heavyG
Underwater Giraffe Member
I ordered the DigiOptical 18-50 & 50-150 zoom pair from B&H - the 18-50 arrived today, with the 50-150 coming next week. Although the 50-150 is now listed as 'discontinued on the B&H website, so we'll see.
I've used the RED 18-50 that the DigiOptics are rumoured to be, and while I don't have the RED here for direct comparison; from what I can remember these could be twins. Even though The RED team deny any relationship.
I don't have a camera available right now to shoot any tests, and I won't have time to do so until mid January. So I'll just give you my impression as it sits here in my studio:
Build quality: Pretty much the same as the original RED zooms, I thought the quality of those was all over the map, and this one is somewhere in the middle.
Iris adjustment is firm but smooth, and there are 7 blades.
Focus adjustment is smooth, but there are no witness marks - The jobs we'll be sending these out on won't be focused by measuring, the assist on the AF100 will be needed. (or we could do like countless RED users and use white tape on the barrel or a white grease pencil / silver Sharpie®)
Zoom control could be more precise, just the slightest amount of play. The style of shooting we do won't require any in shot zooms, so this won't be a problem.
It has the iConectors, but the AF100 probably won't be able to use these.
All in all pretty much what I expected in terms of build quality - I know a couple of guys who own the RED zooms and have had them 'serviced', now they really love them. The service cleaned up some of the play, making them more precise; which always begs the question why not at the factory?
I bough the two lenses because they will fill a gap in our production needs. We will be shooting two Af100's and often end up in situations where we don't have the luxury of time to fiddle with picking primes. These will be used essentially as 'Variable Primes' that we can quickly set a wide and tight - then make adjustments as we go, without halting the shoot.
The PL zoom was chosen so that we can switch in a PL prime (not sure which set I'm buying yet) without having to change out the adapter.
There is also a smoke and mirror aspect to these lenses; the ad agencies hire us because they like our work, but they want an expensive looking camera on set to appease the client. Right or wrong it's a big deal in some advertising.
***Pictures of the 50-150 are in post #45 on page 3
I've used the RED 18-50 that the DigiOptics are rumoured to be, and while I don't have the RED here for direct comparison; from what I can remember these could be twins. Even though The RED team deny any relationship.
I don't have a camera available right now to shoot any tests, and I won't have time to do so until mid January. So I'll just give you my impression as it sits here in my studio:
Build quality: Pretty much the same as the original RED zooms, I thought the quality of those was all over the map, and this one is somewhere in the middle.
Iris adjustment is firm but smooth, and there are 7 blades.
Focus adjustment is smooth, but there are no witness marks - The jobs we'll be sending these out on won't be focused by measuring, the assist on the AF100 will be needed. (or we could do like countless RED users and use white tape on the barrel or a white grease pencil / silver Sharpie®)
Zoom control could be more precise, just the slightest amount of play. The style of shooting we do won't require any in shot zooms, so this won't be a problem.
It has the iConectors, but the AF100 probably won't be able to use these.
All in all pretty much what I expected in terms of build quality - I know a couple of guys who own the RED zooms and have had them 'serviced', now they really love them. The service cleaned up some of the play, making them more precise; which always begs the question why not at the factory?
I bough the two lenses because they will fill a gap in our production needs. We will be shooting two Af100's and often end up in situations where we don't have the luxury of time to fiddle with picking primes. These will be used essentially as 'Variable Primes' that we can quickly set a wide and tight - then make adjustments as we go, without halting the shoot.
The PL zoom was chosen so that we can switch in a PL prime (not sure which set I'm buying yet) without having to change out the adapter.
There is also a smoke and mirror aspect to these lenses; the ad agencies hire us because they like our work, but they want an expensive looking camera on set to appease the client. Right or wrong it's a big deal in some advertising.
***Pictures of the 50-150 are in post #45 on page 3
Last edited:
and can't wait to try out the AF 100. I'm not loyal to only one company's product