Cine lens for photography

mstrike

mstrike

New member
A quick questions what is your opinion for using cine lens on a7 series for photography?
Any recommended for a7RII?
Thanks
 
My opinion: that they are designed for something else. An a7R II has way more resolution than they expect. Check this out.
Of course, you could be using them because of other aspects different than resolution. But then the a7R II doesn't make a ton of sense.
 
It also depends a lot on exactly which cine lens it is we're talking about.

I have friends who use Rokinon Cine lenses on their A7S's and they shoot stills with them too and they're great.

But the Rokinon's are pretty sharp lenses... also a lot of Cine lenses are only designed to cover a smaller APS-C or "S35" size sensor - meaning they won't cover full-frame sensors.
 
Proper Cine lenses are big and heavy. It'll be hard to hand-hold and balance with such a small camera body. They also have a very long focus throw which is great for smooth, slow focus pulls but not so great for trying to nail focus quickly while handheld.
 
For photography you wouldn't get much of the benefits that a cine lens affords you.

For Photo you don't rack focus, so breathing isn't an issue. Also, for photo you most likely auto-focus, so focus throw on a lens is not an issue either. Lastly the uniform diameter of cinema lens housings is not an issue for photography because most likely you would not be attaching a matte box. You also don't need a de-clicked iris ring for photo. You actually don't need an iris ring at all!

So you can get great quality images with photo lenses that breath, don't have a good focus ring, and don't have uniform housings, because none of that comes into play with photography. Instead, you can save money, get lighter lenses, and get just as beautiful images.
 
deltoidjohn said:
Most cinema lenses are manual focus only, so focus throw is a consideration for stills.
Click to expand...

Kinda what I was saying?? Except that most photography is done with autofocus due to ease and precise focus quickly. Therefore, I suggested that the focus throw on a cine lens is not as important to photographers.

Yes, if you use a manual lens for photography, then the focus ring on your lens is still important. However, even manually focusing for stills, a long throw may not be advantageous.

I'm not making any fast rules here. Of course there are always exceptions.
 
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