and it's a very nice lens. Fast when you don't go from macro to infinity.
Tack sharp and very nice bokeh. It's a "L" lens but compared with my other "L" lenses it's not as solid.
It's a bit short for a tele lens but I guess it will work great to do interviews or portraits.


a
This lens has IS and if it will improve anything for video only further testing can tell. But it seams to work for stills to shoot handheld with a slow shutter.
I wish there where fast zoom lenses like 2.0 to use to shoot video. Maybe Canon will come with "video lenses" once the HDSLR thing grows.

This evening I received a Lumix 20/1.7 pancake lens. I begin to understand how small and portable the GH1 really can be with such a lens.
It's no bigger than a regular superzoom but more versatile and has better picture quality.

The camera feels like a point and shoot and I can wait to bring it with me on the next low light occasion.
Due to it's small size I guess pulling focus manual will be tricky. I miss the Nikons focus rings...

Regrettably I'm selling my loved Nikkor lenses and gathering Canon L lenses.
Expensive yes but these lenses are meant to last.
Since I sold my D90 and got the 7D I was not sure about Nikon or Canon cameras.
Couldn't really decide which brand I could get comfortable with.

Nikon cameras are really good and I'm used to how they operate and how they focus.
Something I have spent some time getting used to with the Canon 7D.

I'm starting to get the hang of it and now it's time for a Canon only lens setup.
I've decided to go with only L lenses except the Canon EF 85/1.8.
The 85/1.2 is just to expensive and not worth it.



I started the L series with a Canon 16-35/2.8 L. I've missed a true wide angle on the D90 since I only had a 24/2.8.
If you wanna go wide and have a large aperture you're very limited. Next was a tele lens and after reviewing the excellent
www.photozone.de it was clear nothing short of the Canon 135/2.0 L would do. Got this one from ebay a bit cheaper than
in Swedish stores.

And today I got a Canon 50/1.2 L. What a lens this is. Fast and built to last. As you can see on the picture above I put it on the GH1
and it works really well even on the GH1. For comparison I took some pictures with this one and the Canon 50/1.4 and the Nikkor 50/1.4D.
Wide open they all had about the same sharpness and image quality. But the 50/1.2 is faster of course. I like it!