@ Vitaliy_Kiselev

agreed on the Samyang V Zeiss - had the luxury and boredom of buying the 35 and 85 (I sit in a box every day lol) of each and, well not reading any reviews - instantly and in the gut apparent that the Zeiss is bloomin sexy - no charts no pixels just phwoor factor - no idea if it grades well etc but one on and one lens off - wow Zeiss - ZF and thanks to a chum for a Contax 85 1.4 MMJ (which for me was even sexier than the Zf - fook knows why) I stare at pictures and make things louder and quieter ever day - so certainly not scientific, but the Zeiss seemed more "sexy times" and noticeably sit up and go ooh. My very well paid and happy looking grader chum concurred after letting him look at the output and its ability to be played with - he was most pleasantly surprised at the DW footage forced, ahem, presented to him. Funnily he loved the Contax 85 > Zf too same scene - hey its only telly :)

@itimjim Did you pick up that Tokina 28-80 yet? If not I might have some help/advice for ya

Nikon nikkor 85mm f1.4 D Manual lens is one of the best for GH2 Film Making. Nikon Nikkor 105mm f2 D and Nikkor 135mm f2 D kills the 85mm f1.4 anyways. Try to get Nikkor series manual lenses.

Strat Vs Tele - whats better irrelevant surely :) no dick wingling but personal experience - don't make you Chris Noloon who did beg for post when kid at CTV - just do it :) Dont worry about what anyone else does ... pop it out and shoot x

Good buy!

Be wary of some oldskool lenses some super takumars, and canon FL's are radioactive, which can cause harm to you Or your camera.

See "radioactive takumar" on youtube.

I like the super takumars altho the highlight / shadow roll off is too harsh for me.

Also if you're lens is showing a yellow'ish haze, on the front/back elements, let them sit in the sun for a day, this is cause by the radiation.

Some FL's and super takumars have it depends on the series, just to make sure!

Origins are the back elements who needed to be molded extremely with some indexed glass to achieve the 1.2/1.4

Own the zeiss 85mm f.14 (ZF) and love it. No problem with GH2 supporting its weight. Splurged and bought the voigtlander m43>ZF adaptor which is probably overly expensive for what it is but really does work like a dream and seemed a good investment as I'll be building my zf glass.

No CA that I can detect, incredible sharpness at f1.4 (way more than a voigtlander 25 mm) and gets even sharper at f2.8. But even at f1.4 its sharper than most glass at 2.8-4 which, combined with it being 85 mm basically allows you to achieve the "5d" look in a m43 body. It also means rack focusing looks so incredibly gorgeous, particularly because the bokeh is so smooth... nothing remotely geometric about it like you get with with the panny leica octogons.

Everything I've shot so far has been for a doc so its embargoed. But mercifully am in the city for a month so could try to run off and grab a few tests shots for ya as I wanted to spend a day exploring its capabilities. Any requests?

I have a question regarding an old style 85mm lens on the Panasonic GH3. If I use an old style 85mm lens on this MFT unit then does this mean effectively it's a 42.5mm mft equivalent lens? so in other words, if I would get a 35mm or 45mm mft lens then I could potentially achieve the old style 85mm lens look? thanks for your comments in advance.

@drbuckyballs

Your terminology is a bit wierd but I´m assuming you mean a "full frame" equivalent of 85mm. (That terminology too can be quite misleading but it´s what we have until something better turns up)

If you are interested in vintage lenses, then you will get the same angle of view from a 42,5mm lens on the gh3 as an 85mm lens would give on a full frame. Now what will be different though is that you will not get the same look, exactly. And the reasons for that is that the 42.5mm lens is not designed for tele-properties. Differences between focus and out of focus (bokeh) will be pretty different, as well as you will get a pretty flat focal field; normally lenses have a curved focal field and is softer in the corners. If you crop the centre of the image circle then you get the "best" of the lens but it´s also a magnification of that area and it will not look the same. This can be both desireable and undesireable depending on what you want.

Now, if you look for a native MFT mount lens of 42.5mm then you will have a look that matches that of an 85mm lens on a full frame camera.

If the angle of view is not the most important, but the look, then you might as well get an 85mm vintage lens. It still won´t be the same as that lens would look on a full frame camera, but out of focus areas will look more similar.

To further "complicate" matters / increase the options, there´s the metabones speedboster, which would make the vintage lens look like a full format lens on aps-c. It will be available in the near future for some mounts adapted to MFT/m43.

@RRRR @tetakpatak First, thanks so much for your answers. I'm still a little lost what to get for GH3 because I read this article below and this is exactly the style of photography I've been trying to achieve with some of my older cameras. Now I purchased my first MFT, the GH3, and love it and but I am not sure what to buy anymore due to the different formats. The article i'm referring to is http://digital-photography-school.com/how-a-humble-85mm-lens-became-my-favourite

So am I buying a Canon 85mm f1.8 lens which then is essentially 2x85mm on GH3 which is then not really 85mm anymore? Or should I look for a 42.5mm MFT lens for this type of photography?

yes i will try the 85 F1.8 FD. thank you.

Although I´m personally not a fan of the canon 85, (mainly because of poor near OOF and some aberrations I don´t like) - yes, it will do the trick. You need to shoot a bit further off and the subject might appear a little flatter if you´d compare side by side with a full frame camera.

Trying out vintage lenses is relatively cheap, but addictive. :)

If you have the chance, you could try out 1) oly 45mm MFT lens or 2) oly PEN 42mm (f1.2) lens http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mint-OLYMPUS-PEN-H-zuiko-AUTO-S-42mm-f-1-2-42-f1-2-lens-jp11993-/160920413325?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item25779aa48d Or the 38mm PEN f1.8, also designed for portraits and a bit cheaper.

or the new voigtlander 42.5mm f0.95 lens when it hits the stores.

Those would be the closest to reflect an 85mm lens on full frame as they are all designed as portrait lenses. The PEN 42 would be the only vintage lens in this focal length I know of which is designed as a portrait lens. I do have a canon 50mm tv-16 f1.4 c-mount lens which is very good. (much nicer on the gh2 than the fd version), it´s also rather small and handy in size. I want to sell it so if you´re interested, let me know! That would have the equivalent angle of view as a 100mm on full frame.

I personally like the look of the jupiter 9, 85mm lens.

PEN Zuiko samples: PEN 42mm f1.2 http://www.flickr.com/photos/zhongchiphoto/sets/72157628495344025/ PEN 38mm f1.8 http://www.flickr.com/photos/kuuan/sets/72157627988053181/

@RRRR
@drbuckyballs

It is topic about 85mm lenses, not discussion about 42.5mm