Olympus 25mm 1.2 or Panasonic Leica 1.4

wjiang · Jan 30, 2017

Zuri said:
How is the PL15 auto focus on video?

...Fine? It's generally the body that's the limiting factor there, there are very few lenses in m4/3 that are notably bad with AF in video.

MxPhotos · Jan 30, 2017

wjiang said:
...Fine? It's generally the body that's the limiting factor there, there are very few lenses in m4/3 that are notably bad with AF in video.

Well I'm asking because PL25/1.4 is pretty bad in C-AF. I'm considering buying the 15/1.4 for my family videos. I shoot 4k with a big square focus point in C-AF, thought you can share your experience if it's fast on switching focus and keep on focus.

wjiang · Jan 30, 2017

Zuri said:
Well I'm asking because PL25/1.4 is pretty bad in C-AF. I'm considering buying the 15/1.4 for my family videos. I shoot 4k with a big square focus point in C-AF, thought you can share your experience if it's fast on switching focus and keep on focus.

The 15mm is only an f/1.7. As I said, even though there are notable poor performers, the majority of m4/3 cameras don't have particularly amazing video AF (certainly not Canon dual-pixel AF good) and that's down to the body more than anything else...

I think this is digressing, perhaps you should start a question thread about video performance of various lenses including the PL15.

MxPhotos · Jan 30, 2017

wjiang said:
The 15mm is only an f/1.7. As I said, even though there are notable poor performers, the majority of m4/3 cameras don't have particularly amazing video AF (certainly not Canon dual-pixel AF good) and that's down to the body more than anything else...

I think this is digressing, perhaps you should start a question thread about video performance of various lenses including the PL15.

I'm actually very happy with the C-AF of my 12-35mm. It performs pretty well with GX85. But there are times where I prefer using a faster lens when light is limited, and in those situations I use 25/1.4 and it's not nearly as good as the 12-35. It just focuses so much faster. So yes a body is probably the most important part, but the I do see difference between lenses.

wjiang · Jan 30, 2017

Zuri said:
I'm actually very happy with the C-AF of my 12-35mm. It performs pretty well with GX85. But there are times where I prefer using a faster lens when light is limited, and in those situations I use 25/1.4 and it's not nearly as good as the 12-35. It just focuses so much faster. So yes a body is probably the most important part, but the I do see difference between lenses.

I think we've been here before... further discussion on video primes should continue here:

Prime with good CAF for video

Hamsong · Mar 11, 2017

Below is a link to my 4th wedding since switching from 4 years of Fujifilm to Olympus. I'm only using these three primes: 17 f1.8, 25 f1.2, 75 f1.8 and two original EM1 bodies and one EM5II.
Aside from some very minor things, I'm VERY happy with the system, especially the amazing lenses. I love these three lenses. There is a three-dimensionality from them that you can only also get with older Leica lenses. (The trend now is extreme sharpness over character). I'm also surprised how good battery life is. I can do an 8 hour wedding with 4 batteries. Fujifilm system required 7, and I don't chimp at all. I turn my review screen off entirely since I started shooting weddings with film in 1999.
Nikki and Brett's wedding at Swiftwater Cellars Winery in Washington State

Amin · Mar 11, 2017

Loved your images, Bradley. If you were to start a thread showing a few of them here with a few words to go along, I'd be very happy to feature it.

Hamsong · Mar 11, 2017

Thanks, Amin. I'll write something up...

Amin · Mar 11, 2017

Hamsong said:
Thanks, Amin. I'll write something up...

Please send me a PM (conversation) or tag me when you do!

Replytoken · Mar 11, 2017

Hamsong said:
Below is a link to my 4th wedding since switching from 4 years of Fujifilm to Olympus. I'm only using these three primes: 17 f1.8, 25 f1.2, 75 f1.8 and two original EM1 bodies and one EM5II.
Aside from some very minor things, I'm VERY happy with the system, especially the amazing lenses. I love these three lenses. There is a three-dimensionality from them that you can only also get with older Leica lenses. (The trend now is extreme sharpness over character). I'm also surprised how good battery life is. I can do an 8 hour wedding with 4 batteries. Fujifilm system required 7, and I don't chimp at all. I turn my review screen off entirely since I started shooting weddings with film in 1999.
Nikki and Brett's wedding at Swiftwater Cellars Winery in Washington State

Nice work. Would love it if you were able to talk just a bit about your post processing techniques in your post.

Thanks,

--Ken

Hamsong · Mar 11, 2017

Replytoken said:
Nice work. Would love it if you were able to talk just a bit about your post processing techniques in your post.

Thanks,

--Ken

Hi Ken- I will. My web portfolio is 25% film still, so matching the output of my digital images to my existing portfolio was essential.

Replytoken · Mar 11, 2017

Hamsong said:
Hi Ken- I will. My web portfolio is 25% film still, so matching the output of my digital images to my existing portfolio was essential.

I like the style of your images and was curious about your approach. You do not need to share the "secret sauce", but some high level tips would be great. I started on film as well, so my approach to B/W conversion is not without some reference base, but it is always good to see how others approach this issue, especially since software gives us so many options.

Thanks,

--Ken

Steven · Mar 11, 2017

Interesting style, especially for weddings. I like it . Beautiful moments. I usually see the more glamourous smooth style in wedding photos. Frankly I think I would prefer a bit less grain/noise. You must have some very artsy clients

Hamsong said:
Below is a link to my 4th wedding since switching from 4 years of Fujifilm to Olympus.
Nikki and Brett's wedding at Swiftwater Cellars Winery in Washington State

Hamsong · Mar 11, 2017

Replytoken said:
I like the style of your images and was curious about your approach. You do not need to share the "secret sauce", but some high level tips would be great. I started on film as well, so my approach to B/W conversion is not without some reference base, but it is always good to see how others approach this issue, especially since software gives us so many options.

Thanks,

--Ken

The post is almost ready, just resizing images. It's more about my transition to M43 than post-processing, but I am going to cover that in another post on my own website. The short story is I do everything in Lightroom CC. Mostly contrast boost and grain addition once I've fixed white balance on every file. I add much more grain to B&W than I do to color, and I scale back grain on the higher ISO images (3200 to 6400) because the noise in Oly RAW files at that range is pretty and organic.

Hamsong · Mar 11, 2017

Steven said:
Interesting style, especially for weddings. I like it . Beautiful moments. I usually see the more glamourous smooth style in wedding photos. Frankly I think I would prefer a bit less grain/noise. You must have some very artsy clients

After 18 years of photographing weddings, I operate on the premise that anyone hiring me has been through my 5 wedding galleries and knows how I see the world. I am grateful to get the kind of clients I want. My approach is to not interfere and just let things happen. I don't have much interest in the canned sets of poses that seem so ubiquitous.

SojiOkita · Mar 12, 2017

Hamsong said:
Below is a link to my 4th wedding since switching from 4 years of Fujifilm to Olympus. I'm only using these three primes: 17 f1.8, 25 f1.2, 75 f1.8 and two original EM1 bodies and one EM5II.

Hi,
Your images are great.
I'm curious how many of these are taken with the 17 f/1.8.

Hamsong · Mar 12, 2017

SojiOkita said:
Hi,
Your images are great.
I'm curious how many of these are taken with the 17 f/1.8.

In the M43 forum post, it's the final two horizontal images, but the 17 f1.8 is my favorite day to day lens. About 1/3 of my wedding images and 100% of my personal images and landscape images. I'd say the 25 f1.2 is 60% of weddings and maybe 10% are the 75mm f1.8. The 17 f1.8 is so much like my old Leica 35 Summicron f2 that it's eerie. Really smooth bokeh and a very 3D quality. I'm glad I didn't read reviews of it before buying because I love it. All of the images shown below are from the 17 f1.8, which I always shoot wide open. As always, no sharpening in post and no NR.