Two questions on Pana 42,5 f1.7 and Pana 30mm f2.8

Hello everybody!

I think about purchasing one of the mentioned lenses.

And I have two questions.

- Does the stabilization work with video or only stills?

- Since both lenses dont have any buttons (as I see on images from web) is there any way to turn off IBIS, and how autofocus on Pana 30mm works without focus limiter.

Thank you!

OIS works in video. It can be turned off on Olympus bodies in favor of IBIS but not on Panasonic bodies (the GX7's IBIS is probably no better anyway and the GX8's works in conjunction with OIS). No clue about the 30mm's AF, good question tho.

The 42.5 has a pretty nice minimum focus distance btw, not macro by any means but good enough for decent close-ups. I replaced my Oly 45 with it in part due to this, haven't tried it with my extension tubes yet but it should be interesting.

Impulses wrote:

OIS works in video. It can be turned off on Olympus bodies in favor of IBIS but not on Panasonic bodies (the GX7's IBIS is probably no better anyway and the GX8's works in conjunction with OIS). No clue about the 30mm's AF, good question tho.

The 42.5 has a pretty nice minimum focus distance btw, not macro by any means but good enough for decent close-ups. I replaced my Oly 45 with it in part due to this, haven't tried it with my extension tubes yet but it should be interesting.

I use Pana bodies and I thing this is not very good if I cannot turn IBIS off.

I heard about close distance for 42,5 and also seen some weird "doubled" bokeh on open aperture - did you noticed such on your copy?

Impulses wrote:

OIS works in video. It can be turned off on Olympus bodies in favor of IBIS but not on Panasonic bodies (the GX7's IBIS is probably no better anyway and the GX8's works in conjunction with OIS). No clue about the 30mm's AF, good question tho.

The 42.5 has a pretty nice minimum focus distance btw, not macro by any means but good enough for decent close-ups. I replaced my Oly 45 with it in part due to this, haven't tried it with my extension tubes yet but it should be interesting.

I use Pana bodies and I thing this is not very good if I cannot turn IBIS off.

I heard about close distance for 42,5 and also seen some weird "doubled" bokeh on open aperture - did you noticed such on your copy?

There might be a setting to turn off all IS, I forget, but the GX bodies won't let you turn it off in favor of IBIS... I can see wanting to do the former (tripod use etc), but why would you wanna do the latter? Bokeh on mine doesn't look all that different from my Oly 45, it's pleasing to me but I'm not super critical of it...

Cat's eyes bokeh in the corners would bother me more than double bokeh. Seems a lot of Pana lenses have a bit of that, not too bad tho.

You can turn off stabilisation altogether in the camera body menu.

opogan wrote:

Impulses wrote:

OIS works in video. It can be turned off on Olympus bodies in favor of IBIS but not on Panasonic bodies (the GX7's IBIS is probably no better anyway and the GX8's works in conjunction with OIS). No clue about the 30mm's AF, good question tho.

The 42.5 has a pretty nice minimum focus distance btw, not macro by any means but good enough for decent close-ups. I replaced my Oly 45 with it in part due to this, haven't tried it with my extension tubes yet but it should be interesting.

I use Pana bodies and I thing this is not very good if I cannot turn IBIS off.

I heard about close distance for 42,5 and also seen some weird "doubled" bokeh on open aperture - did you noticed such on your copy?

I have the 30mm and you can turn OIS off or on in the menu. The GX7's IBIS is not used with OIS-enabled Panasonic lenses, but it works with any type of manual (non-OIS) lens. Again, you can turn it on or off in the menu.

The lens OIS does work in video, making it noticeably smoother handheld than a non-OIS lens. Autofocus works as for any other lens. In theory, without a focus limiter, A/F could take longer if rapidly moving between close up and distant subjects, but I haven't really noticed any issues with it so far.

Impulses wrote:

Impulses wrote:

OIS works in video. It can be turned off on Olympus bodies in favor of IBIS but not on Panasonic bodies (the GX7's IBIS is probably no better anyway and the GX8's works in conjunction with OIS). No clue about the 30mm's AF, good question tho.

The 42.5 has a pretty nice minimum focus distance btw, not macro by any means but good enough for decent close-ups. I replaced my Oly 45 with it in part due to this, haven't tried it with my extension tubes yet but it should be interesting.

I use Pana bodies and I thing this is not very good if I cannot turn IBIS off.

I heard about close distance for 42,5 and also seen some weird "doubled" bokeh on open aperture - did you noticed such on your copy?

There might be a setting to turn off all IS, I forget, but the GX bodies won't let you turn it off in favor of IBIS... I can see wanting to do the former (tripod use etc), but why would you wanna do the latter? Bokeh on mine doesn't look ask that different from my Oly 45, it's pleasing to me but I'm not super critical of it... Cat's eyes bokeh in the corners would bother me more than double bokeh.

I didn't see such options in my G5 and GM1.

I'm not sure if this possibility can be useful. But I remember when I used Pana 45-200 it was necessary to turn IBIS off in some situations, otherwise the picture was blurred.

I should've been more clear, the way the original question was worded threw me off (he said IBIS but meant OIS I think?). You can always turn IS off entirely, it's the IBIS/OIS interactions and combinations that get more tricky. On recent Olympus bodies you can pick one or the other, on the GX7 it's OIS if present (IBIS if not), on the GX8 most Panasonic lenses w/OIS should actually work in conjunction with it's IBIS.

RickPick wrote:

opogan wrote:

Impulses wrote:

OIS works in video. It can be turned off on Olympus bodies in favor of IBIS but not on Panasonic bodies (the GX7's IBIS is probably no better anyway and the GX8's works in conjunction with OIS). No clue about the 30mm's AF, good question tho.

The 42.5 has a pretty nice minimum focus distance btw, not macro by any means but good enough for decent close-ups. I replaced my Oly 45 with it in part due to this, haven't tried it with my extension tubes yet but it should be interesting.

I use Pana bodies and I thing this is not very good if I cannot turn IBIS off.

I heard about close distance for 42,5 and also seen some weird "doubled" bokeh on open aperture - did you noticed such on your copy?

I have the 30mm and you can turn OIS off or on in the menu. The GX7's IBIS is not used with OIS-enabled Panasonic lenses, but it works with any type of manual (non-OIS) lens. Again, you can turn it on or off in the menu.

The lens OIS does work in video, making it noticeably smoother handheld than a non-OIS lens. Autofocus works as for any other lens. In theory, without a focus limiter, A/F could take longer if rapidly moving between close up and distant subjects, but I haven't really noticed any issues with it so far.

Oh, pardon you are right I have this option in GM menu.

Thank you again!

Impulses wrote:

Impulses wrote:

OIS works in video. It can be turned off on Olympus bodies in favor of IBIS but not on Panasonic bodies (the GX7's IBIS is probably no better anyway and the GX8's works in conjunction with OIS). No clue about the 30mm's AF, good question tho.

The 42.5 has a pretty nice minimum focus distance btw, not macro by any means but good enough for decent close-ups. I replaced my Oly 45 with it in part due to this, haven't tried it with my extension tubes yet but it should be interesting.

I use Pana bodies and I thing this is not very good if I cannot turn IBIS off.

I heard about close distance for 42,5 and also seen some weird "doubled" bokeh on open aperture - did you noticed such on your copy?

There might be a setting to turn off all IS, I forget, but the GX bodies won't let you turn it off in favor of IBIS... I can see wanting to do the former (tripod use etc), but why would you wanna do the latter? Bokeh on mine doesn't look ask that different from my Oly 45, it's pleasing to me but I'm not super critical of it... Cat's eyes bokeh in the corners would bother me more than double bokeh.

I didn't see such options in my G5 and GM1.

I'm not sure if this possibility can be useful. But I remember when I used Pana 45-200 it was necessary to turn IBIS off in some situations, otherwise the picture was blurred.

You keep saying IBIS when talking about lenses... I think you mean OIS, IBIS = in body image stabilization (done by the camera), OIS = optical image stabilisation (done by lens). Like others said, you CAN turn it off entirely, tho outside of tripod use I've never needed to myself.

Impulses wrote:

Impulses wrote:

Impulses wrote:

OIS works in video. It can be turned off on Olympus bodies in favor of IBIS but not on Panasonic bodies (the GX7's IBIS is probably no better anyway and the GX8's works in conjunction with OIS). No clue about the 30mm's AF, good question tho.

The 42.5 has a pretty nice minimum focus distance btw, not macro by any means but good enough for decent close-ups. I replaced my Oly 45 with it in part due to this, haven't tried it with my extension tubes yet but it should be interesting.

I use Pana bodies and I thing this is not very good if I cannot turn IBIS off.

I heard about close distance for 42,5 and also seen some weird "doubled" bokeh on open aperture - did you noticed such on your copy?

There might be a setting to turn off all IS, I forget, but the GX bodies won't let you turn it off in favor of IBIS... I can see wanting to do the former (tripod use etc), but why would you wanna do the latter? Bokeh on mine doesn't look ask that different from my Oly 45, it's pleasing to me but I'm not super critical of it... Cat's eyes bokeh in the corners would bother me more than double bokeh.

I didn't see such options in my G5 and GM1.

I'm not sure if this possibility can be useful. But I remember when I used Pana 45-200 it was necessary to turn IBIS off in some situations, otherwise the picture was blurred.

You keep saying IBIS when talking about lenses... I think you mean OIS, IBIS = in body image stabilization (done by the camera), OIS = optical image stabilisation (done by lens). Like others said, you CAN turn it off entirely, tho outside of tripod use I've never needed to myself.

I mean stabilization, don't know about the difference in these acronyms.

And I rarely used stabilized lenses so never noticed that my camera has this option. Now it is clean.

Impulses wrote:

OIS works in video. It can be turned off on Olympus bodies in favor of IBIS but not on Panasonic bodies (the GX7's IBIS is probably no better anyway and the GX8's works in conjunction with OIS). No clue about the 30mm's AF, good question tho.

The 42.5 has a pretty nice minimum focus distance btw, not macro by any means but good enough for decent close-ups. I replaced my Oly 45 with it in part due to this, haven't tried it with my extension tubes yet but it should be interesting.

On a slightly different beam of light.

The Panasonic 30/2.8 macro is probably one of the best general purpose prime lenses around.  It is not only an extreme close focus lens for the mundane purpose of simply copying for the record. Think portable photocopier.  But also is a handy focal length for many photographic purposes with a handy turn of speed supported by OIS.  It is also quite capable within this diversity.  In a situation where lenses are for special purposes this is a good starter lens to be on a camera.

Pretty fairly priced too, if I ever move and can't keep borrowing the PL25 anymore I might pick up the 30mm macro instead. I like the PL25's rendering and whatnot but truth is I just borrow it when I want a normal prime that'll handle video or bursts better than my 20mm. I imagine the 30mm might work just as well, tho the AF question posed would be even more relevant in those situations.

Tom Caldwell wrote:

On a slightly different beam of light.

The Panasonic 30/2.8 macro is probably one of the best general purpose prime lenses around. It is not only an extreme close focus lens for the mundane purpose of simply copying for the record. Think portable photocopier. But also is a handy focal length for many photographic purposes with a handy turn of speed supported by OIS. It is also quite capable within this diversity. In a situation where lenses are for special purposes this is a good starter lens to be on a camera.

I would just like to second that. A very versatile and not too expensive lens with good rendering and reasonably fast minimum aperture. Underrated?

opogan wrote:

I didn't see such options in my G5 and GM1.

I'm not sure if this possibility can be useful. But I remember when I used Pana 45-200 it was necessary to turn IBIS off in some situations, otherwise the picture was blurred.

IBIS is "In Body Image Stabilization", meaning that the camera does the stabilization.

OIS is "Optical Image Stabilization", meaning that the lens does the stabilization.

Panasonic lenses often have OIS. Some of the lenses have a switch that allows you turn on or off the OIS.

Olympus cameras often have IBIS, and the Panasonic GX7 and GX8 have IBIS. You can turn the IBIS off (and play with various IBIS settings) from the menus.

On all cameras that have IBIS (except the GX8), the cameras will not use IBIS and OIS together; if one is on, the other gets turned off automatically. (The way that the camera chooses which to use is camera specific.) The GX8 can use its IBIS together with the OIS of some Panasonic lenses, and that is done automatically.

The blurring you referred to in another post on this thread could be indicative of "shutter shock". Check the shutter speed from that shot; if it is 250 or below (particularly if it is 160 or below), it may be shutter shock. With the GM1, you can eliminate shutter shock easily by using the electronic shutter option. For more information on shutter shock, just search this forum for threads on the topic.