Remember it does turn long lenses into longer lenses, but fish-eyes become normal and then you have a nice smooth traditional focus ring. The higher quality lenses are also tack sharp.
Unless I had an EOS still camera lens collection though, I still would go for the second generation manual lens. Then you still have motorized zoom control. You also get slightly better Depth of Field being able to drop down to F1.4
The First generation of the 14x Manual lens was manual zoom only (like a still camera lens).
The Second generation 16x added the zoom servo where you can switch between manual and servo controlled, meaning you can switch to servo and press your zoom button and it works as you would expect it to.
The stock 20X lens is F1.6 at full wide but increases as you zoom in. You loose DOP. It goes to about 3.2 or so at full zoom.
The 14x and 16x Manual lenses do not change Iris at all through-out the entire zoom range.
Umm, quite interesting. I knew the previous x14 lense, but not this one.
Could we expect more image quality when using this lense? or it is just the about the same (the price is even cheaper so...).
[quote author=Guy_Cochran link=board=XL2;num=1107466893;start=0#4 date=02/04/05 at 17:29:52]
The stock 20X lens is F1.6 at full wide but increases as you zoom in. You loose DOP. It goes to about 3.2 or so at full zoom.[/quote]
[quote author=Shaw link=board=XL2;num=1107466893;start=0#8 date=02/05/05 at 14:09:16]You can but it isn't the aperture that is the problem. Lenses are just slower at their telephoto ends. The aperture stays exactly the same.[/quote]
You mean ... it zooms slower ? Or there is less light comming in ?
What is meant is, the lens is incapable of offering 1.6 at its full telephoto end. The widest possible aperture, when fully zoomed in, is something like f/3.6. Now, as you zoom out, wider apertures become available. But if you zoom all the way in, and open the lens to its absolute most wide-open, it'll be about f/3.6.
The change in aperature as you go to telephoto with a zoom lens is called "iris ramping" (probably because if you plot aperature vs focal length on a graph it looks like a "ramp") is strickly a function of lens design.
To maintain a constant f - stop (or aperture) thru the entire range means making the lens larger, heavier and more expensive, so the designer makes a compromise that results in the lens being slower at telephoto than it is at wide angle, in order to meet the design goals regarding size, weight and manufacturing cost.
This practice is far less common with motion picture zoom lenses because size, weight and cost are much less a factor in the design and manufacturing process.
Is there any truth to what was said above about the canon Manual lens not having this iris "ramping" effect? I find it hard to believe as the price of the manual lens is still in the same ballpark as the servo driven ones.
I said they don't have iris shift if that is what you mean. Meaning, the iris doesn't physically change, the lens is just slower. At least that's how I meant for that to come across.