Hack isn't going to improve quality of stills. It's aimed on tweaking video parameters.
As of lenses thing, I use Sigma 60mm/F2.8 and as I said before It's bargain in its price point. I own also PL 25mm/F1.4 with great results but you've said it's out of your budget. I heard some vintage Minolta or Canon FD lenses are cheap and good too but it also depends on adapter used. Some adapters can soften image because of bad flange distance. I shoot on PSAM modes. I don't use film modes as I shoot only in RAW so all I get is raw sensor data without any color correction. All tweaks are done in post.
Manual focusing needs some skills so you must train yourself to focus quick and accurately..
@JOFO you said that eye picture was taken at f/7.1. How could you know this when using a Nikon lens on a GH2? Do you have an adapter that lets you electronically adjust the aperture on the Nikon lens?
@JOFO @baschmir About manual focusing, dont feel bad about not getting sharp pictures. The viewfinder on the GH2/GH3 is useless for manual focusing. Needs to be a little bigger with at least 2x more resolution for manual focusing!
I shot that with Tamron 17-50mm/f2.8 Canon mount opened at 7.1
I have opened it on the Canon body and then mounted on my GH2
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