Suggestions for high quality glass that won’t break the bank is one of the most frequently asked questions I get. Two brands in particular come to mind:
Voigtlander (manual focus only):
I love my Voigtlander 40mm 2.0 and 20mm 3.5 Pancake lenses (in stock at B/H again), it turns the Canon 5D2 and 7D into very portable cameras and both deliver great results. The built quality and feel is on par with Zeiss lenses, the price a lot less!
Both are manual focus only but communicate electronically with Canon cameras and allow aperture control via body dial and indicate focus confirmation.
Click here to see them on the 5D2 and few full size samples.
Rokinon manual focus high speed lenses (also branded as Samyang, Vivitar, Polar, Bower, Opteka and Falcon)
Real bargains are the Rokinon 85mm f1.4 Aspherical IF and the 35mm f1.4 AS UMC, mechanical and optical quality is very impressive on both, quality built-mostly high grade plastic with the look and feel of metal, however, it is very hard to tell by just looking at the lenses. (Don’t forget how cheap they are, there had to be a compromise somewhere) focusing feels very well dampened and smooth and both lenses have a manual aperture control ring for all mounts available (Canon, Nikon, Sony, Pentax Olympus 43) which makes them even more versatile in case you would like to use them on a mirrorless system like M43 or Nex, just get a simple mount adapter!
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Thanks alot Mike….
check out the Canon D60, reasonably priced and great for shooting photos/video.
Hi Mike,
I am in to adfilm making n i want to buy camra which can b use for both purpose video n portfolio’s.Pl help me out as as hv seen variety of cameras of canon n nikon confuse which one would be suitable for my profession with investing small investment.
Thanks…..
Alex, IS and AF does NOT work, if you get the adapter with aperture control you can change the aperture, but it doesn’t work with zooms (it works but you will have crazy strong vignettes = useless) it works best with primes, I am using the canon 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, 100mm on the GH2 and it works great, including aperture control on the Bower adapter. Your best bet for wideangle on the GH2 is either the Rokinon 14mm full frame lens, with aperture control ring, which is great or the Rokinon 8mm fisheye, now you can get a very cheap canon eos to m43 adapter, hope this helps!
Mike, thanks for the tips!
I want to mount CANON IS AF wideangle lenses to a gh2 with the Bower Adapter. Will IS and AF work alright? Which would be the widest fastest IS AF Lens, you know of? And is there a cheaper ROKINON?
Cheers
Alec
Thank you
Hi Roberto, it mostly depends on what you will be shooting, I find the 5Dmk2 best for fashion, glamour, beauty, extreme shallow depth of field portraits, the large sensor and high iso output sets it apart from the rest of the bunch, for everything else the 60D is fantastic, esp because of the swivel lcd, makes shooting video much easier.
Hi Mike,
I’m thinking to buy a canon camera, mainly for shooting videos, I’ve seen lot’s of reviews of 5d mark II, 7d and 60d but they mostly talk about still photo quality. I like to know more about the difference in video, which is best, are they much different? I like the flipping screen the 60d has, I think it’s something really useful for shooting videos and of course i like more it’s price compared with the other two.
Do you think it is worth to spend the money to buy a 5d markII or it’s better to get a 60d and spend the rest of the money on a shoulder support, microphone etc?
Thank you
Roberto
I agree Damien, for video I certainly don’t see a difference, a pixel peeper might be able to point out minor differences in image quality but in practical terms those lenses are just as good.
Mostly shooting video and I agree you need the EG S focusing screen for the SLR finder, but on a new SLT these lenses are very easy to use with focus peaking, I just ordered the 85mm Rokinon with a Sony mount.
Hi Mike,
I was going to ask you and Digital Rev about this lens a few months ago before I bought one. Slipped my mind though so it was good to see it mentioned here today.
The Samyang 85mm is a great budget alternatives to Zeiss lenses. Zeiss glass is still an amazing thing to have mounted on the front of your camera but I think that people would be hard pushed to see the difference in image quality between an 85mm f1.4 from Zeiss or Rokinon. The Zeiss has a creamier looking blur at 1.4 but at 2.8, the lenses are almost identical. Are you using this mostly for video or stills? I use it mostly for stills and swapped out the default focus screen on the 5DMKII for the EG-S and have found the focusing to be so much better since then. Superb lens for the money. Great to see that people are adopting it.
Damien