C300: cheap super zoom lenses anyone?

N

nebular

Member
hi.
i'm in preparation for a non budget music video. shooting will happen on C300 with some nikon primes.
but actually i was planning some pretty long zoom shots. like in 70's (trash) movies. going from slightly wide angle to like 200/300mm close ups.
cinema zooms, of course are out of question.

lens speed is unimportant, i won't shoot shallow depth of field. but it should hold focus.
what makes it even harder, i had in mind using BPM filters (in a matte box). but maybe i will pass on that, because it seems like almost all photo zooms extent extremely when zooming (?)

any suggestions?
i found a tamron 18-270mm for example, can you do smooth zooms with lenses like that?


thanks everyone!
 
I doubt any of the modern super zooms are parafocal, so they won't hold focus, and smooth is out of the question. You may be able to get away with fast snap zooms by focusing at the long end, wide should be deep enough to not worry about it, if you snap from full wide to full tight fast enough you'd not need to worry about smooth, or intermediate steps being in focus.
 
Sigma 50-150 f2.8 seems like a good candidate. Used around $600.
I haven't used it but from what I've read it's parfocal, focus and zoom are dampened and nice and smooth. It's an APS-c lens so lighter than full frame and gives you basically a 70-200 equivalent. Heck now I want one!
 
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thank you guys. but for those 70's zoom shots i'm intenting, you need much longer focal range than like 70-200mm or 50-150mm.
i would say, at least 7x oder 8x.


what i already have here is an old Polaris 55-300mm 4.5 lens. like this: -> http://forums.steves-digicams.com/pentax-lenses/113631-polaris-55-300mm-f4-5-lens-3-images.html

i converted it to ef-mount and it looked pretty ok on C300. it's huge and heavy and sharp, i put on a zoom lever and you can do quite smooth zooming. but it has some focus drift on the 55mmm start AND it's still not wide enough on the wide end. you already start in a slighty tele shot. and it has some minor optical faults like strange reflections from sensor to back lens sometimes.


damn. i want an EF-mount optimo 24-290 :cheesy:.
 
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How about these?

http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/tamron_18-270_3p5-6p3_vc_n15

http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/canon_18-200_3p5-5p6_is_c16

Reminiscent of the FS100 'kit lens' which proved useful for R&G assignments where IS was important, things happening so fast you don't want to be caught changing lenses, or (more often than not) you're on an assignment where, with rising dread, you feel you'd have been better served by an EX1. On that note, I'm oft quoted as ranting on about the fact that the bokeh on my FS100 kit lens at f8 was bigger/better than on the equivalent shot on my EX1 at f2.8 - the big chip meaning that smaller apertures aren't to be feared.

The sort of lens you won't admit to owning or using, but the one that gets you out of the poo.
 
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Take the money you would spend on a crappy still zoom and rent a Cooke 25-250mm which is exactly the lens used back then for this type shot.
 
yeah, i definitely thought about renting.

problem is: i get the C300 + Rig/Cage/Follow Focus/Mattebox/etc. (+Nikon Primes) for free from a small production company i often worked for.
BUT it is the EF-mount model!


so does anyone know, if the canon 30-300mm cinema zoom is made for EF-mount?
 
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