Cheapest Lenses for BM Pocket

[LessThanSatisfactory]

I'm looking for the cheapest MFT lenses, that still have OK quality. I dont really care if they are MFT, as long as they are cheap enough to overcome the price of the adapter. I need lenses that are, from personal experience, cheap and, dont have large flaws. I'm not much of a lenses guy, but I mostly need wide angle lenses, prime are fine but I preffer lenses with zoom capabilities. I am going to use them for general amateur film making, nothing special.

[CaptainSi]

It's probably a good idea to stick with a zoom if you're only using the one lens, and grab a nice fast prime when you can, so you can widen your capture abilities in low light.

For a zoom Panasonic's G Vario 14-45 might be a good way to go. It isn't particularly fast but it's got a good zoom range.
http://panasonic.net/avc/lumix/systemcamera/gms/lens/g_vario_14_45.html

As for a nice fast prime, Panasonic's Leica 25 f1.4 looks pretty coolio-
http://panasonic.net/avc/lumix/systemcamera/gms/lens/dg_summilux_25.html

If you're going for hardcore portability a pancake lens in always a good way to go, but that's all stuff to think about down the road.
 

[Puppet]

I'm no expert on MFT glass, but it's highly adaptable so almost anything is possible although you'll lose communication with cheap adapters or if you stray too far.

 

What @CaptainSi suggested seems like a good package to start with, I would definitely recommend going with a prime for your wide lens, zooms tend to be quite heavily distorted at the wider focal lengths.

 

I think it's important to point out that the super16 sensor has a crop factor of 3x compared to full frame. So based on that the 24mm will have the same FOV as let's say a 70mm on a FF sensor. On the zoom the wider end would be around a 40mm on FF and even though it's only using the center of the lens, is still going to have a little bit of distortion.

 

Rokinon make some great cine lenses that won't break the bank, their 7.5mm will be near enough equivalent to a 24mm FF, but in saying that primes can't even avoid distortion at those focal lengths, but you are using the center of the lens so I think it should look useable enough (try and see if you can test one out first). Apart from that the all the Rokinons are pretty decent price to performance.

 

A solution to all of this might be the Metabones Speedbooster which will increase your maximum aperture by 1 stop (should save you some money) and also reduce your crop factor by x0.71 and give you back a little DOF. At the moment there are adapters to use Leica, Nikon G and Yashica lenses on your mount with a Canon EF rumored to be on the way.

 

Yashica is an older company that makes some great lenses, the Contax branded ones are actually part of the Zeiss family, optically very good, may lack some of the coatings, features and complex manufacturing processes we have today but they are incredibly sharp and you could pick them up dirt cheap on eBay, you could literally buy a full collection for the same price as one cheap modern lens.

[Puppet]

Haha just checked my sub box, looks like Philip Bloom is one step ahead of us again, he has just released a video test driving some lenses and adapters:

 

 

That Speedbooster/ Samyang 35mm combo looks great and also the Lumix 14-45 that @CaptainSi suggested, but that SLR Magic 12mm looks to be the one for wides, not sure if its corrected in post, but looks to be fairly distortion free

 

LOL @ The derpy cat too :lol: