Whats the next step up from Canon FD lenses?

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Drcoffee

Well-known member
Budget permitting, whats the next step up in quality compared to canon FD and Nikon 35mm lenses of 35mm adapters?
 
I'd go with Zeiss Contax mount slr primes. I used these for a while and was very happy with the quality.
 
FD "L" 24mm 1.4, 50mm 1.2 and 85mm 1.2 - or upgrade to Letus Ultimate to see the real difference even without upgrading to better quality lenses.

T
 
Yeah those F mount zeiss nikons that you can get from Redrock seem pretty neat...

Although you could go to that place that convets nikon still lenses to cinema style lenses. They take them apart, clean them, take the clicking apature stops out and put a perminant gear ring on the focus.

They also stick a big bell thing on the front to take the OD of the lens to a standard size to improve compatibility with matteboxes etc.

Cant remember the name of the company though, it was something like PCR lens or something...
 
We've got a review of the Zeiss lenses coming...some footage from it here using our new EX1 "fix" system: http://www.cinevate.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2479

We'll have the full piece up next week with a lens discussion edited in there. If you have the faster FD lenses (f2.8 and better) then there's not a huge incremental improvement in other SLR lenses. That said, we tested an f1.8 Nikon 50mm against the Zeiss 50mm and the difference was startling with respect to contrast. More in the review. Your next step should indeed be looking towards a few nice Cine lenses. Many of our shooters just rent them when things get very serious, and use their still lenses otherwise.

We're happy to announce that Cinevate will be officially selling Zeiss lenses with updates next week on pricing etc.
 
Toenis said:
FD "L" 24mm 1.4, 50mm 1.2 and 85mm 1.2 - or upgrade to Letus Ultimate to see the real difference even without upgrading to better quality lenses.

T
Click to expand...

Mmmm i dont think a better adapter is going to improve shady glass.....
 
Drcoffee said:
Budget permitting, whats the next step up in quality compared to canon FD and Nikon 35mm lenses of 35mm adapters?
Click to expand...

Despite what most people will tell you, if youre going to be using a 35mm adapter, there isnt going to be any real difference between the top-of-the-line models of each respective lens manufacturer/mount type.

I always here people saying "ohh you need to get nikon glass" or "nothing compares to zeiss primes"... the fact is aside from color and contrast which is always going to be different from lens to lens (even within specific lines), the high-end lenses for each mount are going to be pretty much the same especially when running them through a 35mm adapter.

Keep the FD lenses and if you really want to get some improvement, upgrade to the Canon FD L series, which can be pretty pricey.
 
I've been doing a lot of shooting with the Red lately and using both Nikon and Zeiss Super Speeds. The red is a camera you can actually see a difference on, but still the difference really isn't big enough to worry about especially when using an adapter. Really any standard decent quality SLR lens is made to take in much more information than what HD allows. After all they are made for film. I do like the ease of use of a cinema lens though. So smooth... I agree with toenis though, if you've got the money an improved adapter is the way to go over upgrading your glass.
 
Any well made 35mm adapter will provide you excellent footage if you use it right (check any of clips made with RR, SGPro, Letus, Brevis, etc... and you´ll find amazing stuff). Look for what fits u better. It´s a real fact that some adapters are available to provide better footage because of their higher tech, but that´s also pretty much up to the users capacity and knowledge (also price get´s higher on these adapters, like the Letus Ultimate that so far I think is worth every penny).
So... You can buy the best set of cine primes (let´s say Ultra Primes or Cooks), but you´ll get a bottleneck somewhere. So, try to get some even hardware... by even I mean: Lenses, Adapter and Camera in the same league (and you can get great results with it). If you don´t follow this main rule, I think that you´ll spend more money and at the end is not going to be worth it.

I hope it´s clear and that it helps.

Cheers...
 
We've got that very telling frame grab series coming that compares a cheaper Nikon f1.8 50mm lens with the Zeiss glass. It's pretty dramatic, and the only thing we did was swap lenses on/off the camera. What's seldom discussed here are things like MTF, contrast etc. and the differences here are profound. Having seen what we've seen, I have no issues fully recommending that those that can afford the glass, and are using our adpater professionally, will be very happy with their investment.

What we didn't do (and will this week!) is compare the Canon FD 50mm f1.4 to the Zeiss 50mm f1.4 to see what, if any, is the incremental difference.
 
Dennis. That sounds like a great comparison. I have never seen one like that before, has anyone done a comprehensive glass comparison before?
 
Is a Carl Zeiss Jena FD mount lens better than the Canon FD?

When Zeiss is discussed above which type of Zeiss are best?

Zeiss Jena
Zeiss Contax
Zeiss Planar T*
 
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