LEAST amount of breathing on fixed camera lens?

brock2621

brock2621

Well-known member
Does anybody here have a good bit of experience with a lot of SLR camera lenses to know which lenses have he best contrast, sharpness, and most of all LEAST AMOUNT OF BREATHING? It's so so hard to use these lenses with these adapters when they really weren't designed for this.

I would love to hear everybody's opinion on this. Thanks!
 
Well "cheap" in caparison to cinema lenses they are. Redrock micro sells a package of 3 for about 3,000 i think. Are those the ones you were talking about? I'm just now learning about lenses and want the sharpest image possible. I'm less concerned about saturation than i am image sharpness and clarity.

Does anybody here have a set or know where someone has posted comparison images from different lenses to compare?
 
I'm not sure who's done breathing tests with Zeiss lenses... I HAVE seen one RED ONE + Nikon Mount test with a zoom that didn't breathe at all. It was pretty amazing.

But, the zooms don't have hard stops and must be converted, they also (of course) are not fixed focal lengths.

I would ASSUME that Zeiss lenses breathe less than Nikon SLRS, but again I've seen no tests to prove it. I think that if you're after something that breathes little, the best method of approach would be to actually purchase Cinema Lenses (Boy, that's a tag) or to grab decent Nikon lenses for regular work and rent Cinema Primes for anything that requires THE best quality. It's a way to meet yourself in the middle on expenses.

Then again, Zeiss SLR is still ultra sharp. And, if you can afford it then there's no reason not to go for it.
 
Yeah, today at work i got out a directors viewfinder and tested 50mm of standards, superspeeds, cooke, zeiss ultra primes, and zeiss master primes to see the visual difference between them.

I then got into a discussion with everybody about still camera lenses on the P&S and everybody just shunned me for it. Like extrememly against it and said it's not even worth mounting. They said breathing is so bad it's going to take you 20 mins to set up each shot etc. etc.

I asked how much the zeiss SLR breathes when compared to the master's and they said "a hell of a lot." So i am now perplexed and lenses.

What do you suggest for a 15,000 budget? What setup would you get? I was looking at:

HVX-200A or 170
Letus Ultimate
some zeiss SLR's
redrock micro mattebox

Thoughts or suggestions?
 
Naturally. SLR lenses were never designed for moving images. However, 20 minutes to setup each shot? That's ridiculous and told well by people who haven't actually used them.

Zeiss SLR lenses if you can afford them, which seems like you can.
 
They meant 20 mins to get done because the focus will be off. I appreciate the input. What setup do you use?
 
I would look at the SgPro also, best unflipped edge to edge adapter... the HPX170 will be great! Its next on me list, thats for sure, the RR mattebox is amazing, I'd pick up a RR FF also... ziess superspeeds... check out KEH.com for some used Nikon glass, which there is nothing wrong with that, and get some coated AI. AI-s lenses, and they have(depending on lens) have little breathing, bt trust me, its not as big of an issue as what your buds say it is...


jon
 
They meant 20 mins to get done because the focus will be off. I appreciate the input. What setup do you use?
Click to expand...

Not sure what they mean exactly, if you are working with Zeiss primes your workflow and repeatable focus would be very similar to cine primes. Zeiss will give you the closest feel to the real deal when it comes to focus travel.

Now if breathing is 100% off the table and you are trying to compensate for this on the shoot rather than post they might have a point.

This is only an alternative to cine primes if you are willing to accept and work around the shortcomings for budgetary reasons.
 
Best thing is EXPERIMENT and SEE for yourself.
Last thing you should worry about is breathing of the lens I think. A dolly move becomes obvious when does not support the story. Same goes for a pan or tilt and just as true for a focus roll. Unless "the story" needs to be told "that way" and the story teller sees no other way, than yes, the breathing will be perceived as a "distraction" but:
If one rolls focus at "the right speed" with the action, or...
while "hiding" the focus roll in a pan (tilt, dolly move, etc) the audience will not notice lens breathing.
Breathing WILL occur but it will be less obvious (a lot less) if the frame reference changes. There are just a few "dead on" focus rolls I can recall in most major productions I have seen (one being a guy aiming a gun and counting 1....2....and ..............3 said by another guy aiming at the first fellow- while roll focus to reveal him) Sorry, I can't recall the name of the movie (but the choice of that focus roll was great to tell the story).
I hope this helps.
 
Ok, well... they just had me worried that sharpness would be like putting a needle in a haystack. Although i assume with SLR you can't properly measure? Also, because of the "look" of each lens, would interchanging companies be noticeable?

Finally, can someone post a complete set of lenses that they would recommend or do the 3 redrock offer cover that?

I really appreciate your all's help...
 
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