Mft lens with IS

Hey guys.

I'm looking for a mft lens for my OG bmpcc to take on very small projects (where I won't be using a gimbal).

So, image stabilization is a must and zoom would be a nice to have. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Olympus 12-100 with IS is one of the best out there.

The IS itself is very “motion friendly”

The older generation LUMIX IS lenses are OK too, like the 12-35 zoom, but a smaller range, not as good IS but they are a stop faster.

JB

I have the Panasonic 12-35 2.8 and can vouch that its IS is not very effective. But it's smaller, lighter, and faster than the Olympus so it's not an easy choice. I think the Olympus 12-100 is not just "one of the best" but "the best" when it comes to IS on MFT zoom lenses. It's legendary.

For a lightweight camera like the original BMPCC good IS can help control the micro-jitters, but on the other hand this camera needs a lot of light for good image quality and with the Olympus you're limited to f4. That's not an issue on the Pocket 4K but it may be more problematic on the original Pocket.

I believe the Olympus has better manual focus; the focus-by-wire on the Panasonic can be frustrating. The Panasonic also has very noticeable barrel distortion at the wide end, but I think that may be true of the Olympus as well. On Panasonic and Olympus cameras this is corrected, but not on the BMPCC and you'd have to correct it in post.

For handheld the combination of the Panasonic 12-35 and some sort of brace (I have the Zacuto Marauder Mini) can work pretty well, although the original Marauder might have been a better choice as I can't get a good view of the LCD when I use the mini; I need to mount an external monitor.

I've tried using the original BMPCC with a glidecam (as a no-power-required solution to image stabilization), but the camera is so light that even if you take all the weights off the bottom of the glidecam it's still too bottom-heavy and you have to add weight to the camera to get it to balance.

12-100 is a fantastic lens and if you have a P4k it balanced quite well. Distortion is severe at 12mm but reduces down quite quickly away from this but is no worse than any other 12mm zoom for M43. On the BMPCC I'd say the combo will be very unbalanced unless you have a cage and handgrip rig. The 12-35 is way,way smaller and lighter.

Thanks guys.
For me the IS on this particular purchase is really crucial. The 12-100 looks amazing but i was also looking for something smaller. What about prime lenses with efective IS? Any suggestions?

Thanks

What exactly will be your use case? Can you describe a bit more?
No IS will replace a gimbal in most shooting scenarios.

Thanks guys.
For me the IS on this particular purchase is really crucial. The 12-100 looks amazing but i was also looking for something smaller. What about prime lenses with efective IS? Any suggestions?

I believe there are only four native MFT primes with IS, all from Panasonic, and all probably longer than you'd like on the original Pocket. I believe the widest is 30mm but on the Pocket that's equivalent to nearly 90mm in full-frame terms. IS is more effective and more helpful on longer focal-length lenses, so it's rare on wide primes.

There are additional options if you want to get a speedbooster: for example, the Canon EF Metabones speedbooster for BMD Super-16 sensor cameras supports image stabilization on EF lenses that have it. A few of the primes do but again the crop factor of the original Pocket is a challenge even with the focal reduction. The widest ones with IS are 24 and 28mm, which might work.

What exactly will be your use case? Can you describe a bit more?
No IS will replace a gimbal in most shooting scenarios.

I know there is no IS lens in the world that will give me the same motion a gimbal does, but in a stripped down rig, I'll need an effective IS lens to get rid of those horrible micro jitters that render footage unusable. So I'm looking for a lightweight lens with effective IS. The 12-100 looks great apart from its size. Maybe the Panasonic...

Maybe the Panasonic...

It's usable with IS turned on (note that on the original Pocket the IS is inactivated until you press the record button), you just have to work on your part to keep the movements slow and steady.

Panasonic 12-60. Expensive but awesome and light.

For better stabilization, I go to the 17-50 Tamron/speed booster combo.

As Greg mentioned the Panasonic 12-60mm with the disadvantage of the zoom using a variable aperture f/2.8-4:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1304867-REG

But the Olympus 12-100mm is a little more expense but has a longer focal length range and constant aperture f/4:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1281427-REG