Glass drought?

Jon Furtado

Jon Furtado

Well-known member
It's seeming to be more challenging than ever to find a reasonably priced set of primes for my upcoming AF100.

Anyone know where to find affordable glass. I can't afford cinema primes. And it's seeming to be increasingly hard to find reasonably priced Still primes.

This still primes being used as cinema primes has seemed to drive up the price of all the still glass out there.
 
If you're going to use still lenses, you might consider older, pre-auto-focus Nikon lenses with an adapter. They are optically quite good and very inexpensive.

I've no experience with a Canon or other still lens adapter on the AF100; perhaps another of our members can help.

Good shooting and best regards,

Leo
 
Jon Furtado said:
It's seeming to be more challenging than ever to find a reasonably priced set of primes for my upcoming AF100.
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Probably has something to do with micro 4/3rds as a dumb format that nobody makes glass for...

There's the 20mm 1.7 pancake... which is supposed to be great and reasonable priced. And then there's the Voigtlander 25mm f 0.95... more expensive, but still reasonable for the quality and speed. Then... umm, that's about it. Unless you happen to love slow zooms.
 
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I'd like it keep it under $5K for a set of 3-6 lenses. So I'm basically set to get Nikon's. Unless anyone can suggest a better cost/value set. It's hard though because it seems i'll have to buy each lense a la carte. Nobody out there is seeming to sell sets.
 
to bad my af100 is a few weeks away. I'm close to selling my c/y zeiss set to get lomos, but I need to see how I like them on the af100 first, if it's really the look I want to go for..
 
I assembled my set of 6 Zeiss ZF (not ZF.2) primes for about $4600 over the course of 8 months. 2 of them were priced as used, but were actually brand new. The rest were actually used, but looked new. I was careful with where and from whom I bought them from and even got original boxes and the certification/test certificates with all of them.

EDIT: That was about a year ago now. Might be even cheaper now with ZF.2 out on the market.
 
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Mike@AF said:
I assembled my set of 6 Zeiss ZF (not ZF.2) primes for about $4600 over the course of 8 months. 2 of them were priced as used, but were actually brand new. The rest were actually used, but looked new. I was careful with where and from whom I bought them from and even got original boxes and the certification/test certificates with all of them.
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Where did you find them? Every time I try searching for zf lenses all I get are zf.2 responses.
 
I bought 2 through an ad on Craigslist, 2 though eBay, and 2 from Unique Photo. It took me 8 months to get them all because they're rare to find used. They're really good lenses and less likely someone will sell them. The 2 I bought from unique Photo were the last 2 I bought and I believe they were just clearing them out because the ZF.2 just came out. They had them new in the box, but put them in a display case to sell them. Those are the 2 I got at used prices but were new because they'd never actually been put on a camera. I just got lucky with those. So, just keep looking. I looked every day or every few days until I found what I wanted at the price I wanted to pay. It took me longer, but I saved a lot of money doing it that way.
 
astigmatic said:
to bad my af100 is a few weeks away. I'm close to selling my c/y zeiss set to get lomos, but I need to see how I like them on the af100 first, if it's really the look I want to go for..
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If i'm still looking keep me in mind. I'd like to check them out if you want to sell them.
 
Did a quick search on eBay and came up with these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Zeiss-Planar-T-...mera_Lenses&hash=item20b66bbce2#ht_600wt_1141
http://cgi.ebay.com/Zeiss-18mm-f-3-...era_Lenses&hash=item19c25834d7#ht_2078wt_1141
http://cgi.ebay.com/Carl-Zeiss-Plan...mera_Lenses&hash=item2a03acde28#ht_2396wt_907
http://cgi.ebay.com/Carl-Zeiss-Dist...mera_Lenses&hash=item2a03acde2f#ht_2614wt_907
http://cgi.ebay.com/Carl-Zeiss-Plan...mera_Lenses&hash=item20aebd7e0a#ht_2396wt_907
http://cgi.ebay.com/Carl-Zeiss-Makr...mera_Lenses&hash=item25580666be#ht_2715wt_907
http://cgi.ebay.com/Carl-Zeiss-25mm...mera_Lenses&hash=item518e1316ca#ht_3279wt_907
http://cgi.ebay.com/Zeiss-50mm-f-1-...era_Lenses&hash=item51974585ce#ht_4629wt_1141

Some of those allow you to make an offer. Keep in mind these are discontinued lenses, so when it's a company that needs to clear out of old inventory so they can use those invested dollars to sell the current product that will likely move quicker, they're more likely to accept a lower offer as long as it's above their cost or at least at cost.

Also, when I bought mine, still lenses weren't being bought up like they are now. I think the increased demand for still lenses over the past year has driven prices up a little, even of used lenses.

It was worth waiting to find what I wanted because I compared the Zeiss ZF to the Nikon primes and preferred the image and bokeh from the Zeiss. I went with Nikon mount because I wanted to have more flexibility with what I could use the lenses on. For example, you can put a Nikon lens on a Canon camera, but you can't put a Canon lens on a Nikon camera.
 
Jon Furtado said:
I'd like it keep it under $5K for a set of 3-6 lenses. So I'm basically set to get Nikon's. Unless anyone can suggest a better cost/value set. It's hard though because it seems i'll have to buy each lense a la carte. Nobody out there is seeming to sell sets.
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http://rplens.com/products.htm

THese guys will fit you out nicely at that budget.

I tested my non cinetised Nikkors out yesterday with an AF102.

Hard to know what I was more excited about. The camera or my Nikkor set.

Either the camera brought out the best in my lenses or vice versa. Whatever... they looked awesome.

I am going to post up a couple of samples screen grabs.. soon ( * with considerable trepidation) because the jpegs from the screen grabs do not do any justice to what I see in my NLE and on my 2x reference monitors.

* Its like feeding the pixel peeping wolves around here... but I am curious anyway
 
Shooter said:
http://rplens.com/products.htm

THese guys will fit you out nicely at that budget.

I tested my non cinetised Nikkors out yesterday with an AF102.

Hard to know what I was more excited about. The camera or my Nikkor set.

Either the camera brought out the best in my lenses or vice versa. Whatever... they looked awesome.

I am going to post up a couple of samples screen grabs.. soon ( * with considerable trepidation) because the jpegs from the screen grabs do not do any justice to what I see in my NLE and on my 2x reference monitors.

* Its like feeding the pixel peeping wolves around here... but I am curious anyway
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Which set do you have? Do you have the standard speed or the super speed nikons? Do you see the value/cost being worth it to get the superspeeds?

I've been looking at rplenses. And if i can't seem to find anything by the time i take delivery of my AF100, i'll most likely go with them. Their Zeiss set is too expensive for my pocket book.
 
I dont have their set. I have my own original (non cinetized) set but I am considering selling mine and getting theirs.

Reason is. Still lenses are a pain in the "A" for cine work.

Having a set of cinetised lens somewhat overcomes the issues to a degree.

eg. focus rings. Redrock rings (and the like) are painful to set up and use. RP lenses have the focus rings integrated to the lens.

When using primes...you need to change lenses with minimum fuss. Cinetzied lenses do this for you.

I woill get a standard set. I always light my work and 2.8 is absolutely fine for me.

I am not an advocate for the "faster the lens" the better it is. That's B.S.
 
Shooter said:
I dont have their set. I have my own original (non cinetized) set but I am considering selling mine and getting theirs.
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Why not just modify your lenses? All they're doing is putting a lens gear on, declicking, installing step-up rings, and giving you push-on lens caps. You can do that with your current lenses and probably save some money. I believe you can have RP Lens do that to your current lenses, or for sure Duclos Lenses will do it.
 
Mike@AF said:
Why not just modify your lenses? All they're doing is putting a lens gear on, declicking, installing step-up rings, and giving you push-on lens caps. You can do that with your current lenses and probably save some money. I believe you can have RP Lens do that to your current lenses, or for sure Duclos Lenses will do it.
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Absolutely Mike.

I can do that as well and they have quoted me $250 per lens. Thats fine but I live in New Zeland and the freight cost to the U.S in particular is always prohibitive. I would have a 2- way freight and customs situation.

Seems easier and cheaper to buy their matched set ( freight / customs one-way) and sell my equivalents locally. They are in demand.
 
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