7 Best Lenses for Panasonic DC GH5 Camera

 

What are the most important items for a Travel Photographer? A camera and the right lenses.

As a photographer, you know just how important choosing the right lenses for your camera body. This is especially true when it comes to travel photography. Since space plays a big part when traveling, picking a good lens that meets all of your needs and fits into your luggage? That challenge is even more difficult.

In this article, we go over the best of the best camera lenses for the traveling photographer, including descriptions and specs. Everything you need to know when making the decision on what lens to buy and bring on your adventure with you.

Panasonic Lumix G 12-35mm f/2.8 II Lens

Description

Let’s be honest here. When it comes to conventional photography, Panasonic has struggled to stack up against its competitors. However, the company has a trick up its sleeve: Its Micro Four Thirds cameras offer something the competition cannot match – professional grade HD and 4K video recording capabilities.

That is exactly why the Lumix GH4 remains incredibly popular amongst filmmakers, video journalists, and hobbyists alike. It provides, without a doubt, the best hybrid shooting experience money can buy.

That said, in order to get the most out of an amazing hybrid camera body, you’ll need equally as great lenses. The Panasonic Lumix G 12-35mm f/2.8 II is the perfect place to start. The pro-grade lens is sharp enough to capture mind-blowing HD and 4K video, while also being compact and fast enough to use as an all-around photography lens.

In addition, this lens is crazy good for wide angle photography.

 

Specs

Weight: 3.53 oz

Size: 25.5mm

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 ART Lens

Description

The Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 ART lens is an exception within the zoom lens market: featuring a unbeatable fast-aperture, crop-sensor lens with a limited focal length range. The lens provides a great range to work with – for a variety of different needs and applications. That, paired with its fast constant aperture of f/1.8, this Sigma lens gives a photographer the opportunity to shoot in low-light situations, which is something that was previously only possible with the use of a fast aperture prime lens.

Considering all of these features (plus more!), the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 ART lens gives any photographer a lot of bang for their buck.

 

Specs

Weight: 1.786 lb

Size: 27 – 52.5mm

 

 

 

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM Lens

Description

The Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM is a great starter lens, as it has an attractive price and a great wide aperture. This lens features a stepping motor (STM) for focus purposes. This new motor provides any photographer with the ability to take beautifully smooth, quiet focus photographs. In addition, the EF 50mm f/1.8 is small in stature, and light in weight. Making it a great option for traveling photographers.

You may be surprised to hear that, with such a small lens, it has the capability to support 49mm front filters. When you purchase this lens through Canon directly, they do not include a lens hood. However, you can easily buy a cheap lens hood (such as the ES-68 hood) and that will suffice. Taking these features into consideration, one downfall of the EF 50mm f/1.8 lens, is that when paired with some of the newer Canon camera body’s, the lens can be a bit on the slow side. Overall – Cheap and good quality lens for the price, on any camera.

Specs

Weight: 5.7 oz

Size: 1.6 by 2.7 inches (HD)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 IS II USM Lens

Description

This lens delivers incredibly impressive image quality, focuses accurately and quickly, and has top-notch build quality. Some other features include 4-stop Image Stabilization, weather sealing, and a wide useful focal length range. Many photographers say this is their favorite lens to shoot with.

The Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 II is an astonishing lens, providing one of the sharpest zooms we’ve ever tested. In addition to the sharp photos produced using this lens, it also has much less distortion than any other 70-200mm zoom.

But wait, there’s more…

This lens focuses almost instantly. Like, you’ll have to try it to believe it. With silence and without vibration, too. Canon also threw in fantastic Image Stabilization, so you can leave your tripod at home.

The Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 II lens should be in every professional photographers bag. It is the perfect lens to capture people, weddings, portraits, nature, landscapes and scenes, well, just about anything you can think of.

 

Specs

Weight: 52.6 oz

Size: 88.8 x 199mm

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tokina AT-X 116 PRO DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8 Lens

Description

This Tokina lens is an ultra-wide angle autofocus zoom lens with a fast, consistent f/2.8 maximum aperture. This lens is designed for use with digital cameras with the following sensors: APS-C-size CMOS or CCD.

The AT-X 116 PRO DX-II has an angle of view which ranges from 104° to 84°, and has the ability to focus as close as 11.8”. With nine diaphragm blades to help ensure soft out-of-focus backgrounds with two super-low dispersion glass elements and two aspheric elements to help achieve perfect contrast, sharpness, and minimal chromatic aberration.

As this lens is an updated version to their AT-X 116 PRO DX, Tokina has improved many aspects. Including multi-layer coatings to minimize light reflection, as well as improve optical performance. The PRO DX-II has an internal focusing motor, which is ideal for any photographer who is shooting video with their digital camera.

All in all, this lens is perfect for a variety of photography, but especially great for wide angle shots.

 

Specs

Weight: 550 g

Size: 84 x 89mm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tamron AF 28-75mm f/2.8 Di III RXD Lens

Description

The Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 Di III RXD lens is a new, smart standard zoom for full-frame Sony E-mount cameras. This lens is the first of its kind, in the sense that it has been released by a third-party manufacturer specifically for the Sony full-frame cameras with an E mount. With that, Tamron offers Sony photographers an option they’ve never had access to previously.

“This lens is about half the price when compared to its competitors; with just as good (if not better) quality!”Taylor Maag Professional Travel Photographer.

This lens was the first step in Tamron’s strategy to bring more lenses to the market for photographers who use full-frame mirrorless cameras. This lens is bright, compact, lightweight, and really affordable. The Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 Di III RXD is designed to provide excellent image quality and beautiful background blur. Thanks to a minimum focusing distance of only 0.19m in the wide-angle setting, close-up shots are more than possible!

 

Specs

Weight: 19.4 oz

Size: 4.6 inches

After all is said and done, usability and versatility of this new Tamron lens is enhanced by the fact that it’s compact in size and light-weight, perfect for a traveling photographer.   

 

 

 

 

Rokinon 100mm f/2.8 ED UMC Full Frame Telephoto Macro Lens

Description

The Rokinon 100mm f/2.8 ED UMC Full Frame Telephoto Macro lens comes in at an attractive price point. Some of its features include an autofocus macro lens, quite sharp image quality, and a reasonable depth of field when working at high magnification.

Although the Rokinon 100mm f/2.8 ED UMC Full Frame Telephoto lens is reasonably priced, it’s less than equal to some other lens options as far as sharpness goes. You’ll have to pay more money to get a stabilized, autofocus lens with impeccable performance quality.

That said, the Rokinon lens provides a great bang for your buck, is available in several mounts, and is also sold in a version optimized for video use.

Taylor Maag recommends photographers use this Rokinon lens to “get those close-up detail shots”.   

 

Specs

Weight: 1.6 lb

Size: 4.85 x 2.9 inches

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summary

When it all comes down to it, any of these lenses would be great for the traveling photographer. A few additional things to consider when picking a lens are as follows:

  • Where will you be traveling for this photography trip?
  • What types of images are you planning to focus on? Some examples listed below:
    • Landscape photography
    • Portrait photography
    • Action photography
    • Cultures
    • Pet photography
    • Aerial photography
    • Architectural photography
    • Candid photography
    • Documentary photography
    • Fashion photography
    • Food photography
    • Night photography (or night-long exposure photography)
    • Photojournalism
    • Conceptual photography (or fine art photography)
    • Sport photography
    • Street photography
    • War photography
    • Wildlife photography
  • How much space do you have in your camera bag? Will you be flying or driving to your destination? This will determine how much space you have available for extra lenses and/or accessories.
  • How much money do you plan on spending on lenses?
  • What type of camera body do you have?

Every one of these lenses have varying pros and cons, so do your research when determining which is best for you.

Pro Tip: **Make sure to always get a Metabones Adaptor for the Panasonic DC GH5 camera. Canon glass is much better than Panasonic.**