Where to Buy Lenses for the Panasonic GH4

Lens Options for the Panasonic GH4
By Sol March in Resources

Knowing what lens to buy is only half the battle. Knowing where to buy lenses is at least as important. Here are 5 of the best places to find the lenses you need.

Selecting a vendor is so more much than getting the best price. Lens pricing is fairly consistent across the board, so what sets vendors apart is the additional value they provide, such as dependability, selection, and service.

Let’s take a look at 5 of the best vendors for buying lenses for the Panasonic GH4 and discuss what sets them apart from the rest.

Note: These vendors are USA-specific. If you live in another part of the world, let me know about the best vendors in your region so we can all know where to find lenses no matter where we are located.

Amazon

Amazon

  • Selection
    • Industry: Photography, Film/Video
    • Lens type: Native, Adapted
  • What to buy: New
  • Go here for: Reviews

Amazon’s strongest asset is its reviews. Nearly any lens you’re interested in will have reviews from those who already took the plunge and bought the lens. This is great for learning about a lens’ unexpected issues before taking the plunge yourself.

That said, you do need to consider the wide gamut of users who buy items on Amazon when reading the reviews, as a user’s experience or needs may not always reflect your own. I will usually start with the 1-star reviews to get a feel for what the most significant issues are with a lens. Then, I move up to reviews with higher ratings, realizing that a more critical eye is required as the stars increase.

Amazon’s lens selection is good, offering both native and non-native lenses. However, as a primarily a consumer-focused vendor, more specialized or professional-grade lenses may be harder to source from Amazon.

Useful Links

B&H

B&H

  • Selection
    • Industry: Photography, Film/Video
    • Lens type: Native, Adapted
  • What to buy: New
  • Go here for: Reviews by pros, Hands-on (east coast USA)

B&H is a large and well-known vendor specializing in film and video production equipment. Many working professionals buy gear from B&H.

As a result, while there may be less reviews for a particular lens, the reviews will often be from users who use the lens for professional applications. You still have to read the reviews with discernment, but you can generally expect that these reviewers are not newbies. This makes B&H a great place to get a “second opinion” when researching lens options.

One of the other benefits of B&H over Amazon is that they actually have a physical address. You can go hands-on with lenses at their massive store in New York City, which can be helpful when you’re trying to decide if a lens will meet your needs.

Useful Links

Samy’s Camera

Samy's Camera

  • Selection
    • Industry: Photography, Film/Video
    • Lens type: Native, Adapted
  • What to buy: New
  • Go here for: Hands-on (west coast USA)

If you’re on the west coast, Samy’s is a brick & mortar vendor with a lens selection ranging from standard photographic lenses all the way up to professional cinema lenses.

You’re not going to find nearly the same amount of reviews on Samy’s website as on Amazon or B&H, so the main draw here is their physical locations in California where you can check out a lens in-person before buying it.

Useful Links

eBay

eBay

  • Selection
    • Industry: Photography
    • Lens type: Adapted
  • What to buy: Used
  • Go here for: Hidden Treasures

Experienced Micro Four Thirds users know how great eBay can be for finding unique lenses. Because adapting lenses for the MFT mount is so rewarding, users have been going to eBay to find great deals on legacy lenses for defunct lens mounts for years.

eBay is all about find those hidden gems that no one else thought about using on the GH4. Therefore, you should primarily be looking at legacy photography lenses on eBay, because that’s what you’ll find the best deals on. While native lenses are available on eBay, the real gems are lenses with legacy mounts like Nikon F, Canon FD, and C-mount.

The main thing to remember when shopping on eBay is that everyone and their mom sells items on eBay. You need to do your due diligence before buying something to make sure that the seller has good ratings and that the item is in good condition.

Useful Links

KEH Camera

KEH

  • Selection
    • Industry: Photography
    • Lens type: Adapted
  • What to buy: Used
  • Go here for: Standardized lens grading & inspection

Like eBay, KEH is a great place to pick up some used legacy photographic lenses. The key difference though is that you are buying lenses directly from KEH, not random sellers from around the world.

All used lenses sold by KEH are inspected and graded so that you know what condition a lens is in before you buy it.

KEH Lens Grading

Lenses are priced according to their condition, so you’re less likely to discover hidden treasures on KEH. On the other hand, KEH provides a 6 month warranty on all used lenses. Try asking for that when you buy a used lens on eBay.

Bottom Line: Go to eBay if you’re on a treasure hunt, go to KEH if you know what you want and you’re willing to pay a bit extra to get it right the first time.

Useful Links

Bonus: Why Buy When You Can Rent?

Here’s the thing– there are a lot of great lenses out there to use on the GH4, but you can’t justify (or afford) buying all of them. How can you use a lens without going all-in and buying it?

The answer is lens rentals.

Renting lenses is nothing new for those in the film & video production industry– it’s a great way to use a lens for a specific project without having to bear the ongoing cost of maintenance and storage.

If you live in a city with a vibrant production industry, there are probably several great rental houses to choose from. However, if you don’t live in such a town, several web-based vendors have sprung up to bring lens rentals right to your door.

Renting from these vendors basically works like this:

  1. Schedule lens rental via website
  2. Lens is shipped to you and rental period starts on the date it arrives
  3. Use lens until it is due to be returned
  4. Pack lens in the box it arrived in and slap on included prepaid return shipping label.
  5. Return lens by dropping it off at shipping provider (e.g. FedEx, UPS)

Pretty simple right? Here are two well-regarded web-based lens rental houses:

BorrowLenses

BorrowLenses

  • Industry: Photography, Film/Video
  • Lens type: Native, Adapted
  • Return shipping included: Yes
  • Shipping Speed: 2-day, Overnight
  • Insurance Offered: Yes
  • Custom rental durations: Yes

Lens rental prices generally seem to be around 10% of a lens’ full price for a 7 day rental. For example, the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 lens (retail: $800) costs $80/7 days. However, there are also exceptions such as the Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 (retail: $1000) which costs $52/7 days.

The daily rental rate decreases as the rental period increases, so you get a better deal the longer you rent the lens for.

Shipping appears to be the same regardless of destination which is nice, and starts at $25/lens. Shipping costs are based on the full order, not per-item, so shipping for 1 lens might be $25 while shipping for 2 lenses may cost $30.

Useful Links

LensRentals

LensRentals

  • Industry: Photography, Film/Video
  • Lens type: Native, Adapted
  • Return shipping included: Yes
  • Shipping Speed: 2-day, Overnight
  • Insurance Offered: Yes
  • Custom rental durations: Yes

Lens rental prices and selection are very similar to BorrowLenses. However, there are some interesting pricing differences such as the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 (Nikon) that costs $57/7 days compared to $80/7 days at BorrowLenses.

Shipping costs are also very similar to BorrowLenses, starting at $25 for one lens, $30 for 2 lenses, etc.

Useful Links

Considering all the similarities between these two rental houses (selection, pricing, rental process, etc.), I’m very interested to see what differentiates one from the other.

The nice thing is that both vendors make it easy to select and rent lenses online, so I will be testing both services and sharing my experiences in future posts.

Free Consult

Are you excited about the potential of the Panasonic GH4 and its versatile Micro Four Thirds lens mount, but feel overwhelmed by all the options?

The Panasonic GH4’s MFT system may be completely new territory for a many of you. It’s such a versatile system that it can all be a bit hard to digest.

I’ve been shooting on the MFT system and Panasonic’s GH-series cameras for several years and I want to help you find your bearings quickly so you can get back to shooting awesome stuff! That’s why I’m currently offering free consults to help answer your questions.

Get your free consult today

There you have it– whether you’re looking for native, non-native, new, or used lenses, you now know about several vendors where you can research and buy lenses from. Do you have a favorite vendor for buying lenses? Let me know, I’d love to hear about them.

Lens Options for the Panasonic GH4

Introduction

Canon EF Lenses

Prime Lenses

Zoom Lenses

Buying Guides

More Panasonic GH4 Guides