Panasonic 14-42 feather weight lens on GH3

[Droider]

Any using this

http://www.panasonic.com/uk/consumer/cameras-camcorders/lumix-g-lenses/h-ps14042e.html

Would love to here from the experts on here their thoughts on this feather weight lens

Dave

 

[jfro]

Any using this

http://www.panasonic.com/uk/consumer/cameras-camcorders/lumix-g-lenses/h-ps14042e.html

Would love to here from the experts on here their thoughts on this feather weight lens

Dave

EDIT.... Sorry, I did not hit your link. The following is on the larger, older lens, not the smaller lens. Assumed it was the standard 14-42 lens. Sorry for the misdirection.... FYI, it's still a nice, relatively light, low cost lens.....

I use it on flying on 3 cams including GH3.
fYI. Image stabilization is set in camera, not on lens, thus no IS on Black Magic Pocket cam.

Quality wise it is decent and it's standard thread size (52mm) for ND filter, nice & light.

Common sense wise, A+. Light, decent quality, & inexpensive. Can't imagine why more peeps aren't using it. Only drawback is it not very fast, so not so good in low light.

 

[jes1111]

Interesting lens - certainly as a carry-around lens it's great, but not sure if the premium price is worthwhile for AP. Only 60-odd grams lighter than the regular 14-42 and no (apparent) way to zoom during flight. The barrel extends when switched on so it's actually on a little smaller than the regular 14-42. No lens hood.

 

[ary]

14-42 review

You can check lens review here : www.photozone.de
As a profesional photographer, I always do a personal test my range of lenses. Compare it to photozone, their review are precise.
From their review that lens are good, means better(less chromatic aberation in corner image) than​ Lumix 12-35

Lumix 14-42 :
http://www.photozone.de/m43/844-panasonic1442f3556ii?start=1

Lumix 12-35 :
http://www.photozone.de/m43/766_pana1235f28?start=1

1 sample of aerial photo using of 14-42. Notice :Fog in image because of polution (industrial area) not from lens quality

 

[jes1111]

ary - that's the older 14-42 - not the new "X" pancake-style lens

http://www.photozone.de/olympus--four-thirds-lens-tests/765_pana14423556hd

 

[ary]

Yup, you are right Jess.
Still like my old 14-42.

 

[Droider]

EDIT.... Sorry, I did not hit your link. The following is on the larger, older lens, not the smaller lens. Assumed it was the standard 14-42 lens. Sorry for the misdirection.... FYI, it's still a nice, relatively light, low cost lens.....

I use it on flying on 3 cams including GH3.
fYI. Image stabilization is set in camera, not on lens, thus no IS on Black Magic Pocket cam.

Quality wise it is decent and it's standard thread size (52mm) for ND filter, nice & light.

Common sense wise, A+. Light, decent quality, & inexpensive. Can't imagine why more peeps aren't using it. Only drawback is it not very fast, so not so good in low light.

I thought I read IS was in lens... must go read spec again. What about other Panasonic lenses then, is the IS in the lens or in the camera?

Dave

Everyone else thanks for input.. thought for the price it seemed a good purhase especially as it has a electronic zoom function.. thought it may work via remote but that not why I thought I woukld give it a go, the weight is the key here, means I have more than one copter caperble of flying the GH3 now.

 

[yeehaanow]

Some of the lumix lenses have an IS switch on them, others, like the older 14-42 don't, and it has to be activated in the camera. The downside is that the ones without a switch won't have IS on the blackmagic pocket camera.

I was looking at this lens, and since the zoom control is a slider, it could probably be rigged up to be controlled with a servo. The 14-42 used to be the only lens I used. It was a great range and nice and light for aerials. However, it is now filled with dust, from all the landings. I would advocate some kind of protection for that.

 

[kloner]

IOS it is in the lens

for photos that lens doesn't seem to bad especially with lots of light, but it's aweful slow..... the 12-35 does pretty good still and video

View attachment 16582
vid

But, i recently bought a bunch of glass.... 14-140 similar speed to your op question, 100-300 and both those work bitchen on the ground. 100-300 is a bit much without a tripod, over 230ish i can't make clear with touching the camera to shoot.... 2:1 crop make sit pretty long. But, specifically for video and cinema i bought the Rokinon t2.2 16mm cinelens and the voightlander f.95 17.5mm and lemme tell ya, money. This was the voightlander

rokinon

I also have the 7-14 lumix but it's slow and we don't use it much unless we want to purposely get that affect like at sunrise, anything not lit gets black, sunrise pops harder, but that's about all i do with slow lenses anymore with video. mid day stuff they work alright, kids playing sports, capturing fishing, bright sunny stuff. under clouds, sucks, dawn/dusk, sucks. but photos where you can tweek the settings they do a lot better.... 7-14 photo

it has a trippy look, clean but weird, this was probably at 8-9mm if had to guess, it didn't have filters but that just changed so look forward to more flying this one wide with nd's
View attachment 16583

This weekend were doing a demo with gh4 and i'll try getting these lenses in action on a set to see what they do..... that was my whole reason to go in on m43 lenses.

that rokinon is on sale at adorama for $499... one warning though, this rok is the heaviest m43 lens you will ever find. the voight is right behind it, but its size is normal, just metal cased. the rokinon is huge, 9-10" long 2-3 lbs

 

[jfro]

I thought I read IS was in lens... must go read spec again. What about other Panasonic lenses then, is the IS in the lens or in the camera?

Dave

Everyone else thanks for input.. thought for the price it seemed a good purhase especially as it has a electronic zoom function.. thought it may work via remote but that not why I thought I woukld give it a go, the weight is the key here, means I have more than one copter caperble of flying the GH3 now.

Sorry, bad explanation on my part. The original 14-42 as well as the new one has IOS, but does not have an external switch, so is activated from the menu on your gh3 or gh2 camera.

It is so inexpensive, I consider it a crash/throw away lens. There are a ton of them out there selling pretty cheaply on the used market, many with very few hours on them. EBay, 65-95 used U.S. dollars. Used Ebay on the newer model is 190-240 U.S. dollars. New one is 85grams vs 165grams for the old. Power zoom on new lens, not old. Power zoom does use battery, so expect a small hit there.

 

[Quinton]

Any using this

http://www.panasonic.com/uk/consumer/cameras-camcorders/lumix-g-lenses/h-ps14042e.html

Would love to here from the experts on here their thoughts on this feather weight lens

Dave

A really important thing to think about is the F3.5-F5.6
When you are at 14mm the widest aperture will be F3.5, if you want it at 42mm the widest aperture is F5.6
Maybe wont matter that much to you for flying, but it is something to always consider if you are going to have video with zoom in it.
Really depends how you will be using it, and what you need it to do.

 

[kloner]

sweet spots being f7 and f11 or there abouts..... pretty slow for vids we produce, needs follow everything enabled to nail shots with zoom like quinton mentioned

sure is a sexy looking little thing. they have always had nice light m43 glass, just keeps getting smaller and lighter

 

[Quinton]

I'll also add that you won't go wrong with the 12-35mm F2.8, (24mm-70mm Full frame equivalent covers a nice range) another thing to take into consideration is it weather sealed. (Even though it seems expensive now)
Your GH3 will be outdated in a years time, (look how much you spent on that) your lens will be used on the GH4, GH5, GH6..GH8K etc
If you really want a "light" lens for your camera check out the Panasonic Sumiilux 25mm 1.4, it will serve you well.

 

[kloner]

that sedona footage was shot on that lens, 12-35 f2.8... set to 20mm if i remember right,,, wish we weren't so tired there i would have flown some better glass, was afraid to change things once we started though.... this crap is hard enough to figure out

 

[kloner]

quinton, are the fixed primes generaly faster like that or is just that lens? I haven't looked at anything other than m43 as a hobby at best so i'm asking for knowledge. When we film with reds the lenses are blazing fast, nice zeis cinema stuff..... i know there money i'll never have so never even looked at that stuff. I'm just the lowly pilot

 

[Vojec]

My experience with that lens is: beware of dust, if you fly off-road especially on take-off and landing. When you power cam ON lens will slide out and between inner and outer circle is 0.5mm space, enough for micro dust steps inn. Have problems with that, so now I'm using fixed non-sliding lens...

 

[Quinton]

quinton, are the fixed primes generaly faster like that or is just that lens? I haven't looked at anything other than m43 as a hobby at best so i'm asking for knowledge. When we film with reds the lenses are blazing fast, nice zeis cinema stuff..... i know there money i'll never have so never even looked at that stuff. I'm just the lowly pilot

Just this one, its a really nice on the ground, have not flown it though.
219g with lens hood /196 grams without ... 1ft to infinity.
Its a Leica lens made for the Lumix

I was looking at a 50mm lens for my 5D at the Photo show this week, but all the ones I tried would not fit the Zenmuse lens adapter, I just find 24mm on a full frame very wide, so I would think 25mm on a 2x crop would be really nice.

 

[kloner]

you will be constantly backing up but that's safer anyways. i like the tight lenses when the gimbals do em smooth

thanks

 

[Droider]

A really important thing to think about is the F3.5-F5.6
When you are at 14mm the widest aperture will be F3.5, if you want it at 42mm the widest aperture is F5.6
Maybe wont matter that much to you for flying, but it is something to always consider if you are going to have video with zoom in it.
Really depends how you will be using it, and what you need it to do.

I was looking to be shooting video at 14mm. the main reason was light weight and IOS the prime 14mm does not have IOS. I want something that is a step up from the Sony CX730 to offer clients that are not providing the camera.

 

[Droider]

My experience with that lens is: beware of dust, if you fly off-road especially on take-off and landing. When you power cam ON lens will slide out and between inner and outer circle is 0.5mm space, enough for micro dust steps inn. Have problems with that, so now I'm using fixed non-sliding lens...

I NEVER take off the ground if at all possible, always a table for me.

Dave