new-bie to panny

Looking for your help to get me up to speed
I,am a nikon, pentax, sony owner. (all Dslr's)

But frankly I am burned out with lugging around all that heavey metal ( love to hike in the mountians)
I looked at the sony a55 but it has problems!

I have read some good owner reviews on the GH2,Like the samples I have seen on line ( never had a problem with owners reviews and Info-- it is the pros that lie)
OK I filled you in

Lens? I have no need for a 14/42--- 14/140 maybe

longer( grand son plays football) and a macro lens?( love wild and rare plants in the mountians) any problems with landscape photos?
and folks what about a movie lens? Is there any problem with filters?
what about a flash? I use one only every now and then--- grand kids

any problems with cold weather shooting? ( I live in the rocky Mountains it gets cold here ever so offen LOL)
Is here a panny on line users group?
thank you for your help and Info

Kia2010 said:

Lens? I have no need for a 14/42--- 14/140 maybe

longer( grand son plays football) and a macro lens?( love wild and rare plants in the mountians) any problems with landscape photos?

Click to expand...

If you're ready to spend the money, Panasonic has you covered. They just released (it's actually still hard to get, and there's a bunch of threads right now showing off pics,) a 100-300 (200-600 35mm eq,) OIS zoom. By all accounts, it's very sharp and fast focusing, and the OIS is good enough handheld videos can work at the long end (not sure how stable the guys shooting them are.)

There is only one native macro lens so far - the Panasonic/Leica 45mm/2.8. I think it's a great lens, and so do most of the folks here that own one. DPR gave it a slightly mixed review - mainly because they tested it as being a little softer in the corners (they think it's a mildly curved focus field - they could easily be right, I don't know.) Of course, it'll take most any lens on an adapter, and Olympus has a couple of 4/3 lenses that will AF fine, though slowly.

For landscapes, their are two wide angle options right now, both pretty good. The panasonic 7-14 is by all accounts a very good lens, a little larger than the kit lens, with a built in lens hood and a curved front element (no filters) The Olympus 9-18 is rather different lens. Much smaller and lighter (and half the price,) it's smaller than Olympus's kit lens, and also collapsible. I'm still working on learning how to compose wide angles effectively, but I haven't run into something I felt the lens wasn't up to.

Kia2010 said:

and folks what about a movie lens? Is there any problem with filters?
what about a flash? I use one only every now and then--- grand kids

Click to expand...

What do you want in a movie lens? Most of the m4/3 lenses are silent or nearly so (the 20/1.7 and olympus 14-42 are notable exceptions,) and the Panasonic ones generally have OIS. The GH2 does very quick AF in video.

Fllters work fine - in fact, it's more flexible in this respect than dSLRs, since a linear polarizer won't mess up AF or metering on the GH2.

Olympus has a lines of flashes - the most important are probably the relatively compact/light (2AA) FL-36(R)-FL360 (Three versions - the original FL-36 without the R, the "R" wireless flash, and the FL360 "panasonic", released under Panasonic's name but identical to the non-R Olympus,) and the bigger stronger FL-50(R)-FL500. AFAIK, the GH2 will not support the wireless features - none of the Panasonic models have to date.
Walter

My first Panasonic was the G1 with 14-45. The G1 got bounced after a few months because of the very annoying f stop/exp comp dial on the front which was too easy to move unintentionally. However the 14-45 was great for hiking and did a very nice job on mountain landscapes. If you check out the 2009 gallery on my website you'll see a few from the White Mts of NH that were done with the G1. Hiking on snowy days when temp was in the 20's (f) did not bother it.

Throughout all my camera buying and selling over the last 5 years the one constant has been the Canon 5D and various L lenses. Like you, I've finally tired of hauling all that weight and have sold the lot. The Canon G series while nice and light are the horrors to frame with.

I'm now about to get the GH2 with 14/140 and 7-14. They've moved the annoying dial to the back of the camera where it belongs, provided a 100% EVF, and of course all the latest gee whiz tech to play with. I already know the lenses are excellent.

Good luck with your next purchase!
--
Pete Smith
http://www.pbase.com/petersmith

thanks for the great info
Its hard to make up my mind
I can't even find a gh1 to look AT

no long macro is a problem I shoot high in the mountians and more offen then not I can't get close
I have ask and ask none of the camra stores localy have a gh2
a sorry state of affairs

thanks again

wow I WISH I COULD GET A GH1 or GH2 TO AT LEAST TO LOOK AT

I can't find a panny dealer here in Colorado
good new about the cold weather shooting
It does get cold and it does snow here ever now and then
and blistering hot in the summer at 11 to 14 thousand feet
thank you for you help

Well, the GH2 isn't shipping yet in the US, so no surprise there, though ergonomically, the GH1 should be very, very similar to the G1, which you should be able to find many places.

I actually bought a G1/14-45 today, though I will very likely (almost certainly) sell the body when the GH2 is finally available. But, since Amazon has such a great price on a new one with 14-45 ($400 for the kit), I thought I'd get it, sell the body, and save some money on the lens (which is $350 new by itself)...plus it would give me a G series to complement my E-P1 until the GH2 is out.

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http://www.jordansteele.com

Looks like you want the whole lineup. Here's how I'm going to spend your money.

GH2 with 14-42 or 14-140 (These are your general video lenses, since they have OIS.)
Oly 9-18mm wide angle zoom
Pana 20mm pancake for your start
Pana Leica 45mm Macro
Pana 100-300mm super tele for sports and wildlife
Oly FL36R flash or Metz 48

One caveat is that m43 gear is not weather sealed. My sense is that you need two systems where you live to deal with extreme weather conditions.

What do you shoot outdoors in harsh conditions? Get/keep a weather sealed DSLR system and lenses for those purposes. Then delete the redundancies in the above list. You'd have two systems that take advantage of each format for their intended uses.

Chaching!
--
SLOtographer
Panasonic G1, LX5

If you're spending someone else's money, why would you go 9-18 instead of 7-14?

Kia2010 said:

wow I WISH I COULD GET A GH1 or GH2 TO AT LEAST TO LOOK AT

I can't find a panny dealer here in Colorado
good new about the cold weather shooting
It does get cold and it does snow here ever now and then
and blistering hot in the summer at 11 to 14 thousand feet
thank you for you help

Click to expand...

Where are you at in Colorado? Might have to take a trip into Denver or Grand Junction to have enough selection

I under stand the Mikes might have a camera to look at soon

redrunnertc said:

If you're spending someone else's money, why would you go 9-18 instead of 7-14?

Click to expand...

He mentioned using filters. So there you go.

--
SLOtographer
Panasonic G1, LX5

sorry missed your post I live 20 min;s from denver
thanks for your help

When I lived there, the only "real" camera store I went in was Mike's in Boulder, and even their selection of m43 stuff was pretty thin it seemed. I'm sure there has to be more places though.

Wolf/Ritz have almost nothing - not worth the time to even go in IMHO.

thank you for your input
Mike's as crooked as a old country road

I just don't trust anythying they say
I have caught them lieing so many times

ritz I feel bad for the sales peole there --Hard to make a living these days
your right they have no panny gear