F35 Beginners: Cheap PL Mount lenses

JMtheDP

JMtheDP

Veteran
The advent of the RED has meant that there are now more owner-operators than ever before and the price of cinema quality glass has skyrocketed.

However, for those prepared to live with some compromise, there are a few options out there for "reasonable" lenses. I'll post some suggestions here and I welcome submissions from other members:


RED 18-50 Lens T3

A rehoused lens based on a stills design, this lens was launched with the RED ONE along with a 50 - 150 T3 zoom. The longer zoom is now very difficult to find but examples of the wider zoom can be picked up for as little as $2,500 if you look in the right place.

It isn't perfect, but it works well enough, is generally alright and sharp enough once stopped down. Ergonomically it is not briliant, the later Red PRO zoom is much better but more expensive.

I'd say it is a great "starter" PL lens.

A word of warning, the larger RED PRO PRIMES and RED ZOOM (18 - 85) have very large housings and will not fit the F35 without taking off the "elephant ears" on the PL mount.

Zeiss Compact Primes

The cheapest "new" cinema lenses you will buy, rehoused stills glass but with Zeiss quality. Much pricier than their stills cousins, but quite popular.

GL Optics Lenses

A fairly new company who specialise in rehousing Canon EF lenses for cinema use. I have not had the pleasure but I hear good things and they are half the price of compact primes.

Russian Lenses

Feeling brave? OCT-18 lenses can be easily adapted to PL mount however they nearly all have metric markings, odd-sized housings and more than a few eccentricities (like being able to unscrew the lenses if they are focused too far).

I have, however, used some of these and been positively amazed at the quality of the picture from some of them.
 
Don't forget the first generation of sony primes. The housing is plastic and feels a bit cheap, but the image quality is on par with compact primes (and they're actually a bit faster as well). A downside is that they're big, but they've got a good focus throw. Also, no breathing.
 
Very good suggestion - the original problem with the Sonys was that you couldn't make a set with three lenses and your widest be 35mm, however you can now get things like the Duclos 11-16 which would compliment them well
 
I ran with those Sony primes and a Duclos 11-16 for years…those Sony's are the best deal going…great optics, but chintzy build.
 
And you say you're not a salesman, Mac. ;)

But really, you can pick up East German & Russian lenses with the medium format Pentacon 6 mount for a song. A Pentacon 6 to PL adapter will set you back about $200. They work, the imagery is nice and warm. Very charming vintage feel and sharp in that pleasing old school manner, not the clinical cold modern way. Similar to the Lomos in that fashion. Imagery wise they are a very nice compliment to the F35's sensor. The limitations are that since these are medium format photography lenses they're not designed to be fast or very wide on the smaller Super 35 image area. I've not found any faster than 2.8 or wider than 30mm anywhere.

The Russian Zodiac 30mm is the widest I've ever been able to find and it's a pokey f3.5. Next widest would be the Russian Mir 45mm, but it too is only f3.5. Skip the Zeiss Jena 50mm Flektogon (it's only f4) and go for the Helios f2.8 58mm. Where these lenses become GREAT values is on the longer end. The Zeiss 80mm is f2.8 and is a very solid choice. The 120mm is also f2.8 and is beloved for it's creamy bokeh. The 150, 180, 250 and 300's can often be grabbed for less than $200 in speed from 2.8 to 4.
 
If you don't mind a vintage look or dealing with some bulk, you can also get some old cinema zoom glass for a fraction of their modern successors' price. But you need to know what kind of shooter you want to be. The draw back of these older zooms are that often they are not fast, sometimes not very sharp, can present some unwanted artifacts at various stops and focal ranges and are highly sample specific (there's some real beat down dogs out there). Oh, and they're HUGE and HEAVY. Typically these lenses will be about a 12" (30cm) long and 10 lbs (4.5 kilos) each. You're not slapping these things on your skinny Manfrotto DSLR sticks and 501 fluid head. Run & gun or handheld is out of the question for all but the strongest/bravest with these lenses. But for narrative or studio work... now you're talking.
Another thing to keep in mind, with many of these older lenses they were made in the days before PL became the standard cinema lens mount, so they'll need adapters. The adapters aren't terribly difficult to find. The one thing about the PL adapter route is that the backfocus might need some adjustment if the adapter isn't fit for the specific lens. You can fix this by either adjusting where the adapter fits onto the lens or use the F35's handy dandy flange distance adjustment screw to move the sensor a bit to get things tied down. If possible buyers should look for lenses that already come with fitted PL mounts that have been collimated to the specific lens, but that's not always an option.

The Russian Lomo 20-120mm f2.5 lenses are hard to find, but they have a good reputation as solid performers with the old school optic look and feel. Last I've seen them sell for the $2500-3000+/- range. Most of them will be OCT 18 or OCT 19 mounts and will need a PL adapter.

Another old heavy lens is the Angenieux 20-120 f2.6 zoom. These can be found for $2000-4000 +/-. These seem to be easier to find, but there are some really beat up dodgy samples out there. Sometimes these can be found already fit with PL adapters, but if not they'll be old Arriflex standard mounts and you can buy a PL adapter.

Of course the classic Cooke 20-100mm f2.8 is still a moderately sought after lens with THE quintessential Cooke Look. They come up for air on the used market regularly enough and can be found in the $5000-6000 range. I see plenty of people post in forums with Seller's Remorse after unloading their old Cooke 20-100's. That tells you something.

If you want to go super big the Angie 25-250 f3.2 lenses can be found in the $3500-4500 range. Older generation Cooke 25-250 T3.5 lenses can also be had, but they're pulling typically over $7000-8000 on the market now, at which point the idea of a "cheap older cinema zoom lens" starts to become oxymoronic. The biggest drawback for the super long zooms is the close focus is typically near 2 meters, which makes using them in tighter spaces pretty much unfeasible.

There are some old school medium long cine zooms that aren't quite as big, heavy or expensive as the ones I list above. However they're all even older, most often with dodgy optics and they're not even close to fast. Close focus is again near the 2 meter mark for these lenses, as well. If you are looking for a very specific artifact laden look for music videos shot in daytime or something similar then they might fit the bill. The Lomo Lenar 40-162 f3.8, Lomo Foton 37-140 T4.3, Angenieux 35-140 T4.4 and such have been charitably referred to as "coke bottles" by some. But again, for the right kind of project they may be just what the doctor ordered.
 
Don't forget the Cooke 18-100. It's better than the 20-100 with THE look (even better) and is harder to find.
Love mine, but have been tempted to sell it for a Canon CN-E zoom…they are quite lovely. (and twice the price)

keithlango said:
Of course the classic Cooke 20-100mm f2.8 is still a moderately sought after lens with THE quintessential Cooke Look. They come up for air on the used market regularly enough and can be found in the $5000-6000 range. I see plenty of people post in forums with Seller's Remorse after unloading their old Cooke 20-100's. That tells you something.
Click to expand...
 
Don't forget the 18-100 is usually over the $10,000 mark, so I wouldn't class it as a "cheap" lens per se.

It is still a stunning lens and the favourite lens EVER of many DoPs. It can do the job of a set of primes but only if it is on sticks or a dolly!

Also worth bearing in mind unless you can find drop-in filters that many of these big old lenses need 6x6 filters which are not cheap!
 
True…not gonna get for under $10K. Yes, it's quite a jewel of a lens.
Drop-in filters are almost impossible to find, but a P-size filter works just fine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top