Best Nikon zoom for adapter use?

[benhuddleston]

All you Nikon lovers: what's the best Nikon zoom out there for use on the Letus? I'm shooting on the Zeiss ZF's and I need a good medium zoom that will match fairly closely.

Also, I need a bomber wide (like 18 - 20mm) too. Unfortunately the Zeiss ZF 20mm is not available yet, so any other recommendations?

Ben

[Dennis Wood]

You'll want either the 17-35 (http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/1735.htm), 35-70, (http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/3570.htm) or the 80-200 (http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/80200.htm) from the 2.8D series. Other than the 35-70 lens, all have zero physical breathing. With no breathing, the 17-35 and 80-200 are perfect when used with a mattebox. At the wide angles they all rival our Zeiss primes in terms of falloff...although the Zeiss definitely show better MTF values (nothing touches them for contrast and colour). The only downside to these zooms is the short focus throw...however you'll find this with virtually all "modern" SLR zoom lenses. Our standard lens kit for Cinevate's studio includes the Zeiss 28, 35, 50, 85 and 100 (http://www.cinevate.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=30) as well as the three Nikon zooms mentioned above.

Forget the Zeiss 20mm for adapter use. Edge fall-off at 20mm and f2.8 is not so great on adapters unless you zoom in well beyond the SLR frame...which throws away the FOV you're trying to achieve with the wide angle lens. The Nikon zoom's mentioned above will perform much better at the same f stop vs any prime in terms of edge to edge illumination. Your mileage may vary on the Letus as we've only tested these lenses on the Brevis which has always been refined for maximum FOV using wide angle lenses (that's why we have the interchangeable CINEFUSE elements/optics for different camera platforms). I have spoken with a few M2 owners who reported that the 17-35 did not perform well on that platform. Hopefully a few Letus folks will pipe in on their experience with these lenses for you :-)

Cheers,

[Leo Versola]

I echo what Dennis posted but I prefer and use the Nikon 28-70/2.8 lens instead of the 35-70/2.8 because it uses a ring zoom just like the 17-35 and 80-200 lenses. If you are ever going to put a mattebox and follow focus on your rig, you will definitely want ring zooms and not the push-pull types...

Cheers,

[benhuddleston]

Thanks for the advice. Any great Nikon zooms in more of the 35-105 range? I'd like it a little longer than 70 on the end.
thx
bh