new lenses

I didn't get to do any new stuff in the workshop, let alone record it.
But I did get me some new lenses in the last weeks.
(Not much else to spend budget on while waiting for the Panasonic GH3 to be announces in autum.)


The Panasonic 14-42mm X-lens. Only a fraction of the size of the 14-42mm kit lens, yet optically even a bit better.

It's a pancake. Meaning it's so small, that the GH2 or GH1 camera with this lens mounted fits inside a coat pocket and I can have it with me all the time. It's so small, there is no zoom-ring and no focus ring. It has 2 levers and does a motorized power zoom.
Formerly having the camera in my pocket was only possible with the (very bad) 3D pancake lens or...


the 14mm f2.5 wide angle pancake.

Finally a lens that is wide enough, so I can make unstabilized shots handheld and film in close quarters. It is also much faster then simply using the 14-42 at 14mm and thus a good wide angle companion to my beloved PanLeica 25mm f1.4 and the Voightländer 25mm f0.95.
(Yes, I regularly do shots in light conditions that required lenses this fast. Contrary to photography you can't use a flash for filming and the situation doesn't allow setting up off-camera lights.)


And finaly the third one...the 45-175mm X tele.

 Concentrating on normal and wide angle ranges there are situations where I can't go on without a tele. I thought about this a long time since I don't need a tele very often but when I do, there's no alternative. Manual, old FD-lenses are too slow to use and too bulky and I can't get any closer.
Formerly I used a fair sized collection of old Canon-FD mount lenses. ...very old ones.
Very bulky, unstabilized, manual focus, hard to use. (The FD-bajonett is a nightmare. I once lost one of only 2 camera angles I had recording a 3 hour show that is only performed once due to an FD lens not sitting tight because I had to mount it in the dark in just a few seconds.)

I just compared the new 45-175 with my longest lenses. A Tokina and a Tamron.
These go up to 210 and 300mm and to compare them I zoomed all 3 to 175mm, used the new lens wide open and the old ones stopped down to minium to give the old glass an edge and the new one a disadvantage.
....Looking through the 1:1 crop magnification I couldn't believe how much detail, contrast and saturation where possible with modern glass. How could I ever have thought of the old lenses image are "fairly good, if uncomfortable to handle".

Two other things I got pretty much transform the way I record too:
A boom-pole with a large blimp for my 50mm long T.Bone EM9900 shotgun microphones.
With these I can record way better sound and have the microphone off screen when there is even a slight wind outside. Up to now the only option had been the lower quality dynamic hand-microphones that are less effected by wind.

The second thing is a camera monitor. This may not sound like much but they do a lot more then just display an HDMI or SDI feed. With 4 user defined buttons I can select to view the center of the frame in 1:1 or any other magnification. (You record FullHD but can't watch it in that resolution until you are done.)
I can select peaking. Meaning the highest contrasts get a red border. Thus I can pull focus while filming.
2 Other things are false-colors to show over- and underexposure and showing the overexposed areas with a pattern (the only thing the camera already does on it's own.).