20mm grinding auto focus noise!

julienrl · #1 August 24th, 2010, 10:15 PM

anyone else getting an awful grinding noise when auto focusing with the Panasonic 20mm f1.7?

ASA 32 · #2 August 25th, 2010, 08:36 AM

Not awful grinding, but very noisy, seems to have a mind of its own, constantly adjusting itself even when not in CAF.

julienrl · #3 August 25th, 2010, 09:18 AM

umm... I thought it was supposed to be fast and quiet...

Streetshooter · #4 August 25th, 2010, 09:21 AM

Grinding doesn't sound too good.
I hear sounds but would not use Grinding to describe them.
Hmmmmm

julienrl · #5 August 25th, 2010, 09:24 AM

when in picture mode it seems to be much quieter. It is in video mode that it gets loud and sluggish

everythingsablur · #6 August 25th, 2010, 09:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by julienrl

when in picture mode it seems to be much quieter. It is in video mode that it gets loud and sluggish

The 20mm is a great photo lens, it is not a great/fast video lens. In video, it is notably sluggish (compared to other lenses) at continuous AF, and rather noisy in its aperture stepping. If you're only experiencing this "grinding" in video, then I suspect it's just those characteristics of the lens not being a video optimized lens.

julienrl · #7 August 25th, 2010, 10:40 AM

ahhh... that was a fail buy! lol I bought this to use it as my main lens.

everythingsablur · #8 August 25th, 2010, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by julienrl

ahhh... that was a fail buy! lol I bought this to use it as my main lens.

If the audio is your only concern, then just dub over the sound in editing.

If you want the audio of what you are filming, you could either record off device and sync in post, or get the SEMA-1 adapter for your E-PL1 and attach a different microphone to it that will move the microphone farther away from the lens (or not, not many reports on the SEMA-1's included mic; it might be far enough away already...). In either case you could get much better sound quality than the camera itself will give you (stereo, surround, different audio source locations, etc.). Would just be a tiny bit more work in post.

If you're particularly handy, you could also try just level adjusting the audio track to lessen the lens noise, but that will affect the whole audio track if you aren't careful or can't separate out the waveforms.

Streetshooter · #9 August 25th, 2010, 12:06 PM

Very good responses.
Blur, you have to change your name.
It seems everythingsclear is more apt.
There is no blur in your post.....
Thanks.....

julienrl · #10 August 25th, 2010, 03:26 PM

I had already gotten the EMA-1, I have been working on a blimp for it or something or simply thinking of using the extension