FS7: Fujinon announce MK 18-55 T2.9 and MK 50-135 T2.9

When I used the 17-120 I was wishing for focus on the rocker - but at the time I think it was zoom only - I did note the picture with the three cogs with interest - Canon would be dumb to leave thier flagship out in the cold
 
I got my hands on the 18-55 lens today, it was not a real world test...more of a scratch and tickle session. It's not a robust lens, a bit on the skinny side and very light as advertised. As it's been discussed, no electronics so no lens info and no rocker love...wish the latter wasn't the case. Again, hard to really evaluate the lens without spending a couple days in real world situations...but whether its a camera or a lens, when your in that lower price point it comes down to compromises...what can you live with and what can you live without. Being both a 7 & 700 owner, I went into the demo very interested...coming out I'm not so sure.
 
morgan_moore said:
Had a twitter spat on this. But I cant see what these lenses really do.. when would you use them.

Clearly they are wonderful in build but the ranges seem odd. Once again we miss the affordable manual 'Reality' lens

-Reality? Following someone around.. you need a single lens 18-100, ideally with IS

-interview with zooms? 35-100

-two cam shoot? 15-35 35-100

Gimbal? 15-35

Conference heads? 70-200

Care about bokeh - shooting some art? use primes probably at T2

So where do these lenses fit?
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These are the covering the same needs I thought I'd be covering when I bought my 28-80mm and 70-200mm CZ.2s (in preparation for the IMMINENT arrival of all these new Vistavision sensor cameras two years ago....)

I think they're almost perfect focal range wise. 18-55mm covers you for everything from wides to portraits, and the 50-135mm let's you punch in tight to thing when needed. I can think of very few situations in which I'd need anything more than these two focal length (excluding specialist lenses or fast primes for night exteriors).
 
morgan_moore said:
When I used the 17-120 I was wishing for focus on the rocker - but at the time I think it was zoom only - I did note the picture with the three cogs with interest - Canon would be dumb to leave thier flagship out in the cold
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You would think it's possible with just a firmware update. You can control the iris with the rocker... For the heck of it, I did try assigning the iris to the zoom rocker and it was very weird. Like servo iris on any number of "non-manual" lenses. You don't have a real sense of where you are, aperture wise and how far you have to go from there to either end. It was actually "weirder", because you were adjusting it with a rocker instead of a ring or dial.
 
I as well had a hands-on today of the lens but just at a demo. It was paired with an original FS7.

One thing to note is that you need to set the backfocus whenever changing the lens. Obviously, this is what makes the lens parfocal but the idea of a manual backfocus adjustment is to say the least off-putting. So imagine you're shooting a doc in the Antarctic and need to swap a lens for the Fujinon. Hey, Mrs. Penguin, could you hold this backfocus chart for me?

Definitely light weight. Seems to have metal over top a polycarbonate construction.

Focus throw was good and nice witness marks on barrel. Gears on focus, zoom and iris.

Will be able to say more when I actually have one to shoot. And when I search my failing memory for how to backfocus (I actually do remember how to do a backfocus).

Ned Soltz
 
nsoltz said:
I as well had a hands-on today of the lens but just at a demo. It was paired with an original FS7.

One thing to note is that you need to set the backfocus whenever changing the lens. Obviously, this is what makes the lens parfocal but the idea of a manual backfocus adjustment is to say the least off-putting. So imagine you're shooting a doc in the Antarctic and need to swap a lens for the Fujinon. Hey, Mrs. Penguin, could you hold this backfocus chart for me?

Definitely light weight. Seems to have metal over top a polycarbonate construction.

Focus throw was good and nice witness marks on barrel. Gears on focus, zoom and iris.

Will be able to say more when I actually have one to shoot. And when I search my failing memory for how to backfocus (I actually do remember how to do a backfocus).

Ned Soltz
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Why do you need to set back focus every time? What do you mean by "manual back focus adjustment", how is it different from a procedure on any ENG lens?
 
I had same exact question as above. In one of the videos I saw, it's a pin - almost exactly like the broadcast zooms on those ENG lens'.
 
It has a backfocus adjustment like ENG lenses and the rep from Fujinon said you need to backfocus it when mounting on camera. It isn't different from backfocus of an ENG lens. But it is certainly something we are not expecting in today's environment
 
I would like to assume that once adjusted the back focus is set also after changing lenses. The adjustment is there to mitigate minute alignment issues due to temperature differences etc.
 
Some slightly evil part of me loves that the C300 owners can't use these new Fujinons. That, along with the electronic ND of the Fs7 MkII, gives the Fs7 yet another leg up on the C300. Or would that be another two legs up on the C300?

I know there are and always will be people who love the C300. But as fast as things are moving a C300 with EF lenses and variable ND filter sure does seem like the past compared to an Fs7 MkII with Fujinon MK's and electronic ND. At some point the affection for the C300's look is no longer enough in face of the unique assets firmly in the Fs7's corner. The better operator ergonomics of the Fs7 were one thing, but now electronic ND, a beefed-up and locking lens mount, and what- going by early reviews- are arguably some of the best budget cinema zooms available?? Is it premature to say "game over, C300"?

If Sony pummeled the C300 with Sony's release of electronic ND, Fujinon is now piling on with what look to be spectacular budget cinema zooms available only in C300 incompatible mounts.

Maybe all of this is overstatement. And, being that I am an Fs7 owner, I am without a doubt biased in favor of the Fs7. But I wouldn't want to be someone who recently purchased a C300 Mk II right about now. Luckily for myself, I have to imagine what it would be like to read of these new Fujinon zooms knowing that they won't work with my camera.

This thread is great, btw. It's like a TED talk roundtable of veteran camera guys sharing observations and insights on the industry.
 
After setting back focus for a particular camera, you shouldn't have to adjust it again after each cycle of taking it off and putting it back on for the same camera body. If so, something is wrong.

Setting back focus is fairly easy, presuming you have a bf chart and a good monitor with peaking(color peaking on a b&w image makes it even easier).

I will check bf on my ENG lenses every few weeks or so, just to make sure they are spot on.
 
nsoltz said:
It has a backfocus adjustment like ENG lenses and the rep from Fujinon said you need to backfocus it when mounting on camera. It isn't different from backfocus of an ENG lens. But it is certainly something we are not expecting in today's environment
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What environment? Adjusting backfocus in lenses is too much of a task already?
 
what..now having BF is a bad thing !!.. I bought the CN7 because it had BF manual adjustment.. guess what the alternative is.. send it off to some distant service centre for a week or take it yourself to a workshop to get tiny shims put in to match only your camera.. at that temperature .. and pay for the day with the lens tech.. no BF manual adjustment is a real liability in the field... if it goes that it.. good night Vienna .. I ,and Im sure many others on this board, have done hundreds of BF adjustments in hotel rooms.. you dont need 4K monitors and charts..
As stated you dont need to set BF everytime you put the lens on your camera.. even pretty extreme temp changes it fine.. I really fear for the future of this craft ..
 
Donny 123 said:
what..now having BF is a bad thing !!.. I bought the CN7 because it had BF manual adjustment.. guess what the alternative is.. send it off to some distant service centre for a week or take it yourself to a workshop to get tiny shims put in to match only your camera.. at that temperature .. and pay for the day with the lens tech.. no BF manual adjustment is a real liability in the field... if it goes that it.. good night Vienna .. I ,and Im sure many others on this board, have done hundreds of BF adjustments in hotel rooms.. you dont need 4K monitors and charts..
As stated you dont need to set BF everytime you put the lens on your camera.. even pretty extreme temp changes it fine.. I really fear for the future of this craft ..
Click to expand...

I was just about to chime in that I know guys who go months without having to re-adjust back focus on B4 zooms and I have set back focus hundreds of times but never used any chart. It is about as difficult as setting the diopter on a view finder and takes all of 10 seconds to perform.

Now, maybe things are different when swapping out lenses more of.ten than took place with B4 zooms that "lived" on the camera. But no one should let back focus put them off to these new Fuji zooms. It is an asset, not a liability. Every shooter should want back-focus capable zooms.

I already mentioned my pleasure at learning that these Fujis have macro. Macro is a great tool for any shooter. It facilitates the rack focus "cheat" I mentioned in a previous post as well as other advantages discussed in this review of the Fuji MK's from NoFilmSchool-

http://nofilmschool.com/2017/02/fujifilm-mk-zoom-lens-full-review

Macro rocks.
 
Clearly the salesman was off/misunderstood?

'you must back focus every time you put it on a new camera'
vs
'you must backfocus every time you put it on the camera'

the second is not acceptable in a 20 lens swaps a day world.
 
I feel that the biggest drawback of these new Fuji's is that they are Sony E-Mount only and it doesn't look like they can be adapted to anything else.

I don't believe you can go from E-Mount to FZ, nor can you go to PL which has a much greater FFD. If you're in the E-mount universe and can make your money back with a few jobs maybe that's not so much of an issues. But it's not a lens that's going to be with you for the next 20 years.

The Sigma zooms will go on any camera with a PL mount, be that native or via an adapter.

I played with the 18-35 and 50-100 over at Duclos and the 18-35 is a seriously impressive piece of glass. When you see these lenses in person it's almost hard to believe that they are only between $4-5k depending on mount. The 50-100 breathes a lot going all the way from infinity to min distance, but I found it acceptable racking from one person another in a two shot. Really no worse than vintage glass like Super Baltars etc.
 
Agree completely ^^^

In a world where an investment in lenses should be paid back over the lifetime of many camera bodies, unless there was a roadmap for E-Mount I'd not drop serious money on the ecosystem. Luckily, in big boy terms £4,000 is not serious money, even compared to a stills lens like an L-series 16-35mm and it should earns its keep a lot quicker.
 
Not that I sleep on stacks of money but $4000 for this lens makes it almost disposable. So many E-mount users out there, selling it should not be an issue.
 
Again what is termed expensive is up for debate.. also not wanting to sound in anyway up my own A..hole.. $4,000 in the professional camera world would never be considered a life time investment.. my mattbox was close to this.. and any of us old dogs will remember paying $60,000 plus just for a camera .. to shoot everyday jobs.. even news.. a very long way from high end or hollywood.. unless your rates are very low.. $4,000 is almost as BF says disposable prices.. and certainly a piece of gear that will take no time to pay for itself.. a $30,000 E mount only .. sure debatable.. they have obviously done their homework.. the Fs7 must be selling a lot plus the A7,s.. something like a 1/3 of all new camera sales I believe .. if anything I now worry about my PL zoom !! I hope I can put an E mount on it :)
 
The thing about these costs is the cost per year..

You matte box is probably good for 20 years, my Cstands, Miller head, even reds and dedos, whatever, are lifetime buys. The beta cams were good for a decade but a few got burned at the end (I dont really know the history)

$4k is not a lot, $4k devalued to $1k in 9 months is a lot

(not that Im suggesting this is the case with these lenses - I think the risk zone right now is LED lights)

S
 
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