#dc-gh5

“Having earned the top spot as our Best Wide Angle Prime of 2017 in our annual Lens of the Year awards, we’ve now finalized our lab testing of the Olympus 17mm f/1.2 Pro lens. This 35mm-eq. wide-angle prime lens is undoubtedly a professional-level optic that offers excellent performance. Image quality is spectacular, even at f/1.2, with very low distortion and low chromatic aberration….”

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 17mm f/1.2 Pro professional-quality Micro Four Thirds prime lens with manual clutch focus rings drawn back for accurate, repeatable manual focussing at a quarter turn to go from infinity to closest focusing distance, excellent for stills photography and video production on hybrid cameras and cinema cameras.

The Olympus M.Zuiko Pro lens line-up as of late October 2017.

Commentary

With the coming release of Blackmagic Design’s Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K aka BMPCC 4K aka P4K later this year, along with the already-released Panasonic Lumix DC-GH5 IBIS hybrid 4K stills/video camera and the Panasonic Lumix DC-GH5S high-end compact 4K video camera, attention is on affordable yet high-end professional-quality lenses capable of delivering excellent results whether manually-focussed or used with those cameras’ autofocus functionality if they have it.

After trying out prime and zoom optics from several ranges of Micro Four Thirds lenses, I have chosen to invest in Olympus’ M.Zuiko Pro range and will be adding more as availability and finances permit.

My documentary photography and moviemaking work demands gear that can withstand years of use and potentially challenging environments without succumbing, and the weather resistance, durability, quality and relative low weight and size put the M.Zuiko Pro lens range in the frame.

It is hardly surprising that the folks at Imaging Resource awarded their Best Wide Angle Prime of 2017 plaudit to the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 17mm f/1.2 Pro lens.

I have yet to have the pleasure of trying one out due to apparent local supply problems, but the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 17mm f/1.2 Pro is at the top of my lens wish list along with its 45mm and 25mm stablemates as well as the 5-stop image-stablized Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-100mm f/4 IS Pro zoom lens followed by the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 7-14mm f/2.8 Pro wideangle zoom.

I will be adding Xume fast-on, fast-off filter holders, Breakthrough Photography brass knurled step-up rings and UV protection filters, and a full set of top-quality variable and fixed ND filters to my kit in the 82mm and 105mm sizes soon.

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 17mm f/1.2 Pro

Screenshot from the Olympus 2018 financial report.

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 17mm f/1.2 Pro, Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 25mm f/1.2 Pro and Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.2 Pro professional prime lenses.

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 17mm f/1.2 Pro lens. Not shown in this photograph: retracting the focus ring activates the lens’ manual cutch focus mechanism, allowing for fast, accurate, repeatable focussing and focus pulling.

The M.Zuiko Pro 17mm f/1.2 on an Olympus Pen-F, probably not much larger or heavier than, say, the popular 12-40mm f/2.8 zoom lens.

Links

4/3 Rumors  – Olympus financial report discloses Olympus will keep focusing on high end mirrorless

Blackmagic Design – Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K

Imaging Resource – Olympus 17mm f/1.2 Pro Lens Review: The best wide-angle prime for Micro Four Thirds

Olympus Global – M.Zuiko Pro

STC Optical & Chemical – Screw-in Lens Adapter For Olympus 7-14mm F2.8

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Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K (BMPCC 4K) with Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro zoom lens with manual clutch focus, great for manual focussing. I like the longer image-stabilized Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-100mm f/4.0 IS Pro zoom for available light daily walkabout needs for video and stills.

Clicking on these affiliate links and purchasing through them helps us continue our work for ‘Untitled: Stories of Creativity, Innovation, Success’.

Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera 4K – B&H

Breakthrough Photography X4 UV and ND filters – B&H

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 7-14mm f/2.8 PRO Lens – B&H

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 8mm f/1.8 Fisheye PRO Lens – B&H

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO Lens – B&H

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-100mm f/4 IS PRO Lens – B&H

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 17mm f/1.2 PRO Lens – B&H

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 25mm f/1.2 PRO Lens – B&H

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO Lens – B&H

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.2 PRO Lens – B&H

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 300mm f/4 IS PRO Lens – B&H

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital MC-14 1.4x Teleconverter – B&H

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH4 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera – B&H

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera – B&H

Panasonic Lumix DC-G9 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera (Body Only) – B&H

Panasonic Lumix DC-GH5 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera – B&H

Panasonic Lumix DC-GH5S Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera – B&H

Xume – B&H

Panasonic Lumix DC-GH5 with Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro zoom lens, Guerrilla G-Cup for GH5 and Peak Design Clutch camera strap. I used a Panasonic Lumix G 25mm f/1.7 lens on the GH5 for my photographic walk through Chatswood depicted below.

Panasonic Australia’s media relations people kindly couriered over a GH5 just before Christmas, shortly after Guerrilla, formerly Miller & Schneider, sent over its G-Cup for GH5, and the G-Cup has been permanently fixed to the GH5 ever since.

It is still early days for me with the Guerrilla C-Cup but this first serious foray into shooting with it was a success.

New Year’s Eve 2017 was a hot and muggy day with constantly changing low-angle light filtering through the glare of a cloudy sky in Sydney’s northern suburb of Chatswood.

A Brisk New Year’s Eve Walk Through Chatswood with a Lumix GH5 and a Guerrilla G-Cup for GH5

DxO Optics Pro Elite with its companion applications cum plug-ins DxO FilmPack and DxO ViewPoint was the first dedicated raw file processor I bought after being less than impressed with Adobe’s Camera Raw of the time.

The DxO combination has been my raw processing benchmark provided, that is, the raw files in question are not Fujifilm X-Trans non-Bayer raw as DxO’s code base sadly only supports Bayer sensors.

Accordingly I processed my brisk walk images in DxO OpticsPro Elite, now renamed DxO PhotoLab, with DxO FilmPack and DxO ViewPoint as plug-ins.

This set of images was processed with DxO’s Agfa Scala 200x analog film simulation and selenium/gold split toning to emphasize the heat and light of my walk through those gritty streets.

Even the light indoors in the shopping centres and arcades both upmarket and down seared my eyes as it shafted through the skylights and windows into the gloomy lower floors below.

Agfa Scala 200x, intended for processing as a transparency film, was discontinued in 2010 and the closest extant film is reportedly Adox Silvermax.

The Guerrilla G-Cup for Panasonic GH5

I was glad of the way Guerrilla’s G-Cup for the GH5 shielded the edges of my eyes in those searing shafts of light so I could peer more effectively into the darkness.

More importantly, the G-Cup did exactly what Guerilla’s product page text promised it would:

The G-Cup is a replacement eyecup designed to fit the electronic viewfinder of the Panasonic GH5. It enhances the clarity, comfort, and stability of your camera by securely attaching to the EVF to block out light and provide a comfortable cushion for firm pressure and improved handheld stability.

Custom-designed and optimized for each camera, the G-Cup adds very little weight, and it perfectly compliments the camera’s shape and balance. It enables run-and-gun shooting with your camera stripped-down, right out of the box.

Panasonic Lumix GH5 with Guerrilla G-Cup for GH5 and Peak Design Clutch hand strap.

That run-and-gun shooting experience is important to me with the GH5 and its DSLR-style form factor that is so different from the types of cameras I usually prefer for stills photography, rangefinder and rangefinder-style cameras like Panasonic’s GX8 and Fujifilm’s X-Pro2.

I am right at home with those two cameras for the urban documentary approach I applied to my walk around Chatswood on New Year’s Eve, 2017.

The G-Cup made the GH5 look and feel like something very different, a marksman’s sight for peering distantly at the target and that feeling was underscored by my choice of lens, the Panasonic Lumix G 25mm f/1.7 Aspheric.

The Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 17mm f/1.2 Pro, Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 25mm f/1.2 Pro and Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.2 Pro.

I received the 25mm f/1.7 with my Panasonic Lumix GX8 during an end-of-year promotion and it is currently one of my fastest Micro Four Thirds lenses.

Its 25mm focal length is not one I would have chosen to buy as I tend to shoot documentary stills with wider or longer focal lengths – in M43 they are 14mm, 17mm, 20mm and 42.5mm and in 35mm format they are 28mm, 35mm, 40mm and 85mm.

For documentary video as well as stills, I am very tempted by the Olympus M.Zuiko Pro f/1.2 prime lenses range and its 17mm, 25mm and 45mm focal lengths with their manual clutch focus capability, crucial for accurate and repeatable manual focussing and focus pulling.

Panasonic Lumix G 25mm f/1.7 Aspheric prime lens, one of Panasonic’s f/1.7 prime lens series, all affordable and light, and with a fast enough maximum aperture for most situations. Manual focussing is damped focus-by-wire rather than manual clutch focus as with the Olympus M.Zuiko Pro lenses, so I prefer the latter for repeatable and accurate focus control but Panasonic’s f/1.7 lens series is great for tight, fast situations.

Panasonic’s fast little Lumix G f/1.7 primes are a different proposition, better suited to autofocus and one carrying on M43’s initial promise of smaller, lighter, more affordable cameras and lenses as well as more discretion when shooting in public.

For that they are well-matched with Panasonic’s GX8, a camera that is the height of discretion due to its unique tilting electronic viewfinder, which I hope will soon be updated as the GX9.

I have tried using the fully-articulated monitor on Lumix cameras in lieu of the GX8 tilting EVF’s waist level finder effect, but success is dependent on being able to shield the monitor from the sun or in having a main subject lit brightly enough.

SmallRig LCD Screen Protector Sunhood 1972 on Panasonic Lumix GH5.

I recently bought SmallRig’s LCD Screen Protector to try when shooing video in challenging light and needing to have the camera low rather than eye level on a tripod or gimbal, though it may be unwieldy for run-and-gun stills and video.

I will be in the Sydney city CBD later this week to shoot some much-needed Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) High Dynamic Range (HDR) and All-Intra 400 Mbps 10-bit 4:2:2  video footage so I can explore these promising new developments that arrived with version 2.0 of the GH5’s firmware.

Links

ADOX

DxO

Guerrilla – G-Cup (Panasonic GH5)

SmallRig

Untitled: Stories of Creativity, Innovation, Success – Guerrilla G-Cup for Panasonic Lumix GH5 Released, Arrives for Tryout and Review

Help support ‘Untitled’

Clicking on these affiliate links and purchasing through them helps us continue our work for ‘Untitled: Stories of Creativity, Innovation, Success’.

COSYSPEED CAMSLINGER Streetomatic Plus Camera Bag – B&H

Fujifilm X-Pro2 Mirrorless Digital Camera – B&H

lens

grip

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO Lens – B&H

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 17mm f/1.2 PRO Lens – B&H

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 25mm f/1.2 PRO Lens – B&H

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.2 PRO Lens – B&H

Panasonic Lumix DC-G9 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera (Body Only) – B&H

Panasonic Lumix DC-GH5 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera – B&H

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera – B&H

Panasonic DMW-BGGH5 Battery Grip – B&H

Panasonic Lumix G 25mm f/1.7 ASPH. Lens – B&H

Think Tank Photo Spectral 8 Camera Shoulder Bag (Black) – B&H

Think Tank Photo Stuff It! Belt Pouch (Black) – B&H

http://www.newsshooter.com/2017/12/20/gh5-off-repairs-time-reflect/ “While packing up my GH5 to be sent in for service (more on that in a minute) I was thinking about why I like the camera so much and recommend it a lot to people….” Links News Shooter – GH5 firmware v.2.2 update adds new programmable function plus VFR improvements News Shooter – Movcam GH5 cage hands on review News Shooter – My…

Guerrilla has kindly sent over a sample of the GH5 G-Cup and we will be giving it a good workout when a GH5 review loaner arrives soon. 

Meanwhile here is a gallery of photographs comparing the GH5 G-Cup with the G-Cup for the GH4 and GH3, with the popular Bluestar Viewfinder Eyecushion attached to each.

G-Cup for the GH5 and G-Cup for the GH4, with Bluestar Viewfinder Eyecushion

I reviewed the GH4’s G-Cup several years ago when looking for third party solutions to block our Australian laser beam sunlight out of the side of my eyes while shooting video in the great outdoors.

I found it to be a much better option than relying on the GH4’s default rubber eyecup and it worked especially well when wearing contact lenses with and without a Bluestar Viewfinder Eyecushion attached to the G-Cup.

The GH4 G-Cup produced variable results when swapping contact lenses for my usual spectacles corrected for near-sight and astigmatism, depending on the shape and size of the spectacles’ frames.

Rounder and smaller worked better, allowing better access to the view through the G-Cup than my more rectangular spectacle frames.

I would have loved to use the GH5 G-Cup when producing my initial review of the GH5 which arrived minus its own default eyecup, and am glad that Guerrilla is about to put its GH5 G-Cup on sale shortly.

Links

Color by LookLabs – Digital Film Stock – excellent set of 19 3D LUTs for log and Rec. 709 linear profile video, created from scans of actual Fuji and Kodak movie film stocks.

Guerrilla – G-Cup (Panasonic GH5) – not yet released but coming soon.

Skylum – Aurora 2018 – award Best App of 2019 by Apple.

Skylum – Luminar 2018

Image Credits

Product photographs made with Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 camera with Panasonic Lumix G 25mm f/1.7 Aspheric lens and DMW-EC3 Eyecup as 3-bracket HDR images processed in Aurora HDR 2018 then Luminar 2018 using the Color by LookLabs Digital Film Stock Fuji Reala 500D 3D looks LUT.

Help support ‘Untitled’

Clicking on these affiliate links and purchasing through them helps us continue our work for ‘Untitled: Stories of Creativity, Innovation, Success’.

Bluestar Round Extra Small Microfiber Eyecushion – B&H

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO Lens – B&H

Panasonic Lumix DC-GH5 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera – B&H

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH4 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera – B&H

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera – B&H

Panasonic DMW-EC3 Eyecup for the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 Digital Camera – B&H

Panasonic Lumix G 25mm f/1.7 ASPH. Lens – B&H

Panasonic has released version 2.2 of its firmware for the Panasonic Lumix DC-GH5 hybrid Micro Four Thirds/Super 16 stills and video camera, and it contains one item that appears especially useful for users of the Olympus M.Zuiko Pro professional-quality prime and zoom lenses.  The GH5 now would appear to recognize the Lens Fn button on M.Zuiko Pro lenses as well as Panasonic’s own Panasonic…

http://www.newsshooter.com/2017/12/04/zacuto-gh5-no-cage-cage-hands-review/ “For me, a camera cage is a must when it comes to a hybrid camera. We need as many mounting options we can get to make a camera designed for stills work easier for video. Zacuto has a cage for the GH5 that they call the Zacuto GH5 “No Cage”….” Links News Shooter – Zacuto GH5 ‘No Cage” Cage hands on review Zacuto Help…

Fujifilm has released its firmware updates f0r the X-T2, X-T20 and GFX 50S APS-C/Super 35 and medium format cameras, along with the new, free Fujifilm X Raw Studio raw convertor and Fujifilm X Acquire 1.7 for settings back-ups, restoration and tethered shooting on Mac or Windows computers, while firmware updates for the X-Pro2 and X100F remain on-course for late December 2017.  Fujifilm’s support…