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Lens – AF100
Hello all!
I’m a high school filmmaker and after a long time of saving up on jobs and getting my dad to meet me halfway, I’m finally buying a Panasonic AF100!
I went to a local camera store, where an Olympus rep was visiting for the day. I was just there to check out the camera that day, but the Olympus guy set me up with a very nice 45mm f/1.8 lens at a price of $300.
Now, this is the first camera I’ll be getting in which the lens isn’t stationary, so I’m new to lenses, but from what the Olympus rep told me, f/1.8 is very good in low-light and the lens is very sharp.
I later began to wonder if the lens had stabilization built-in, so I Googled it and nope, no stabilization. I immediately knew this would be bad considering I plan to use the camera for 95% video. So I was wondering if anybody knew any prime lenses (hopefully around $300 or less) that:
-Had fantastic shallow depth of field.
-Sharp, no loss of HD quality.
-Good in low-light.
-Micro 4/3Thanks!
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Zack Hosseini
http://www.ZackHosseiniFilms.com
Za**@***************ms.com“When all else fails, look for presets!”
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2 Replies
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Sounds like you stumbled across a very good lens, especially a f1.8. Don’t worry about the stabilization you can use Final Cut Smooth Motion or some other program to steady the shot if it really needs it, or use a tripod.
Bars & Tone
SALUTE! -
Hey Zack,
Congratulations on the AF! A great camera indeed. The Olympus 45 is a very nice lens but remember, on a micro4/3 camera this will look like a 90mm! That is because of the crop factor that the sensor size is subject to. If this is going to be your one lens, I would get something that will put you in a more normal range. For 4/3, I would look instead to the Panasonic 20mm F1.7 or the Panasonic/Leica 25mm F1.4. These will put you in a more useable, everyday focal length. A 45 on micro 4/3 is just too long of a lens. That would basically be a portrait or close up lens. As a rule of thumb, multiply the focal length of the lens by two and that will give you thr effective focl length on a micro 4/3 camera.
As for image stabilization, you won’t find this in micro4/3 lenses as the standard puts it directly in the camera bodies themselves allowing lenses to be smaller and automatically stabilizing any lens you put on the camera. And for video, you wouldn’t really want it anyway as the IS is a correction device. Imagine making a nice slow pan on a tripod and then the lens or camera corrects for motion and it jitters trying to counteract your intentional movement. It can mess you up, and has messed me up. The software stabilizers are good. Use those together with good shooting practices and you will be fine.
Use it in good health!
MattPanasonic HPX170 P
2011 Macbook Pro 17″, 2.3 Ghz Quad Core, 8GB RAM
AJA IoXT
Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5, Final Cut Pro Studio 3, Avid Media Composer 3.5.4
The College of William and Mary
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