C300: Client Lens Complaints!

Owning and using the 18-80 has allowed me to provide my clients with more usable shots. The ability to smoothly zoom and accurately focus means you won't worry about not getting the shot or having to do it multiple times. It makes you a much more efficient and effective shooter. Stop fighting with your gear and make the smart investment in the proper tool for your work. This lens lives on my C300 MKII.
 
Isn't the 18-80 essentially the same glass as the 24-105 MKII? I think read this somewhere but can't remember kind of like how the cine primes are pretty much the same glass as the L lenses but rehoused?
 
cane141 said:
Isn't the 18-80 essentially the same glass as the 24-105 MKII? I think read this somewhere but can't remember kind of like how the cine primes are pretty much the same glass as the L lenses but rehoused?
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The fact that it doesn't lose transmission while zooming makes me think that it is more than just a rehoused 24-105 with a focal length reducer. In fact, if it was just a 24-105 rehoused it would probably be more than a t/4.4 due to the nature of the focal length reducer.
 
cpreston said:
Seriously, if you are stuck doing a live event with a stills lens then it is your best option. The next closest option is a 24-105 f/4L with a geared ring and a zoom controller and the 24-105 is going to change exposure if you aren't at f/4. It also doesn't have the range. It's a budget solution to a problem created by using the wrong tool for the job- a large sensor camera.
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Amen. I've lost count of how many shoots I've done that should have been done with(or mostly with) a 2/3" ENG camera.
 
cane141 said:
Isn't the 18-80 essentially the same glass as the 24-105 MKII? I think read this somewhere but can't remember kind of like how the cine primes are pretty much the same glass as the L lenses but rehoused?
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Never heard that(about the 18-80). Have a source or reference? It is pretty common knowledge that the CN-E Primes are supposed to be based on their still counterparts.

24-105 "speed boosted"/focal reduced from FF to s35 would be a factor of ~.7x which would give you 16.4mm-71.7mm(presuming they want to maximize the image circle). Or if they used a .75x focal reducer they could get 80mm-78.75mm(almost 80mm), but it should be much faster(~T3.2-T3.4) than the T4.4 that it is.
 
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Run&Gun said:
Amen. I've lost count of how many shoots I've done that should have been done with(or mostly with) a 2/3" ENG camera.
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This is slightly off-topic but the fixed lens market is one place where the Chinese could really blow up their competition/existing manufacturers. This would include everything from the smartphone sensor sized (1/3") consumer zooms to DVX 200 and above pro style full feature cameras. The sensors can be purchased "off the shelf" and the related technology is an off-shoot of the components that are found inside smartphones.
 
Bern Caughey said:
Last night Matthew Duclos posted...

An In-Depth Look at the Canon 18-80 Compact-Servo with DP Dan Levin

https://thecinelens.com/2017/06/16/...-canon-18-80-compact-servo-with-dp-dan-levin/
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Unfortunately, the article isn't much in depth at all. The conversation between Duclos and Levin is more about Levin's just completed project and his working style than about the Canon 18-80mm. Levin reveals that he doesn't even use the 18-80's servo motor, having removed it entirely soon after receiving the lens. So zero discussion of the servo other than to say that he found the design of the servo to be flawed and an annoyance so he took it off the lens. The article is a bit of a promotional fluff piece containing little useful feedback about the lens.
 
Yeah, that article was the equivalent of a guy telling you about his job in construction and when he says he drives an F-250 and he really likes it, then you say you got an in-depth look at the Ford F-250.

I did love the way they spun the slow aperture forward, though. "It was a great daytime lens."

JP, they didn't remove the servos(to my knowledge they do not come off like on the 17-120), he was talking about the grip for the lens and how the cable for it sticks straight down out of the servo box. That's one of those things I can't believe Canon actually was dumb enough to let go into production. When you looked at the pictures before the lens was even available, you knew that was going to be a problem. But now Zacuto is probably making a killing selling their angled cable for it.
 
So, I just came back from a gig shooting with my brand new Canon 18-135mm IS USM and the PZE1 power zoom adapter on a C100, and here are my thoughts.

The short version:
I'm impressed.

The long version:
This is not a broadcast-quality servo zoom lens, so don't expect that level of nuance when operating it. The 18-135 + PZE1 has two speeds: fast & slow, which in reality means medium fast & medium slow. Fast isn't particularly fast, and slow is not slow enough compared to a real broadcast servo zoom. I had mine set to slow almost the whole time during this video shoot, and constantly wished it could slow down to half the speed I was getting. Another negative (for me, at least) is that the PZE1 unit uses four AAA batteries. I really wish they had made it use AA batteries instead, as those are much more accessible (and I already have a ton of rechargeable AA batteries). At least the thing came with batteries in the box. I have no idea how long they'll last, and the battery life will undoubtedly depend on how much power zooming I do. I need to do more testing on that front.

All that said, I still loved using it. It's almost impossible to do a smooth zoom move by hand on still photo lenses without a servo motor. The PZE1 delivers in that regard. I was able to get most of the shots I needed using it, whereas without the PZE1 those shots would have looked terrible. Also, when going from full wide to full telephoto (or vice versa), the zoom action does gradually ramp up and down. I wasn't expecting that, but was pleasantly surprised to see that the zooming action didn't start or end abruptly. It eased into it, making for some slick zooming shots. This only seemed to work when going from one end of the zoom to the other, though. For example, if I started zooming in from 35mm instead of from 18mm, the zooming action would not ease into it; it would just start abruptly. But if I started zooming in from 18mm, or zooming out from 135mm, it looked super pro. Once I discovered this, I adjusted how I was shooting, and began getting the results I was after.

As far as the aperture stepping slightly while zooming (someone else mentioned that earlier) it can be fixed completely by turning off auto-exposure-compensation in the Iris menu of the C100. I just tried it and it works perfectly.

This lens and power zoom adapter made it possible for me to get some great looking shots that had been out of my reach only yesterday. And when you factor in that the 18-135mm IS USM + PZE1 combined cost only $800 or so, it's an absolute steal. The next step up is the 18-80mm, which looks like a fantastic lens but costs $5000. That's out of my reach right now. So, for the time being, I'm going to be very happy with the 18-135 PZE1 combo. I predict that lens will live on my C100 for 90% of the time from here on out (in bright conditions, of course). It's a great focal length range for a zoom, the image quality is nice, it has image stabilization, the power zoom lets me do shots I couldn't do before, it's lightweight, small-ish, and very inexpensive.

I definitely recommend it, provided you are aware of its limitations.
 
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On the C100, there is a setting that tells the camera not to compensate for vario zoom iris stepping. You can set the lens to any aperture and it won't try to maintain exposure while zooming.
 
cpreston said:
On the C100, there is a setting that tells the camera not to compensate for vario zoom iris stepping. You can set the lens to any aperture and it won't try to maintain exposure while zooming.
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Now THAT'S great news! I'll have to try that out right away.

EDIT: Yep, it works! no more jerky iris stepping while zooming!
 
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Jaime Valles said:
So, I just came back from a gig shooting with my brand new Canon 18-135mm IS USM and the PZE1 power zoom adapter on a C100, and here are my thoughts.

The short version:
I'm impressed.

The long version:
This is not a broadcast-quality servo zoom lens, so don't expect that level of nuance when operating it. The 18-135 + PZE1 has two speeds: fast & slow, which in reality means medium fast & medium slow. Fast isn't particularly fast, and slow is not slow enough compared to a real broadcast servo zoom. I had mine set to slow almost the whole time during this video shoot, and constantly wished it could slow down to half the speed I was getting. Another negative (for me, at least) is that the PZE1 unit uses four AAA batteries. I really wish they had made it use AA batteries instead, as those are much more accessible (and I already have a ton of rechargeable AA batteries). At least the thing came with batteries in the box. I have no idea how long they'll last, and the battery life will undoubtedly depend on how much power zooming I do. I need to do more testing on that front.

All that said, I still loved using it. It's almost impossible to do a smooth zoom move by hand on still photo lenses without a servo motor. The PZE1 delivers in that regard. I was able to get most of the shots I needed using it, whereas without the PZE1 those shots would have looked terrible. Also, when going from full wide to full telephoto (or vice versa), the zoom action does gradually ramp up and down. I wasn't expecting that, but was pleasantly surprised to see that the zooming action didn't start or end abruptly. It eased into it, making for some slick zooming shots. This only seemed to work when going from one end of the zoom to the other, though. For example, if I started zooming in from 35mm instead of from 18mm, the zooming action would not ease into it; it would just start abruptly. But if I started zooming in from 18mm, or zooming out from 135mm, it looked super pro. Once I discovered this, I adjusted how I was shooting, and began getting the results I was after.

As far as the aperture stepping slightly while zooming (someone else mentioned that earlier) it can be fixed completely by turning off auto-exposure-compensation in the Iris menu of the C100. I just tried it and it works perfectly.

This lens and power zoom adapter made it possible for me to get some great looking shots that had been out of my reach only yesterday. And when you factor in that the 18-135mm IS USM + PZE1 combined cost only $800 or so, it's an absolute steal. The next step up is the 18-80mm, which looks like a fantastic lens but costs $5000. That's out of my reach right now. So, for the time being, I'm going to be very happy with the 18-135 PZE1 combo. I predict that lens will live on my C100 for 90% of the time from here on out (in bright conditions, of course). It's a great focal length range for a zoom, the image quality is nice, it has image stabilization, the power zoom lets me do shots I couldn't do before, it's lightweight, small-ish, and very inexpensive.

I definitely recommend it, provided you are aware of its limitations.
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Can you post some footage samples?
 
Just a correction (I also have the 18-135 USM and the PZ-E1). The zoom slider actually IS sensitive to how far you push it in either direction. As far as I can tell, it has at least two "speeds"... at least in "Fast" mode.

Other than that, I'll concur with Jaime's assessment. It's not an ENG servo zoom lens, but at the price it's actually pretty cool. I needed an 18-135 anyway for walkaround and I had a $100 Adorama gift card burning a hole in my virtual pocket... so for a total out the door of about $360 (I got the lens for $310 on eBay and the PZ unit with the gift card) it's pretty impressive. I also like that I can just dismount the PZ quickly when I don't need it.
 
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puredrifting said:
Can you post some footage samples?
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I can't post what I shot today until the client gives me approval to post the final edited piece, which won't be done for a couple of weeks. But I'll see if I can get some test shots done to post here.

jbregar said:
Just a correction (I also have the 18-135 USM and the PZ-E1). The zoom slider actually IS sensitive to how far you push it in either direction. As far as I can tell, it has at least two "speeds"... at least in "Fast" mode.
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This is correct, and I forgot to mention it earlier. I stopped trying to finesse the "fast" setting because, as you said, it's either full speed or not-as-fast. I found it tricky to determine when it would switch from one to the other when pushing the zoom button, so instead I left it at the "slow" setting the whole time. As far as I could tell, the "slow" setting doesn't have multiple speeds like the "fast" setting does.

To anyone considering this power zoom lens combo, I'd recommend renting it first if possible to get a feel for whether it would fit your style of shooting or not. If you're used to $30,000 ENG Broadcast zoom lenses, this will absolutely not meet your expectations. But if you're tired of trying to do smooth zooms with still lenses, this is a godsend. I'm certainly keeping mine, and I know it will get a lot of use in my work. I'm kicking myself for not investigating it more carefully last year, as it would have come in very handy in several past shoots.
 
This conversation reminded me that I've owned the Fujinon 19-90 for maybe a year and a half and I have yet to mount the servo unit on the lens once. Had forgotten I even had it. I'm sure at some point I'll need to emulate a news or doc piece and hopefully I'll remember we can take advantage of it!

I'm curious if anyone is using the rear servo controllers any more in EFP/event type shooting with large sensor cameras? When I was shooting a lot of 2/3" video back in the day, that was always in my equipment order, the ones that clamp onto the pan handle (originally designed for ped-style operation). I always preferred that to having to bend over the camera and operate the rocker when on sticks.
 
CharlesPapert said:
This conversation reminded me that I've owned the Fujinon 19-90 for maybe a year and a half and I have yet to mount the servo unit on the lens once. Had forgotten I even had it. I'm sure at some point I'll need to emulate a news or doc piece and hopefully I'll remember we can take advantage of it!

I'm curious if anyone is using the rear servo controllers any more in EFP/event type shooting with large sensor cameras? When I was shooting a lot of 2/3" video back in the day, that was always in my equipment order, the ones that clamp onto the pan handle (originally designed for ped-style operation). I always preferred that to having to bend over the camera and operate the rocker when on sticks.
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I used to have those on my Betacam and F900, very handy when operating with the dual pan handles and long lens shots.
 
CharlesPapert said:
This conversation reminded me that I've owned the Fujinon 19-90 for maybe a year and a half and I have yet to mount the servo unit on the lens once. Had forgotten I even had it. I'm sure at some point I'll need to emulate a news or doc piece and hopefully I'll remember we can take advantage of it!

I'm curious if anyone is using the rear servo controllers any more in EFP/event type shooting with large sensor cameras? When I was shooting a lot of 2/3" video back in the day, that was always in my equipment order, the ones that clamp onto the pan handle (originally designed for ped-style operation). I always preferred that to having to bend over the camera and operate the rocker when on sticks.
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I use my Microforce with my 17-120 a fair amount when I'm shooting on stix for extended periods(i.e: sit-down interview and not popping on and off shooting b-roll).
 
CharlesPapert;1986708413 I'm curious if anyone is using the rear servo controllers any more in EFP/event type shooting with large sensor cameras? When I was shooting a lot of 2/3" video back in the day said:
Well, on small features out here if using Optimos the Alexas are always setup with Microforce units. But that's not event, EFP...
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