What lens would you buy for a GF1 if you were me? (fast 50mm equiv)

Hello and welcome to the forum. I find that the Lumix 20/1.7 Pancake is my favorite 4/3 lens regardless of what 4/3 body I put it on. Nice 40mm focal length - 35mm FoV. Sharp too. I don't think the bokeh is quite as nice as the Nokton 25mm but for overall quality, speed and versatility it's still my pick. Good luck.
. . . Burkey

 

You say, "The main objective is to find a lens that that will produce some serious bokeh and shallow depth of field on portraits when taking torso to head shots on adults." In this case, why not go longer than 50mm equivalent? There are numerous adaptable fast lenses in 50mm, 75mm, 85mm, or longer, for reasonable prices, from Konica, Pentax, Canon, Nikon, etc.

Also, just for the record, personally I like the bokeh of the Panasonic 20/1.7. SOmetimes I wish there was more, but that's just how 40mm equivalent lenses are.

 

Hi there,

welcome to the world of µ4/3.

If you're looking for a lens that will yield 50mm in fullframe terms, that would be quite an expensive lens to adapt for µ4/3. It would have a focal length of 20-28mm and a very fast aperture of 1.8 or faster. In this range only very few affordable lenses are out there and the bokeh on these for producing torso to head shots wouldn't be that spectacular because you'd be standing 2-3m away from your subject, thus enlarging your dof. Head shots would be great though.

Here's a nice site for dof and focal length. Online Depth of Field Calculator

The classic focal length for portraiture lies somewhere between 85-135mm in fullframe terms if I remember right. So a fast (<1.8) 40, 45, 50, 55 or 58mm would be your best option. Unless you want to do it like the pros and even go with a longer focal length, say 200-300mm with a 2.8 or faster aperture in fullframe terms. But those fast lenses have an astronomical price range.

I would gladly provide some examples in the following days, as soon as I have my 20mm f/1.7 and adapters back from a friend.I'll post some shots taken with a few legacy lenses like the Zeiss C/Y Planar 50mm f/1.4, the Zeiss C/Y Planar 50mm f/1.7 and a few Canon FD 50mm versions.

Old legacy lenses in the 50mm range are quite inexpensive because 50mm was the standard focal length for the kit lens back then. So you can really get some good fast ol' glas for little money on ebay or photo flea markets.

Hope to have given you some advice and help.

always good light
alipapa70

 

Panasonic GH2 with Carl Zeiss C/Y Planar 50mm f/1.7

A torso to head shot.

This is a shot from my friend's daughter with her face blurred out. But you can still see the sharpness of this lens in her hair and it delivers a pleasing bokeh in the background.

good light
alipapa70

 

Any major brand 50mm lens works great on the mu43. Some are slightly better in some Ways. But they all give very nice results when used properly.

 

Pardon my last post. I did not read your question closely enough. You said 50mm equivalent. I have the vivitar 24mm F2.8 that is very good at close distances but not quite as well for landscape. That gives a 48mm equivalent. I like the pany 14-45 better for that.

 

I think you should wait for the upcoming pana 25mm f/1.4

 

i find the bokeh on my 45 2.8 better than the pancake ( although not a 50mm equivalent ). Although, Im still yet to learn a lot in photography, I might be missing something.

 

Hi,

if I recall right, I had to stop it down to 2.8 or even to 4 because the sun was shining.

 

In addition to all the excellent advice above, if you're new to this whole endeavor, you should stick to native lenses. The Pany 20 1.7 is excellent on the EP2, so it must be at least as good on a Pany body. Having said that (depending on where you are coming from), the kit zoom may very well exceed all your expectations. If you're an old hat, then the bets are off. There's a multitude of old lenses that each have their own qualities, but it is not easy to get good cheap stuff. Ebay is a crap shoot for that. It is easy to get good "common" lenses (e.g. 50mm f1.8 in 35mm parlance), but it is not easy to get good "uncommon" lenses without getting gouged.

 

Well... as I understand it, that's actually that's just how 20mm lenses are. If you used the 40mm equivalent length setting on a compact camera, which would actually be something like 9mm, you'd get even less of a shallow focus effect. And if you used a 40mm equivalent on medium format, which would be something like 70mm, you'd get more of that effect.

 

For a m4/3 camera, my choice would be a Nokton 50mm f/1.1 or 35mm f/1.2, but those are out of your price range so... plan B is go with a legacy Nikon or Canon manual focus 50mm or 35mm f/1.4 lens. The 35/1.4 (70/1.4 equivalent) are not too difficult to find and not terribly expensive. And a 50mm f/1.4 (100/1.4 equiv on m4/3) is arguably as good or better as a portrait lens! Canon and Nikon 50mm f/1.4 lenses are plentiful and cheap.

I earn a great living as a portrait photographer. Here's part of the formula: Position your subject in a deep and rich setting, strong backlight, good front fill light at about 35-40 degrees off camera axis, move in close to your subject with the camera, shoot with the lens wide open or close to it, and you'll have an awesome portrait look with significant bokeh. This is a slam-dunk, home run portrait set-up. Of course, posing, lighting, expression, composition, color palate, clothing selection, etc. are also important.