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Lenses to use with GH4 / 4K Cameras
  • JanHJanH

    I'm pretty excited about the potential of the GH4 (and I suppose any other 4K cameras at $2,000 or so). I am currently using the GH13, mainly in 720p mode with a variety of legacy full frame lenses. Canon FD, Minolta MD, Nikon, Helios, Pentax etc. These all produce a lovely image, less clinical than the Panasonic 14-140 kit lens, IMHO.

    Now with 4k coming along, I'm wondering if these older lenses will have any chance of producing the detailed images that the higher resolution sensors are capable of. Or, whether the way forward would be to use an RJ or Metabones speed booster with these lenses to get the detail/ resolution? It would be a shame to not be able to get the benefits of 4k unless using m43 lenses.

    Does anyone have any experience, or opinions on this subject? I'd appreciate any comments.

  • 10 Replies sorted by
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Does anyone have any experience, or opinions on this subject? I'd appreciate any comments.

    This one is easy. Set 16:9 stills mode in your GH1, check every lens. If result is good for you, it'll be good on GH4.

  • stoneinapondstoneinapond

    Wise words. It's that simple.

  • kurthkurth

    I'll wager the focal reducers won't cut it at 4k, so going wide with legacy glass will be harder. Maybe metabones will stepup and make a new higher spec'ed 4k speedbooster. They'll simply be too soft on the edges. Maybe it's an unresolvable ( no pun intended ) problem. Looking forward to the 10mm samyang.

  • vicharrisvicharris

    @kurth The new specific speed boosters MB makes are in a different league. I have one for the pocket and all that soft edge and blurry stuff I can't stand is fixed!

  • matt_gh2matt_gh2

    @vicharris Interesting re specific MB speedbooster. So I guess you mean the MFT to Nikon MB speedbooster shows some softness and bluriness towards edges? How bad is it? I ask because I'd like to use that with Sigma 18-35 on GH2 and I'm really hoping to get good edge to edge sharpness.

  • nomadnomad

    4K is really demanding, that's why I do all my lens tests in stills mode on the GH2 anyway. But what's wrong with a regular Speedbooster from MB? If the lens is good (like my Zeiss Contax C/Y ones), I don't see problems in the corners other than some deformation of OOF highlights.

    On a RED you can do lens tests and see massive differences even between expensive cine glass from 20 years ago and modern ones…

  • kurthkurth

    @vicharris

    I'd like to see a sample. Every speedbooster stills sample I've seen shows some soft edges. Now that doesn't mean it's unusable in video, or that in 1080 it'll look much softer in the real world, but at 4x that, I'd expect that res to be unforgiving. Obviously downsampling the 4k would probably resolve any sharpness issues. It reminds me of people using the pany 16x9 lens made for the dvx100 for hd . It just didn't cut it. That said, sometimes I use a old canon s8 .7x adapter and it looks great at 1080. And as a sidenote, if you saw the recent post in the speedbooster thread, even metabones is having quality control problems.

  • JanHJanH

    @Vitaliy_Kiselev @stoneinapond dumb, dumb, dumb me.....I realized after posting that this would be an obvious way of checking the lenses for resolution. In fact, I have some stills taken with each lens, so I'll check..and you're probably right - there won't be any issue...Thanks. I'll keep an eye on the speed booster topics, too.

  • vicharrisvicharris

    Nope, my MB speed booster is just fine.

  • nomadnomad

    I can't see anything wrong with mine either, but as soon as my NEX adapter is here I'll do comparisons of the same lens on Sony FF and with SB on GH2 to post them here.

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