Best non-cine glass for pull focus?

E

eco_bach

Well-known member
Rebuilding my lens kit to mostly L glass. So far have the 24-70 mkII, 100 macro. Am considering several primes for my next purchase. From my research any of the Zeiss ZE primes seem like a good investment, especially the 50mmf2 Macro. With their long and stiff focus they seem ideal for pull focus and I can always send them to Duclos later on for cine-modding.
But am I missing something? Are there any Canon L or non L primes or brands other than Zeiss that make primes which work well for pull focusing?
 
eco_bach said:
Rebuilding my lens kit to mostly L glass. So far have the 24-70 mkII, 100 macro. Am considering several primes for my next purchase. From my research any of the Zeiss ZE primes seem like a good investment, especially the 50mmf2 Macro. With their long and stiff focus they seem ideal for pull focus and I can always send them to Duclos later on for cine-modding.
But am I missing something? Are there any Canon L or non L primes or brands other than Zeiss that make primes which work well for pull focusing?
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Typically, any manual lens with a longer focus throw.

ZE's/ZF's are a good choice, with ZF's being backwards rotation though.
 
Ryan Patrick O'Hara said:
Typically, any manual lens with a longer focus throw.

ZE's/ZF's are a good choice, with ZF's being backwards rotation though.
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Yes, the zeiss' have a nice smooth and repeatable feeling. Relatively long throw compared to other stills lenses. Nikon AI-S primes are good too. And the Sigma manual lenses seem nice, but I've only used the 35mm 1.4

Nikon pre-ai is bad. Most auto lenses are bad.
 
Canon FD lenses were great. 270 dg rotation, and silky smooth. minimal walking.
 
James0b57 said:
Yes, the zeiss' have a nice smooth and repeatable feeling. Relatively long throw compared to other stills lenses. Nikon AI-S primes are good too. And the Sigma manual lenses seem nice, but I've only used the 35mm 1.4

Nikon pre-ai is bad. Most auto lenses are bad.
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Hey james, how's life in China? shot anything interesting with 1D C?
 
I have a set of Zeiss and they do breath a fair bit, especially the 50mm. I also considered the Zeiss macro lenses until I read Philip Blooms reviews. He said Zeiss macros focus a bit differently so they do not work well with follow focus units. Also, they extend really far so you can't use them with a matte box. You can google the article, really useful. I just got the regular Zeiss and I really like them.

Breathing is actually really easy to fix in post. You either scale up your image from 100% or start at a slightly larger scale and then scale down to 100% in After Effects.
 
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