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Rokinon Cine 85 T1.5

Wow...this works, without many corrections (on the G85 sensor). This is probably the 3rd easiest lens-sensor combo I've ever calibrated on the Panasonic G85 (the others were the vintage Vivitar 70-210 3.5, and the Nikon AF-D 50 1.4, both of which could be used, in the NATURAL picture profile, with no settings adjustments). To me, success is when the final image looks REAL, and with these settings, this lens makes a really good image on this camera. All I had to do was add a bit of NOISE REDUCTION (to help highlight rolloff, not for noise issues) and then to add a very slight HIGHLIGHT SHADOW correction, but you could go without it (if you want a slightly more contrasty shot than the scene really was). The only issue might be that it needs a little bit more SHARPNESS added during post-production, but I think these settings are a pretty good starting point.

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Nikon 85 3.5 DX VR

For this camera (Panasonic G85) or on ANY Micro Four Thirds sensor camera, I don't really like this focal length for a MACRO lens, and I am starting to lean towards either a 40 or 60mm MACRO lens, or even a 50mm with a HELICOID adapter. The working distance of 85mm on this lens sometimes seems too close or too far away (based on where I can stand) at times. Also, I am getting to the point where I really appreciate making things look REAL, so this focal length of 85mm is introducing too much telephoto compression to look realistic, especially when used for MACRO images (where you are closer to the subject, etc.) Additionally, while the bokeh (out of focus background) is smooth, there is not quite enough blur, even wide open...but that is only f/3.5 so you can see what I mean (and an f/2.8 is where I want to be on M43 sensors when I want to create enough background blur). Lastly, there is not enough SHARPNESS in this lens (even with the compensation set to MAX +5) to work on this sensor (which means that this sensor does not have enough resolution to make the limited sharpness of this lens look realistic). Therefore, I don't think this lens is a good fit for this camera (Panasonic G85)...and maybe not for this M43 size of sensor overall (though the G9 or GH5 or other higher-megapixel M43 sensors might be okay, but I won't say until I test those).

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Promaster 100-400 4.5-6.7

I don't know what to say about this lens yet. On this M43 camera (the Panasonic G85) the focal length has enough reach to pretty much take care of any TELE shots you would ever want to get (with a few exceptions) but the combination of the low optical quality of this lens and the sort of lower pixel count of this sensor (16MP) produces an image that is probably not good enough for professional use. The obvious yet expensive alternative is the (native mount) Leica 100-400...but that's about $1000 US used, and this lens was $30 US. So, for the price I'm not saying this isn't a good tool to have around (though it's much bigger than a 70-300 as far as portability goes). It does really make me appreciate how much better the similarly-priced 70-300 lenses (also from the 1990s) are than this 100-400. Many of the 70-300 lenses I've tested produce professional results (see the lens notes) and they're just much better optically (probably because of the shorter zoom range) and certainly easier to fit into a camera bag. So, I probably will not recommend this inexpensive 100-400mm lens, unless you really need that extra telephoto reach. My custom, lens-sensor settings do improve the SOOC image (Straight Out Of Camera) but the final result is still not too good. Again, this really makes me go towards those 70-300 lenses I've tested, especially the ones with 1:2 MACRO.

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Koah 50 1.4

Still testing, but I need to mention that when this test was started, I was using the same settings as the Koah 35 1.2, and it worked pretty well (it would be nice to be able to use both, with the same SETTINGS and LUT) but this lens has a little bit more contrast than the other, so to match the output of these two, I'm lowering the contrast just a little (-1) on this lens.

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Koah 35 1.2

If you have never heard of Koah Artisan Series lenses (I know I had not) then you are might be pleasantly surprised. If you have heard of them, you may know they were created/distributed by Focus Camera.com (one of the New York photography stores) and that they are super affordable. However, I was not expecting much when I ordered this lens, not only because of the price, but because it was an f/1.2 lens (and every affordable f/1.2 lens I've tried...made me want to buy a 1.4 instead, because they were not any good at 1.2). Yet, I went ahead with the purchase not only because of the the f/1.2, but also because it was the focal length I needed (35mm) but the part that made me not expect much was the 1.2...but I was surprised. I started by testing the lens on a bright, sunny day (a good test for controlling dynamic range) and I began experimenting with the (in-camera) tonal curves using the HIGHLIGHT SHADOW menu (Panasonic G85). It didn't feel as difficult to correct as a lot of the other lenses I have worked with and I got custom settings dialed in pretty quickly. I actually had to ADD SHARPNESS (I usually remove some) as well as do other things in the (Natural) photo style/picture profile. I usually do about 10 tests before I get the settings right, but not for this one. The lens was amazingly consistent at almost all aperture values, and even at f/1.2, which was what surprised me. At f/1.2 it was certainly softer, but it did not show a lot of distracting red and blue color fringing that I've seen in a lot of other low-light primes (even f/1.4 lenses). I like the results with these custom settings enough to say I am going to keep this lens, and I am certainly going to recommend it to people. It creates sort of a vintage feel, but it still realistic, even if that sounds like a contradiction. I will also say that these settings provide a little bit too much COLOR, but overall (with these settings) this is looking REALLY good for a budget f/1.2 lens.

BPM18

Panasonic 12-60 3.5-5.6

Using same settings for FILTER version (as BARE version) with a Tiffen BPM18 (Black Pro Mist 1/8).

BPM14

Sigma 30 1.4

WOW. I did not expect to get results that were as good as this (because this lens WITHOUT the Tiffen BPM14 did not work very well with this camera sensor). So, the custom settings I ended up using include a really strange HIGHLIGHT SHADOW curve (see settings) in conjunction with just a few small adjustments to the picture profile settings (see settings also). What I am really liking is how the combination of this filter and these settings is not only producing a pretty REAL looking image, but is also a little bit filmic too (with a little bit more SATURATION than one might want). Plus, it works pretty well in both INDOOR and OUTDOOR situations (with both low and high amounts of light...from shade to sun, etc.) P.S. I tried testing this combo with the BPM18 (1/8th strength Black Pro Mist) and it did not work as well (for a number of reasons)...

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Sigma 30 1.4

So far, I cannot recommend this lens WITHOUT adding a Tiffen BPM14 (Black Pro Mist 1/4)... It is true that this lens has a lot of SHARPNESS and CONTRAST, but when used with this sensor (the Panasonic G85) it does not render a realistic scene. The corrections I am applying (to the NATURAL profile) include an interesting Highlight Shadow curve, but the shadows are still being rendered too dark, but it's the best I can do without making it obvious there was a curve applied. The result is still not as realistic as I would like, and this means it will be difficult to match the shots from this lens to a lot of the other lenses I use (and therefore the imperfect "Real Rating"). All of this makes me understand why people tend to use diffusion filters (such as the Tiffen Black Pro Mist series) on this lens...which explains why the person I bought it from INCLUDED one with it! I hope to test it with that filter, next. I will say that overall this lens is a very consistent performer as it was difficult to see the difference in quality at different aperture values (unlike like many vintage lenses). The downside of this is that it does lack what some call CHARACTER which is typical of Sigma lenses of this type, but adding the HIGHLIGHT SHADOW compensation does kind of add a bit more character to it (and if you've used the in-camera curves, you know what I mean). Also, a lot of people talk about how the skintones on this camera are too RED, and they certainly are with this lens too...but keep in mind it is the combo of BOTH the lens and sensor that render colors a certain way (I might actually go back to trying an old Minolta MD 50 1.7 with this sensor again, as that has a GREEN bias, which may compensate for this issue).

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Panasonic 12-60 3.5-5.6

Updating...(was at -3 CONTRAST, and a number of tests are showing that is not good)...

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Natural