Panasonic Leica DG Vario-Elmarit 12-60mm F2.8-4 - Sample Footage

The perfect lens for wedding videography on the GH4!

For two years I have been using the Panasonic GH4 with a Nikon Speedbooster and a range of old Nikon AIS primes. I have been happy with the performance but the Metabones Nikon to MFT mount is a passive adapter. This has led to two years of manually focusing every shot. On top of this I have never enjoyed any form of electronic stabalisation. As a result when Panasonic announced the GH5 as well as the new LUMIX G Vario-Elmarit range of Micro Four Thirds System cameras I was very interested.

Until this point there had not been a fast full range zoom lens option for my GH4. The previous 12-60mm measured f3.5 down to 5.6 which is too dark for fast run and gun shooting at weddings. Especially compared to the Nikon primes which went from a f1.4 to a f1.2 in theory once the Speedbooster added a stop of light. Whilst looking for a suitable full range zoom lens I had even tried the Nikon 24-120 f4 lens but found it had to be stopped down via the Speedbooster to maintain sharpness making it again too dark for indoor use.

So long story short, as you can imagine I was very keen to try out the new Vario-Elmarit 12-60mm lens. In theory it had everything I began to so desperately desire. Full auto focus along with what seems to be 3rd generation stabalisation. On top of this it has a quiet auto focus and lens stabilising motors along with small incremental aperture adjustments which are subtle enough to use whilst filming.

The first thing I did was search the internet for sample footage which was practically non existent. CVP and Park Cameras were still listing it as a pre order item, only Wex Photographic had some in stock. I ordered mine in time to immediately film two weddings and have been very pleased with the results. The above footage was not intended as a lens review, it was filmed as part of my standard wedding coverage. I’ve uploaded it to help people who are in a similar situation I was in before I bought the lens.

After using it at two weddings my first thoughts are that it is a superb lens for weddings on the GH4. Its stabalisation was impressive enough that I felt happy to go handheld at 60mm. Its one press auto focus function was reliable and fast. Plus I’ve never filmed sharper footage on the GH4!

Picture Profile was Standard without any adjustments. No ND so I used a combination of fast shutter and stopped down aperture.

If there are a lot of likes and responses I can do a more in depth review of how this lens performs at weddings. I still have not tried any of the GH4s’s Face Tracking capabilities yet!