Lumix GH2 best wide angle lens other brands

Hello,
two questions:

1. Does anyone have any idea of a ship date for the Lumix GH3? I think there is an announcement of products about Feb 7 ish but thats all I know.

2. Can anyone tell me what the best non-Panasonic wide angle lens would be, to adapt to the GH2? After perusing Panasonic's lenses, I cannot find what I am after, not really a big selection.

I am after the equivalent to the old 20 mm or 24 mm (10 mm ish) and pretty fast , from f2.8 to F1.4. Slower with a zoom range I would consider. It must be a lens that is able to handle GH2 video.

I have looked at a lot of lenses of all brands but I have no idea how well they adapt to the GH2 and what quality loss there might be. Obviously I would want something that has a relatively cheap adaptor and does not impair quality.

So for those of you have been down this track before with a GH2, info on the best brands that adapt to Lumix, is it Sony, Canon etc?

thanks for your time.

Hello
I have this lens. It is very good but quite expensive (overpriced).

http://www.dpreview.com/products/panasonic/lenses/panasonic_7-14_4

--
TWiCS
GH2, FZ50, TZ3, and lots of old useless darkroom junk.

I'm in the same boat it appears.

I'm a camera newbie, and just bought a GH2 for Christmas. Thought it sounded like a fun toy. But this crop factor crap is driving me crazy. The other thing I'm not happy with is the limited choices of lenses. I've since then purchased some old/fast/cheap lens, and had some some success with them. I think they'd be fine for video, but for still photography I'm having a hard time getting well focused pictures. Even with the GH2 focus assist feature, for some reason many of my pictures are out of focus.

The lens I have are:

1. Canon Nifty Fifty (50mm F1.4): Nice and fast @ 1.4...but with the crop factor you have to be 15 feet from your target. UGH

2. Kiron 28MM F2.0. Fast and cheap and wide enough to make me happy. I think I paid like $50 for it on Ebay. From what I've read Kiron has some build quality problems, but my lens seems to work fine for my needs.
3. Vivitar 28-90mm F2.8 Zoom. Nice and fast. But a bit heavy.

All 3 require a Canon FD adapter mount which I bought for around $30, and it is nice. I like the quality and I haven't noticed any picture quality problems. But again I'm a SLR newbie, so I don't have experience using higher quality lenses and cameras. My problem is getting shots in focus. Using the screen or eye piece my shots seem to be in focus on the camera, but when I get back to my computer many of them are out of focus. That happened yesterday. I went out in the nice weather took a bunch of pictures, and only maybe 15% in focus. ARGH. I think one of my problems if trying to get too much bokeh with my shots. I probably need to stay at a higher aperture...which should help a bunch as it will give me a much deeper focus range.

Now I'm looking at perhaps getting one of these Olympus lenses, but I cannot tell if they actually support AutoFocus or not. This ( http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/dsc/connect/gh2.html ) chart is not very easy to understand.

I hope I was helpful.

I have a nice wide angle solutiom with my GH1 and the standasrd 14-45mm lenss with Oly WCON-07. It will work also with the GH2 standard lens 14-42 but not with the
14-140mm. See micro four thirds forum
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1041&message=40366179

thanks for the heads up to both of you. Sounds like the 4/3rds forum may have some clarifications for all.

I would be interested to know if you sorted out your stills problems and what the cause of them was?

These will work perfectly on your GH2 -- as all the Olympus m43 lenses will.

The multiply the focal length by 2 to get the equivalent of 35mm camera lenses. So 12mm = 24mm in 35mm film or FF in digital; 9-18mm = 18-36mm in 35mm or FF.

The Panasonic f2.5 14mm is the equivalent of a 28mm n FF/35mm.

Panasonic and Olympus are the owners of the Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds format (the same size sensors, but the Micro Four Thirds , or MFT, m43, µ43, has a shorter distance or "back focus" between the lens mount on the camera and the sensor so the cameras are thinner).

Olympus has two ranges of 4/3 lenses because it made/makes 4/3 DSLRs with the longer back focus, and m43 cameras (the PEN series) with the shorter back focus. The Oly m43 lenses are designated M.ZUIKO DIGITAL -- note the "M". These are the lenses you want -- they will fit straight on to your Panny GH2 and work perfectly, auto everything.

The Micro Four Thirds Talk forum is the home for both Panny and Oly m43 users.

Cheers, geoff
--
Geoffrey Heard
http://pngtimetraveller.blogspot.com/2011/10/return-to-karai-komana_31.html

canonises100 said:

Hello,
two questions:

1. Does anyone have any idea of a ship date for the Lumix GH3? I think there is an announcement of products about Feb 7 ish but thats all I know.

Click to expand...

GH3 has not yet been announced, nor is there any indication that it will be announced at the upcoming CP+, so who knows? The GH2 was announced at Photokina 2010, so probably September 2012...unless the OM-D puts sufficient pressure on Panny...

canonises100 said:

2. Can anyone tell me what the best non-Panasonic wide angle lens would be, to adapt to the GH2? After perusing Panasonic's lenses, I cannot find what I am after, not really a big selection.

Click to expand...

Native MFT lenses with AF, non-Panasonic, you have your choice of two, the Oly 12 mm f 2.0 and the 9-18 mm f 4.0-5.6, I suppose you could included the Oly 17 mm f 2.8 as a wideangle.

The Panny 14 mm f 2.5 may be interesting in combination with the two newly announced converters designed for that lens, the DMW-GWC1 which gives you an 11 mm FOV
http://panasonic.net/avc/lumix/systemcamera/gms/lens/dmw_gwc1.html

or the DMW-GFC1 which gives you a 120 degree fisheye view
http://panasonic.net/avc/lumix/systemcamera/gms/lens/dmw_gfc1.html

Going to manual focus MFT, you could always try the Samyang 7.5 mm f 3.5 fisheye (sold under various names including Rokinon and Bower)...it gives very good results, search on the Micro Four Thirds forum for some excellent photos.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=Samyang+7.5+mm+fisheye&N=0&InitialSearch=yes

or the hard to find all manual SLR magic 12 mm f1.6

http://www.ebay.com/itm/190628816196?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%3A80%2Fsch%2Fitems%2F%3F_nkw%3D190628816196%26_sacat%3D%26_ex_kw%3D%26_mPrRngCbx%3D1%26_udlo%3D%26_udhi%3D%26_sop%3D12%26_fpos%3D%26_fspt%3D1%26_sadis%3D%26LH_CAds%3D%26_fvi%3D1&_rdc=1#ht_1732wt_1313

Then there is the world of manual cine lense that have been adapted to use the MFT format, but now we are talking $1000+ for lens...

canonises100 said:

I am after the equivalent to the old 20 mm or 24 mm (10 mm ish) and pretty fast , from f2.8 to F1.4. Slower with a zoom range I would consider. It must be a lens that is able to handle GH2 video.

Click to expand...

Pretty much down to the Oly 12 mm f 2.0 or the SLR Magic or the rumored 17.5 mm f 1.4 Voightlander (not wide enough for you) various manual cine lenses, but now you are talkning real money!

canonises100 said:

I have looked at a lot of lenses of all brands but I have no idea how well they adapt to the GH2 and what quality loss there might be. Obviously I would want something that has a relatively cheap adaptor and does not impair quality.

Click to expand...

Due the 2.0 crop factor, wide angles are not the strong suit of most adapted lenses, especially from the 35 mm Full Frame standpoint.

canonises100 said:

So for those of you have been down this track before with a GH2, info on the best brands that adapt to Lumix, is it Sony, Canon etc?

Click to expand...

If you are talking wide and fast, I would not really look here...you are paying top dollar for lots of heavy glass, and then multiplying the focal length by two, negating the wide effects...

The Panny 7-14 mm f 4.0 wideangle zoom is highly regarded, although not fast enough for your stated needs...perhaps, again down to the Oly 12 mm for all the MFT virtues of small, light, fast...

canonises100 said:

thanks for your time.

Click to expand...

brilliant, thanks for all the information, I have my work cut out investigating all your suggestions, very helpful!