The 7 Best Lenses for the GH4 in 2024

Photography or videography, whatever your intent is the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH4 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds is a hybrid digital camera that can meet your needs. This is because it delivers video quality of much higher standards than your typical professional cameras.

Below are reviews of some of the best lenses for the GH4 camera.

1. Panasonic Lumix G 25mm f/1.7 ASPH. Lens

Intro:

Retailing for below $200, the Lumix G 25mm f/1.7 ASPH is a product from Panasonic, and it is only right that we begin our list with it. If you are into travel or portrait photography, then you will appreciate this 50mm equivalent lens. With great autofocus capabilities, the Lumix G 25mm is compatible with the GH4 camera as it can match the cameras contrast-detection focusing systems that are of extremely high speed.

Pros:

• Its light weight makes it easily portable.
• The Lumix G’s f/1.7 aperture makes shooting in low light achievable.
• It is quite affordable, so if you are on a budget, it makes for a great purchase.

Cons:

• When shooting in the light, the lens has some of the highest flare levels, even though a nano-coating has been applied to manage the said flare.
• It is not weather resistant and lacks a weather sealing which means caution has to be exercised for extreme weather conditions
• The sharpness somewhat diminishes at maximum aperture.

2. Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm

Intro:

According to Olympus the manufacturers of this lens, the M.Zuiko Digital is allegedly the world’s first dual voice coil motor (VCM) focusing system. This means that when you are switching between the different focus options, the VCM allows you to do so quickly and silently. This should be a lens any photographer worth their salt either already owns or has considered owning particularly if you own or frequently use the GH4 Panasonic camera as you will appreciate the quality images that are produced when you shoot with this telephoto lens.

Pros:

• You can easily switch between automatic and manual focus thanks to the manual focus clutch on the lens. As a seasoned photographer or videographer, this is great because it allows you to work intuitively.
• There is a weather seal on this lens which makes it ideal for shooting in any type of weather condition,
• To minimize lens flare and ghosting, a Zuiko Extra-low Reflection Optical coating has been applied on the different elements of the lens thus if and when you are working in extreme lighting conditions the color and contrast fidelity is not compromised.

Cons:

• It is expensive

3. Tamron 14-150mm

Intro:

As the first MFT camera lens by the company, the Tamron 14 is perfect if you are on a budget as it retails for about $350. Featuring an optical stabilizer and an autofocus stepper motor, the lens can capture wide angles, and its 35mm focal length is comparable to 28-300 mm.

Pros:

• With a weight of about 280 grams, this lens is compact, lightweight and easily portable.
• With an LD glass and hybrid aspherical element, this lens greatly minimizes chromatic aberrations thus improving the clarity, sharpness and overall color fidelity of an image.
• The versatile 10.7x zoom range on this lens is pretty impressive.

Cons:

• When shooting raw at mm ranges, you experience dark corners which affect the quality of your images.
• The optical stability of this lens can be so much better than it currently is.

4. Panasonic Lumix G Leica DG Vario-Elmar 100-400MM F4.0-6.3

Intro:

The Panasonic Lumix G Leica DG Vario Elmar is a powerful high-performance lens that will give you the most capability for outdoor/nature shooting. Featuring a fast-focusing motor, a sliding blend that has been built into it and 9-bladed diaphragm capabilities of this lens are endless unless of course, you are shooting in low light. It has a 35mm- a corresponding range of 200-800mm which is why it is excellent for the outdoors.

Elements such as the knurled know, the rotating lock and the extension foot for the tripod mount tell that plenty of thought has been given into the design of this lens

Pros:

• You can choose between options such as having the lens include a polarizer or a UV filter.
• The integrated LUMIX Power Optical Image Stabilization ensures that your image stability is excellent.

Cons:

• It is not ideal for shooting in low light. Panasonic compromised on the aperture of this lens which in our opinion could be its only con. However, if you have no intention of shooting in low light, then this telephoto lens will meet your needs.

5. Olympus M. ZUIKO 14-150mm f/4.0-5.6 II

Intro:

Designed to optimize the benefits that come with most MFT systems, the Olympus M. Zuiko digital features an exclusive focusing technology known as MSC or the “movie and still compatible” to ensure that the autofocus is fast and noiseless. It has a zoom range of 10.7x which is equivalent to a 28-300mm lens on a camera that is 35mm. The in-frame sharpness is great with peak sharpness being achieved at a focal length of between f/5.6 and f/8. In our opinion this lens gives you bang for your buck considering it retails for only $400.

Pros:

• The manual focusing is great for intuitive shooting, and it is available full time
• The weather seal protects it from elements such as dust, moisture, etc. which make it ideal for shooting outside.
• The image quality is enhanced by the extra-low dispersion glass.

Cons:

• The lens does not come with a lens hood which is rather odd considering most lenses have a hood, and it is the standard industry form.
• It has a slow aperture at the wide and tail end of it.
•  The CA levels are quite high particularly when you go beyond 14mm or stop down at f/11.

6. Rokinon Cine CV12M-E 12mm T2.2

Intro:

The superior image qualities achieved thanks to this lens can be attributed to glass elements such as an Aspherical (AS), a Hybrid Aspherical (H-ASP) and 3 extra low-Dispersion (ED) High Precision Glass elements. It is one of the fastest lenses that can be used with the GH4 and why it is on our list. Like all other Rokinon lenses, the Cine CV12M only has manual focus which makes it ideal for shooting videos. Some people may find this to be charming as it draws out your intuition, but for others, the manual focus is inconveniencing.

It also includes a clickless aperture that is great when the exposure on your single shots need adjusting. This adjustment can be made by just turning on the “dampen aperture ring” that can be found on the lens.

Pros:

• Because of the dampen aperture ring that is built into the lens, you can use the Cine CV12M and the GH4 with drones and gimbals since you can adjust the aperture remotely.
• It does an excellent job for shooting cinematic shots without breaking the bank.

Cons:

• It lacks optical stabilization
• You will occasionally notice and experience some corner fallout when using this lens.
• While we appreciate wanting to stay true to their origins, Rokinon’s insistence on having only manual focus is not appealing since not everyone can work with this.

7. Voigtlander Nokton 17.5mm f/0.95

Intro:

This native, specialized manual focus lens is a thing of beauty because it is one of the few lenses in the market that can claim to have the capability of achieving great quality images in low light conditions with a very shallow depth of field. At f/0.95 aperture speed, the Nokton’s aperture is one of the fastest.

Pros:

• It is excellent for shooting in low light and in the dark. The quality of your images is not compromised.
• At maximum aperture, the sharpness of this lens is excellent at the center and gets even better when you stop it down.
• We think that it is sensibly priced for the value it brings.
• It includes a hyperfocal focusing scale.

Cons:

• When compared to other lenses, the 560 gram, 80mm long Nokton can be a little bulky as it weighs almost double the weight of other lenses.
•  At maximum aperture, there are high CA levels at the edges of your frame

Conclusion

Without a good lens, it matters not if you have the best camera in the market because you will not achieve much. When choosing the type of lens to purchase you need to decide if you will opt for native lenses that mount directly to the micro four-thirds lens mount or the adapted lenses that require an adapter to make them compatible to the MFT mount. Ideally, you will want to go with a native lens because they were merely designed for MFT cameras and are much smaller in build which makes them compact.

Secondly, you need to put into consideration if you would prefer for your lens to be electronic or manual. Unlike manual lenses, electronic lenses ideally communicate with the camera to activate the autofocus and adjust the aperture which is not the case with the manual lenses.