Digiprimes, Cine style zooms... which lenses perform on the HPX500?

[Nick Harris]

I'm in the market for the HPX500 for use in narrative shooting situations. I've got the budget to go with some nice lens choices which I feel is the real investment here, as I am looking for lenses that will do me well through an upgrade in camera body down the line.

I'm somewhat stuck in the mud as far as where to even start looking for reasonably priced lenses.

Do I need to exchange the bayonet mount for digiprimes? What sort of lenses aside from the normal ENG style zooms will mount on the camera as it comes from Panasonic?

Do the digital cinezooms offer enough DOF or would I do best to stick with digiprimes?

I got all excited when reading about Canon's new AVC-235 anamorphic lens converter, but then saw that it retailed for what would be an additional $25,000 that I would prefer not to spend just yet (however I wouldn't mind making lens choices in anticipation of a later purchase of the AVC-235).

However, I did start looking at Canon's FJ digiprime series, which is also a bit pricey.

So I'm thinking a pair of digital cinestyle zooms might do the trick at least for the moment. Will these lenses give me adequate shallow DOF, or will they still look deep and video-ish?

Any suggestions as for places to look for digiprime sets that might be a little more affordable?

Any advice would be much appreciated!
-Nick Harris

 

[Andrew McMillan]

Cine zooms, digiprimes, and canon primes are not going to give you 35mm DOF. They get about one or two more stops of light , Which means they are better than the average ENG zoom and the background will be fuzzyer than on a normal zoom too.

If you tack shap quality, great low, and a little more DOF go with the primes or cine zooms.
If you 35mm DOF you may want to look at the Letus b4 mount 35 mm adaptor and some Ziess still lenses. Just came out so there is not that much info.