Zoom Recommendations for 35mm Adapter with FF

[Lucas Adamson]

So, I have completed building myself a rather prefessional vibrating 35mm adapter and am completing my follow focus this week, after weeks of arduous engineering.

My unit has a Canon EOS mount, which, due to its short back focus, allows the user to fit almost any lens mount with an apropriate EOS adapter. Currently I have Carl Zeiss 50mm, 135mm & 28mm lenses, which are wonderful, but I am thinking that for SD PAL on my DVX100 the resolution they offer is waaay overkill, and that almost any decent 35mm lens would give very comparable results. Therefore, I think it makes sense to get myself a really good zoom, be it Nikon, Canon or whatever, that has a fast aperture and a focus ring that doesn't lengthen as the lens zooms or focusses (so that the FF can operate properly). I think this called an internal focussing lens - is that right? Anyway, does anybody out there have any recommendations of such a piece of glass, preferably a 28-100 ish range, or else a 24-50 and a 70-210 perhaps. Oh yeah, and f2.8 - 3.8 would be nice.

Many thanks
Lucas

 

[Matty_g]

The AF Zoom-Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D ED works very well with adapters although it does have a somewhat short focus throw.
I've never used it but I'd wager the AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 28-70mm f/2.8D IF-ED should work very well also.

 

[Lucas Adamson]

Thanks Matty,

That's some expensive glass! I'm mostly looking within the manual focus 35mm SLR oldies, as I'm sure that somewhere out there is a gem for a tenth of that price. The real issue is finding something with internal focussing. I may have cracked it however.

Lucas

 

[Matty_g]

Fast internal focusing zooms are pretty much $$$
I'm not a lens expert but i haven't seen any old manual versions of those two lenses around at all.
There is an older version of the 17-35 2.8 that's cheaper than it's new version. You also lose a bit on the wide end though.