Lenses for GH5

I am very excited by the GH5 and starting to wonder about lenses. At the moment I am thinking about the Oly 7-14 and 60mm macro for underwater and not sure about on land. Much as I like primes I want a true hybid setup so perhaps the Oly 12-100 would be a good choice. I think the Oly zooms are both constant aperture and parfocal. I would love to hear other people's thoughts.

What about the new Panasonic 8 - 18 mm f2,8 - 4.0 lens? Not as wide but newer design and probably possible to use screw on filters at the surface.

Because I want good lenses for video as well as stills maybe a constant aperture would be better and parfocal is a bit of a must. Does anyone know if the Pany 8-18 will be parfocal? On the other hand I have seen a few comments that the dome port for the Oly 7-14 can be a pain in current and I dive in the Messina Straits between Sicily and Italy.

None of the native m43 lenses are parfocal, that I know of.

A few of us have gone from using the 7-14mm (and 9-18mm) and 45mm / 60mm macros, to going back to one of the more basic 14-42mm lenses (optically they are very good, especially the 14-42mm II from Panasonic, just a bit slow - f3.5) and use the WWL-1 (or INON equivalent) as that provides a very in-water flexible system, going from 130' degrees FoV all the way to 1-2cm macro.

As to on land the 14-140mm is a very versatile lens, also - the olympus 12-100mm looks nice! As the GH5 has IBIS (we hope) - using Olympus glass will be a more viable option for video too.

Shame that's 8-18mm doesn't appear to have OIS.

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Olympus told me that the 7-14mm is parfocal and as long as they weren't fibbing I am assuming the 12-100 is as well. Why have people moved back to 14-42 and WWl-1? Is it just for more flexibility on a single dive or is it possibly something to do with the large dome port for 7-14 in current?

I think if the aperture is constant throughout the zoom range it might keep focus so being almost parfocal.

If the aperture ramps up I'm not sure it can be at all, especially if it's more than a stop? There only a very few (canon) lenses I know of that don't have a constant aperture and are also parafocal.

As to going to the 14-42mm. Yeah flexibility, corner sharpness and OIS are the main reasons. (For me anyway)

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Thanks very much for your response. Sounds like I need to double check about the 7-14.

Shame that's 8-18mm doesn't appear to have OIS.

 

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Remember that Panasonic only puts OIS into lenses with focal lenghts over 25 mm. This is a design common to all issued lenses.

This list from 2011:

https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2011/02/photo-lenses-for-video/4

The following lenses are constant focus while zooming. If its not on this list, it is not parfocal.

 

 

• Micro 4/3: Panasonic 7-14 f/4

 

, to going back to one of the more basic 14-42mm lenses (optically they are very good, especially the 14-42mm II from Panasonic, just a bit slow - f3.5) and use the WWL-1 (or INON equivalent) as that provides a very in-water flexible system, going from 130' degrees FoV all the way to 1-2cm macro.

 

There is no way to operate a manual focus on that lens!?

BTW: https://nauticam.squarespace.com/blog/2016/12/21/komodo-in-4k-na-gx8

https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2016/03/mythbusting-parfocal-photo-zooms/

They may even – if they’ve done some research – pull up an old article I wrote years ago listing some photo lenses that were parfocal and add that to the argument.

 

I have to tell them that article doesn’t count anymore. For one thing, parfocal is not an absolute definition. What is acceptable as parfocal to one person in one situation is unacceptable in another.

 

What’s the takeaway point? No photo zoom is going to be absolutely parfocal. Some may well be close enough for your purposes, but check the copy in your hands on the camera you’re going to use. Remember, when someone tells you a certain photo zoom lens is parfocal, that means their copy on their camera held to their standards.

I think we safely can say that no m43 photo zoom lens are parfocal. ;-) But some might be more parfocal than others!

 

There is no way to operate a manual focus on that lens!?

 

BTW: https://nauticam.squarespace.com/blog/2016/12/21/komodo-in-4k-na-gx8

 

https://vimeo.com/195163095

What some great tips for using magic-filter + lights - would never of thought of doing that with the WB

Thanks for posting!

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I have just read that very interesting Lensrentals article. Thanks EspenB, it's really interesting and now I know that you can't just believe what the manufacturers say but need to do some serious checks with the actual lens you are going to buy on the actual body you are going to use. Wow. What a good thing I read Wetpixel!

what about Leica DG Vario Elmarit 1, 2,8-4,0 12-60mm? Is this a useful lense for underwater video?