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14-35 f2 Olympus on GH2 - what a glass.. but!
  • Received this monster yesterday. Its absolutly amazing glass, very nice subtile bokeh even in widest angle, small distortion and chromatic abberation, sharp, direct coupled focus + AF ... well, check the review. So in general I am perfectly happy (and poor now).

    Now comes the BUT:
    As you can see on the picture this thing is huuge. And heavy. I bought the original Olympus adapter, but still the lense has about 4 mm play at the front. (XY.. not Z ;)

    As soon as you touch follow focus things become shaky. I already phoned Oly if there was some kind of clamp to fix it to the rig... but nothing. The cam is mounted in cage, but this lense is simply so long and heave that its to much for the mount i guess.

    Any ideas who makes such clamp for a specific diameter? I don´t want to do DIY on this, it should match as bought.

    PS:
    If you think this would suit better into an existing topic let me know.


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  • 9 Replies sorted by
  • I bought a fotga dslr base with rails (quick release plate) and it came with a height adjustable, rail-mountable lens support.

    http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DP500-DSLR-rail-15mm-rod-support-system-f-mattebox-5D-2-/200636971232?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2eb6e538e0#ht_4734wt_1396
  • Thx, this is nice. But the lense is more moving to the side than up and down (due to the FF rotation).
    So I would need more some kind of ring that keeps it at place in all directions.
  • I had this lens also, but on a E-P2 and Olympus adapter, it did not have any play....
  • Its not really play, but more the Gh2 plastic parts bending and the little too thick rubber parts on cage. Anyhow the lense needs to be fixed, even if it was not wobbling around I would not dare to run with it. The mount is simply a bit small for this weight.
  • Here are photos of the custom 15mm rails mount I devised for legacy Four Thirds lenses. I fashioned a mount for the Panasonic 4/3rds adapter out of a tripod collar mount made for a Canon telephoto lens, with a hard rubber gasket to apply pressure evenly around the circumference of the adapter. The tripod collar was just narrow enough to allow camera and lens to be independently mounted and detached. The rail-mounted Panasonic 4/3rds adapter allows me to independently swap out both lenses and camera bodies without disassembling the shoulder mount. The camera is attached to the rig solely via the M4/3 lens mount. The 4/3rds adapter is mounted on a quick release plate, and can be swapped out for a zoom lens with a built-in tripod mount.

    iShoot tripod collar mount for Canon EF 100mm f/2.8
    http://cgi.ebay.com/Canon-EF-100mm-f-2-8-USM-Macro-Lens-Tripod-Mount-Ring-/260821785675?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0hash=item3cba309c4b

    Note where I drilled a hole in the side of the tripod collar to provide access to the lens release button on the 4/3rds adapter. I also removed the plastic collar around the button to allow the adapter to fit snugly within the tripod collar.

    With a sizable lens, using a fixed adapter to mount both lens and camera is mechanically far more stable than using the tripod mount hole on the bottom of the camera. As the Olympus 14-35mm f2 lacks its own tripod collar mount, the 4/3rds adapter is very handy for this purpose.
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  • And this is exactly why Panasonic is not going to make an m4/3s version of this lens. It is fantastic but not really appropriate for a small bodied camera. Boy would I love to shoot with it though.
  • Same lens, same problem (on a GH1)

    I will solve the problem by makeing a DIY lens collar (cut from a solid block of aluminium) to mount on a 15mm rail system - the lens will then be fixed on bothe sides.

    Sorry, I don't have any other solution.
  • Thank you for your help guys.So at least I know now that I have to build something myself.
  • If I understand you correctly, it sounds like the problem you're having is with the gh2 rotating on it's mount. If that's the case, get an arca swiss plate specifically designed for the gh2. This will prevent rotation. Really right stuff has a great plate. I own it, it works awesome. There's also one you can find on bhphotovideo: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/651595-REG/Acratech_2173_2173_Camera_Plate.html I've never tried this one, so I can't vouch for it.

    IDCPhotoVideo also has a GH2 specific solution that prevents rotation, but it isn't exactly quick release. It looks solid though.

    Another option would be a cage like the one from rewo. It's designed to prevent camera rotation.