Cine lens options for FS700 4k

D

dapoopta

Well-known member
I don't know if I want to spend $5k on a prime lens from Canon, curious what options you guys recommend for cine style lenses with a good amount of focus throw. I'm using the 24-70 canon L lens and the focusing ring distance is like non existent, especially at 24mm. I've heard the Zeiss primes are good, not the CP2, but the photography ones.

Thanks!
 
dapoopta said:
I don't know if I want to spend $5k on a prime lens from Canon, curious what options you guys recommend for cine style lenses with a good amount of focus throw. I'm using the 24-70 canon L lens and the focusing ring distance is like non existent, especially at 24mm. I've heard the Zeiss primes are good, not the CP2, but the photography ones.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Before I read your second sentence I was thinking "Zeiss ZE or ZF primes." Haha. I have the Nikon mount (ZF/ZF.2) lenses, and they are fantastic. Fast, sharp, and have lots of throw. Only negative I've noticed is that my 50mm tends to make highlights glow when wide open. I'm not sure if this happens to ALL of them, but I've read about it happening to others with the 50mm. Stopping down ever-so-slightly fixes it, it's just something I need to be mindful of.

Honestly, even the Rokinon Cine lenes are pretty good. I have the 35mm and like it quite a bit.
 
ChadN said:
Not in the same category as Zeiss ZFs, but there's always the Rokinon cine-lens set. I only have the 85mm, but i like it. http://www.amazon.com/Full-Rokinon-Cine-Lens-Kit/dp/B00COBIK0A
Click to expand...

I had a Rokinon 35mm and it's definitely not in the same league as Zeiss ZFs which has far better mechanics. While the Rokinon was pretty sharp, Zeiss just has a better aesthetic IMO. Zeiss colors are just so damn pleasing. The Rokinon has this slight yellow tint that I just don't like.

Rokinon is pretty good for the price, but I would pay a bit more for Zeiss. Cry now, Smile later.
 
gene_can_sing said:
I had a Rokinon 35mm and it's definitely not in the same league as Zeiss ZFs which has far better mechanics. While the Rokinon was pretty sharp, Zeiss just has a better aesthetic IMO. Zeiss colors are just so damn pleasing. The Rokinon has this slight yellow tint that I just don't like.

Rokinon is pretty good for the price, but I would pay a bit more for Zeiss. Cry now, Smile later.
Click to expand...

I had the Rokinon 35mm too and I loved it. Sharp solid big bang for the bucks.
Then I had the chance to buy a 35mm & 100mm CP.2 from a colleague who sold his FS700 equipment.
I wouldn't have believed before but it's a real different look. I wouldn't have believed when I bought
the FS700 that I could create such images in combination with 4K2HD slog2. Can't wait for 4K ProRes!
 
Clermond said:
I had the Rokinon 35mm too and I loved it. Sharp solid big bang for the bucks.
Then I had the chance to buy a 35mm & 100mm CP.2 from a colleague who sold his FS700 equipment.
I wouldn't have believed before but it's a real different look. I wouldn't have believed when I bought
the FS700 that I could create such images in combination with 4K2HD slog2. Can't wait for 4K ProRes!
Click to expand...

If you're on a budget, look at the old Canon FDs. They focus the right way, have an okay focus throw and are much cheaper than Zeiss. They are, however, a bit of a mixed bag. The 85L 1.2 is amazing - still pretty sharp even wide open (at 1.2) and pin sharp from 2.8. The 35mm f2, 135mm f2, 14mm 2.8L are also good. The 50mm 1.2L and 24mm 1.4L are both soft wide open (good from around f4), but this might just be mine (they could do with a service and clean up) other people say they're amazing, so....
 
Clermond said:
what is against the CP.2s except that they are more pricy?
Click to expand...

Where I work we have the CP.2s and the ZF's. The image is basically the same. No real difference. Difference is the lens build. The CP.2's all have the same uniform throw in the focus at 270 degrees and the same in the iris. No button on the iris either. Also they are built tough. Seen them get dropped from a height of a few feet on a couple of occasions. They needed work as they were a bit out of round on the focus ring. BUT they kept going and looked good. I love 'em! But for a budget the ZF's are fine.
 
slipstrea808 said:
Where I work we have the CP.2s and the ZF's. The image is basically the same. No real difference. Difference is the lens build. The CP.2's all have the same uniform throw in the focus at 270 degrees and the same in the iris. No button on the iris either. Also they are built tough. Seen them get dropped from a height of a few feet on a couple of occasions. They needed work as they were a bit out of round on the focus ring. BUT they kept going and looked good. I love 'em! But for a budget the ZF's are fine.
Click to expand...

how's the focus ring on the ZF's? In terms of near to far, how many degrees?
 
dapoopta said:
how's the focus ring on the ZF's? In terms of near to far, how many degrees?
Click to expand...

Some are long, some are shorter on Zeiss. The 85mm for example is long, not sure of an exact number but I would say at least 210 degrees while the 35mm f2, it's maybe about 110 degrees.

i actually prefer the focus throw somewhere in the middle. On handheld stuff which I do a lot of, the Zeiss 85mm focus throw is too long since it's hard for your hand to do such major rotations and the long focus throw works against you. I like how Canon L primes are around 180, except those don't have hard stops which is an issue for follow focus's.
 
Last edited:
If you want to rent cine glass, Solid Camera makes a GREAT PL mount that is properly supported- you have to buy the optional rod support but it's really necessary.
Old and odd ball lens are extremely popular right now. I'm a big fan of PL mounted LOMO cine lenses- they give a pretty image and for a cine lens are relatively cheap (I have a set of speeds and standards).

I was always partial to old Nikon AI and AIS and even older Nikon primes. Shot a feature with them. Very curious about the Speedbooster route with various primes (Nikon, FD, Leica R). Here's a shot of my FS700 Solid Camera PL mount and Canon FD 800mm. I"ve said it elsewhere, but I'd really like to test the FS700 shooting 2K raw processed via ACR against an Alexa shooting ArriRAW. The FS700 is really an amazing underrated narrative camera. THis snap is from a feature I just shot- 2K raw to 7Q recorder.
 

Attachments

  • fs-800a.jpg
    fs-800a.jpg
    93.2 KB · Views: 0
Anyone tried Loxia 35 and 50? They have 180 degrees focus throw, declicable aperture and solid build based on ZM, but are aimed at a7-series users.
 
Colinelves said:
If you're on a budget, look at the old Canon FDs. They focus the right way, have an okay focus throw and are much cheaper than Zeiss. They are, however, a bit of a mixed bag. The 85L 1.2 is amazing - still pretty sharp even wide open (at 1.2) and pin sharp from 2.8. The 35mm f2, 135mm f2, 14mm 2.8L are also good. The 50mm 1.2L and 24mm 1.4L are both soft wide open (good from around f4), but this might just be mine (they could do with a service and clean up) other people say they're amazing, so....
Click to expand...

I have a set of cinemodded Canon FDs:
24/2 - 35/2 - 50/1,4 - 85/1,8 - 100/2

I bought them used and don't want anything "better". All of them (except 24/2) are reasonably cheap
and great to handle. I used my set for narrative budget work and we all liked the images a lot.
They are not the most contrasty lenses wide open, but cloed 1-2 stops, they were sharp enough anyway.
 
den59 said:
Anyone tried Loxia 35 and 50?
Click to expand...

Loxia is nearly perfect glass for the modern mirrorless include FS700, period.
I've spend over 15 years with almost every zeiss 50mm, from old Contax (AEJ, AEG, MMJ, MMG), Rollei HFT (first metal body), to Cosina (the current 1.4 and Makro 2/50 of course) and Loxia 2/50 is almost like mixed together with only good part of them.

honestly I have 2 reason I can't say it's perfect because it's kinda too small body for focusing, I personally prefer to have the size like the current zeiss 1.4/50.

and one more thing, Loxia 2/50 has NO ghost/flare ring type of stuff even aim to the sun light... it's good thing for regular use but sometime I personally like to have nice optical artifacts old zeiss has :)

anyway here's the quick test I did :
https://vimeo.com/113581654
pass : 113581654
 
freiheit said:
Loxia is nearly perfect glass for the modern mirrorless include FS700, period.
I've spend over 15 years with almost every zeiss 50mm, from old Contax (AEJ, AEG, MMJ, MMG), Rollei HFT (first metal body), to Cosina (the current 1.4 and Makro 2/50 of course) and Loxia 2/50 is almost like mixed together with only good part of them.

honestly I have 2 reason I can't say it's perfect because it's kinda too small body for focusing, I personally prefer to have the size like the current zeiss 1.4/50.

and one more thing, Loxia 2/50 has NO ghost/flare ring type of stuff even aim to the sun light... it's good thing for regular use but sometime I personally like to have nice optical artifacts old zeiss has :)

anyway here's the quick test I did :
https://vimeo.com/113581654
pass : 113581654
Click to expand...

Cool, i'm interested in those.

I think some differences often overlooked are the ratios of the focus marks. Most stills lenses tend to have their marks very quickly bunch up whereas a decent cine lens will maintain enough space between marks. So pulling focus from 5m to 2m on a stills lens can be very challenging because you could be talking just a few mm of throw. 2m to 50cm has a lot more throw. Each manufacturer has a different approach. Leica R lenses seem a bit better in that regard (although i have limited experience with the range as a whole). The contax zeiss stuff of which i have quite a large set varies from lens to lens but the stills never have a large enough spacing in the 2m + range. I have some speed panchros as well and they're obviously super spaced out - ironically perhaps too much.

I'd like something like the loxia but with wireless focus as well as manual, simply because we must be heading towards a time when we should be able to remote focus a lens by wire and not with a follow focus. Afterall all the motors and electronics are inside the lens already. The body talks to the lens. Cameras like the A7s have wifi and you can remote control them but at the moment the SDKs do not include remote focusing of the lens (i looked!)

Whatever happen to those birger mount projects? I'd love full electronic control of a lens wirelessly. I don't see why not.

cheers
Paul
 
Wireless remote control of manual focusing

Wireless remote control of manual focusing

paulcurtis said:
I have some speed panchros as well and they're obviously super spaced out - ironically perhaps too much.

I'd like something like the loxia but with wireless focus as well as manual, simply because we must be heading towards a time when we should be able to remote focus a lens by wire and not with a follow focus. Afterall all the motors and electronics are inside the lens already. The body talks to the lens. Cameras like the A7s have wifi and you can remote control them but at the moment the SDKs do not include remote focusing of the lens (i looked!)
I'd love full electronic control of a lens wirelessly. I don't see why not.
Click to expand...
Hi Paul, a brilliantly smart post.
Are all the marks on cine lenses calibrated and reliable enough?
Your point on wireless remote controlling manual focusing a lens is brilliant, but I think this is really interesting for video cameras. Photo cameras are optimized for AF since reviewers all evaluate a camera by its AF capability; therefore Sony wouldn't spend money on this feature, since it would be interesting only for a handful of avid enthusiast/pro videographers. The touch to focus AF-C capability on my inexpensive A5100 (including smooth rack focus) is surprisingly snappy and reliable; I think this is a selling point for Canon C100/C300, too. On the other hand, FS7 would be a perfect camera for such a function. With my comment I just try to understand why this, so trivial, function has not been developed by Sony. I guess Sony could make a wireless remote MF gizmo and sell it like hot cake for all its videography-oriented cameras (my Sony A5100 included). Brilliant idea, it's pity you are not a product manager at Sony.

Miki
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top