21Mar First Panasonic GH4 Lens buy Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8
After doing a large amount of my own research, talking to friends, and hearing from you guys I’ve made my first Panasonic Gh4 lens purchase, the Olympus 12-40mm f2.8. Thank you for everyone’s input and suggestions on lenses for the Panasonic Gh4, those of you who are long time Panasonic owners have been extremely helpful.
The final decision ended up boiling down to three things. First, and probably most notable for me is this video that Cfreak linked to. It’s pretty easy to see in the video that the f-stop is effected as the Panasonic 12-35mm f2.8 zooms in and out. While I don’t do a lot of zooming in and out I also don’t want to have to make slight settings adjustments every time I make a focal length change.
The second is something Sol mentioned about repeatable focus which was very helpful and something I might have missed if I hadn’t been looking for it. The Panasonic 12-35mm f2.8 is completely fly-by-wire and there are no hard stops, while the Olympus 12-40mm f2.8 has a clutched focus ring (similar to the Tokina 11-16mm f2.8) that allows repeatable focus and hard stops at 20cm or infinity. Even though the Olympus is a bit chunkier and doesn’t have image stabilization, repeatable focus is a relatively important feature for me.
Lastly but not least, I was able to find the Olympus 12-40mm f2.8 on ebay for $750 +$16 shipping. I hadn’t actually planned on buying the Olympus today, but I put in an offer for $750 and it was accepted. So I’ll actually have my first micro 4/3 lens in my hands before I have a camera to shoot with. Maybe I’ll drag it along to NAB and see if I can test it out on one of the floor models.
If you’re still not sure about what lens to buy, read through the comment section on this post from earlier in the week. Everyone had great recommendations and good reasons for different lens selections, the discussion ended up being very informative for a first time micro 4/3 owner like myself. Thanks again guys for all your help!
March 21st, 2014 at 1:08 pm
Fun to see how you are just going for it! You are a brave man.
I am going to wait until my review unit and glass comes in before I buy the GH4.
But the way it’s looking I am 90% sure the GH4 will replace my 5D3.
Canon is just hearing us, while Panasonic is actually listening to what we want.
March 21st, 2014 at 1:27 pm
I probably wont be ditching my Canon gear anytime soon, but i figured i may as well dive in. If i hate it, there’s always ebay. If i love it, a whole gh4 kit with lenses looks to be about the price of a 5d mark III body. Either way it should be fun.
March 21st, 2014 at 1:27 pm
Simply put, you’re taking the YouTube poster’s word for it (a stranger), while most of us never saw that problem, and we know how to enforce fully manual operation. Meanwhile, your Olympus lacks Power O.I.S. which is going to limit your options dramatically when time and access is lacking for locking down your camera onto sticks.
Kept your receipt? You want the 12-35mm!
March 21st, 2014 at 2:07 pm
Hi Paul,
I went to B&H and checked out the 12-35 for myself on a GH3 and put the camera into full manual mode. I saw the problem just like in the YT post. If you’ve got a way to make the lens, not make small adjustments while zooming, please post it up in a video so we can all see. I would like to see it too.
March 21st, 2014 at 2:16 pm
OPEN CALL:
If anyone owns the lens and want to debunk all this internet fodder I have found, please do. I would love to buy this lens (Pana 12-35 f2.5 with OIS) if it doesn’t flicker while zooming in video mode.
March 21st, 2014 at 2:23 pm
It was enough to convince me. As a stranger on the internet myself, I feel like we are generally good people. 😉
April 26th, 2015 at 12:37 am
new firmware of Panasonic 12-35 fixed the issue with flicr
June 1st, 2015 at 11:39 am
Thanks Vince!!!
March 21st, 2014 at 2:11 pm
Another video of the same iris issue:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raYnOWwylfI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3fipANbTlI
March 21st, 2014 at 2:21 pm
I’ll keep that in mind Paul. I got a pretty decent price on the Olympus, if I hate it I can always put it back on ebay. I don’t often find myself needing image stabilization, but I do wonder if I’ll miss out on the new DFD focusing system that Manny mentioned.
March 21st, 2014 at 4:36 pm
The Panasonic 12-35mn is made specifically for video. It’s laughable someone wouldn’t have it as their ‘go to’ lens with the GH3/GH4
March 21st, 2014 at 5:32 pm
What’s laughable about it? The Olympus has better focus control, constant f2.8 with no iris flicker, and most reports give it a slightly better image quality than the Panasonic. Help me out here, i’d like to laugh to. To be fair, both lens are more similar than different. It really seems to come down to O.I.S. vs none fly-by-wire focus ring.
March 22nd, 2014 at 3:51 am
I’ve not experienced any of these problems with my 12-35mm. The O.I.S. is vital for image stabilization, so this lens, along with the 35-100mm, is a must-have for a great deal of video work. In my opinion anyway! I also have the Olympus 45mm f1.8 too so I’m not a Panasonic fanboy or aynthing.
It’s nice to see all these Canon DSLR users considering a MFT system. I made the jump last year, and not looking back! 🙂
March 22nd, 2014 at 9:21 am
I’ll have to borrow a 12-35mm when I get my GH4 and do some side by side testing. I’m kind of surprised how divided people are on these two lenses.
March 21st, 2014 at 8:21 pm
Did you do the firmware upgrade for the panny 12-35? Fixed the problems that was plaguing it before.
Lens Firmware for Panny 12-35 is Ver. 1.2
A lot of people get gear and never do firmware upgrades and complain of problems the firmware fixes.
March 21st, 2014 at 11:34 pm
Sweet deal!
March 22nd, 2014 at 11:56 am
I’m not seeing that issue with my 12-35 at all. It opens very smoothly. And I just got it back in January brand new on ebay from a japan dealer.
March 22nd, 2014 at 12:44 pm
Ok, so experimenting more with it:
With the camera off the iris opens smooth.
With the camera on but not recording this phenomena does happen complete with a clicking sound. When you press record though, the clicking sound goes away and seems to open smoothly again. Odd.
March 22nd, 2014 at 1:34 pm
Maybe firmware update?
March 27th, 2014 at 3:22 am
Unfortunately, the lens does flicker when zooming with my BMPCC. HOWEVER, only in 2.8 -3.5. From 4.0 up it’s completely fine, at least, on my BMPCC.
Thanks for the heads-up anyway I wouldn’t have noticed myself!
March 27th, 2014 at 3:27 am
I take it back! Only flickers on 2.8 while recording.
March 27th, 2014 at 2:06 pm
Now, it isn’t flickering anymore… How weird is that? It is kind of random.
March 29th, 2014 at 5:40 pm
Deejay, are you still planning to do a comparison between the Olympus and the Panasonic? After reading your two posts I’m more torn than ever about which will serve my needs…
The dynamic focus nature of the Panasonic “fly-by-wire and there are no hard stops” you mentioned is a bit of a deal breaker as hard stops are important when pulling focus.
At the same time, image stabilization is just as important to me.
Would love to see you do a side by side review and explore these questions some more.
Thanks! Lars
March 29th, 2014 at 8:50 pm
I’ll have a GH3, Panasonic 12-35mm, and the Olympus 12-40mm in my hands all next week for testing. Should be a flood of posts on it.
March 29th, 2014 at 5:44 pm
PS, regarding the iris flicker, it would be interesting to hear whether was in fact corrected with a firmware update. I just checked out a Panasonic 12-13mm 2.8 at my go to camera store on a GH3 and it did flicker… Would be interested in hearing more about this from others.
Here’s another good review of the lens: https://vimeo.com/50671577.