Best Lumix Lens to Start With
Hi Daniel!
I have been unsure about purchasing the Panasonic gh4, but after stumbling across your blog, I knew it was the right one for me! I am pretty new to everything about lenses, and was wondering what lens you would recommend that would work great imagery and video wise with the gh4. The main thing I am considering about the lens is for its great depth of field, autofocus, good color balance, and size. I am hoping that the lens would not provide too much bulk to the gh4.
Thank you so much!
I look forward to reading about your future adventures!
Magdalen Li
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You won’t be disappointed with the GH4. It’s a lot of camera for the money and then some. For an all-around amazing lens I would suggest the Panasonic-Lumix-Vario-14-140mm, 3.5-5.6 zoom. This gives you relatively wide angle of 28mm equivalent to a decent telephoto of 280mm. It’s very sharp and very light. To get started,
Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens
this is the lens of choice. Hope this helps and thanks for stopping by.
Joe DotsonOn Jan. 1st, 2016
Dan, Happy New Year.
I was playing with the camera today. When I was trying to adjust the iso, the camera would adjust the focus point. How do you adjus the camera settings when the touch screen is “active”?
Thanks,
Joe
Daniel J. CoxOn Jan. 1st, 2016
Joe, I take it you are talking about the GX8? If so it sounds like you have “touched” the back LCD which activates the AF sensor that allows you to move it around the LCD. Tap the front shutter button to bring the camera back in to shooting mode. Then press the ISO button on the back of the camera to activate the ISO option. Remember, anytime something is not working, always go back to the front shutter button, press lightly to get the camera back in to shooting mode then go from there. All cameras work this way but the Lumix has more options so it’s easy to forget sometimes.
Joe DotsonOn Dec. 23rd, 2015
Hey Dan, I just bought a GX-8.
2 questions:
1. How sharp is this lens at lower aperatures?
2. If I want to shoot with a lower shutter speed, what ISO does image quality start to fall off?
Thanks,
Joe Dotson
And, thanks for the recommendation. I love the camera
Daniel J. CoxOn Dec. 23rd, 2015
Joe,
I’ve found the lenses to be very sharp at lower apertures but like ALL other lenses in every brand, the sweet spot of any lens is typically around the middle of aperture range. This can be different depending on what lens you are using but overall I find F/8-F/5.6 is the sweet spot for most lenses. As far as ISO is concerned I regularly shoot the GX8 as high as 2000 ISO. Admittedly we don’t have the range of a full frame Nikon but it’s not a long way behind. I’ve also found that the little bit of noise I do get in the upper reaches of my GX8 cleans up amazingly well in with the newest version of Lightroom’s noises reduction tool. It’s actually astonishing.
Additionally, I’ve documented my settings for the GH4 which are basically the same of the GX8 in the Blog post titled: One year shooting the Panasonic Lumix GH4. So you don’t have to go dig that up here is the list of things I change in the menu on both the GX8 and GH4.
<strong>Record Tab</strong>
Photo Style= Standard
Aspect Ratio= 3:2
Quality= RAW+Jpeg Fine
AFS/AFF= AFS
Metering mode= Matrix or Evaluative
Bust Rate= High
ISO Limit set = 1600
ISO Increments= 1/3 EV
Extended ISO= On
Long Shutter Noise Reduction= On
Color Space= sRGB
<strong>Motion Picture Tab</strong>
Photo Style= Standard
4K Photo=On when Needed (Manual Exposure)
Rec Format= MOV
Rec Quality= Depends on every shoot
AFS/AFF= AFS
Continues AF= On (Sometimes Off if I’m using Manual focus)
Metering= Matrix or evaluative
Sound Output= Recorded Sound
Mic Level Display= On
Mic Level Limiter= On
<strong>Custom Tab</strong>
AF/AE Lock= AF On
Shutter AF= Off
Quick AF= Off
Eye Sensor AF=Off
Direct Focus Area=Off
Focus Release Priority=Release
Peaking=On
Histogram=On
Zebra Pattern=Zebra2
Contant Preview=Off
Monitor Info Display=On
Auto Review Duration Time=Off (Very, very imprint to turn this off for action photography)
Fn Button Set-None other than what is default.
Eye Sensor=Low
Touch Settings
Touch Screen=On
Touch Tab= On
Touch AF=AF
Touch Pad AF=OFFSET (This has to be set to move AF sensor around LCD with finger)
Shoot without lens=On (this is so I can use my Nikkor 600mm F/4 with an adapter)
<strong>Setup Tab</strong>
Live View Mode=30Fps
Battery Use Priority=Battery Grip
Menu Resume=On