FS7: Having FS7 and not having any lenses ATM. Which way (lens system) to go? Which dslr?

A

alohype

Veteran
Hi everyone!
I know, topic is a bit complicated, hard to explain in those few words. Ok, so I've bought FS7 and at the moment I don't own any particular lenses with particular system (beside one e-mount lens). I am not sure which way to go: Nikon, Canon or something different? I want to get stills camera as well (do not know which one) that's why this question does not only stick to the lenses (lenses will determine body, or vice versa). Need some advices what will be most versatile and will bring most money in return.
(side question: which one is more asked when it comes for stills, Canon or Nikon?)
Thanks for your help, I'd love to hear your opinions and advices!
 
I have a Canon 5D, as well as a number of Canon lenses. I love it. However, I know that plenty of people own and swear by Nikon gear.
 
ChristopherA said:
I have a Canon 5D, as well as a number of Canon lenses. I love it. However, I know that plenty of people own and swear by Nikon gear.
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I'm torn between them. Nikon dslr's has by far better sensors, that minus of focus barrel on lenses turning opposite doesn't really bother me. But then Canon lenses could be easily used on their Cinema Line...
I am really not sure. But maybe someone has experience that will be a deal breaker to go either route.
 
just keep in mind that nikon dslrs use sony sensors and with sony camera sales going up up up its only a question of time before nikon will not be getting the top of the line sensors anymore....for example the D810 is the latest nikon using sony's 36mpix sensor, you can buy the same sensor in the A7r for a lot less now and the rumored and soon to be released A7IIr will probably have a 50+mpix sensor and will probably be cheaper then canons new 50 mpix body....not sure when (if) nikon will be getting that sensor...
nikon glass is great, so is canon, but IMO the sigma art line is right now the best solution out there...no matter which mount....and with zeiss and the new 85 and 25 coming out (which look incredible) for e mount only....
the A7II is a pretty amazing body and an incredible value....more and more great e-mount lenses coming out and all other mounts easily adapted....and all of it plays nice with FS7....
A7s is the new 5D in terms of THE DSLR for video (for a good reason) and the A7r still has the best sensor out (not for much longer) and A7IIr is coming very soon....
 
Nikon adapters allow smooth manual iris changes but no power for image stabilization. Canon has image stabilization but steppy iris changes. That's what it comes down to regardless of whether its actually a Sigma or whatever. Can't have both.
 
You can get some canon some nikon some E-mount some Contax Zeiss and a bunch of adapters and speedboosters and waste a lot of time and money on glass that will annoy you all shooting day long- or save up and buy a Red 17-50 cine zoom and save yourself the agony. Pair that with the 28-135 stock lens and be done with it.
the stock lens will play nice on the a7s as well.

Thats what I will end end up doing in the end after I got rid of all the crap I have amassed.
 
I own Nikons, but also do a fair bit of my professional stills work with Canons. I'm a fan of Canon glass, but far less so of their camera bodies, ergonomically I just find them far less intuitive to shoot with than Nikon.

For video work, I'd recommend the Nikon glass. Being manually controllable without the need for electronics just means there's one less thing to worry about on set. You can also use older manual Nikon glass, which has much better manual focus control than any of the auto-focus based EF mount Canon lenses.
 
Lenses - the elephant in the FS7's room...

Take a look at a current thread on the Sony forum, where Alister Chapman has made an interesting clarification about LANC control (I'm trusting that it's accurate, as he represents Sony on various gigs): http://community.sony.com/t5/FS7/Fixing-menu-audio-iris-delay-issues/td-p/505736/page/2

That would suggest we really need to be looking at lenses that offer independent iris control, along with IS for those of us that shoot a lot of handheld work.

In the meantime, this new device is looking interesting:

http://www.newsshooter.com/2015/04/...-lens-adapter-with-remote-focus-and-aperture/

They're also talking about a focal reducer version. Might be worth keeping an eye on, as it would give you effective iris control, even if you ignore the other features.

Might be an extreme solution just to have functioning iris control - but I'm sometimes finding the iris dial on the FS7 body random in response, let alone the grip LANC dial.
 
sounds like the iris control will be no better than on an FS7, its just remote- still steppy. maybe faster.
I am astonished at the price though.
 
Not sure why you would lock yourself into Canon or Nikon..

There's a world of phenomenal manual glass out there far better suited to video and motion work than AF glass, and often for fractions of the price of their AF cousins, and they can be easily adapted to canon/nikon/sony etc...

Whether it's the higher end offerings like Contax Zeiss or Leica R stuff, or even the sexy Russian lenses like the Helios 44-2, Jupiter 9 and Mir 1b there's tons of choices for every budget and aesthetic. With those old Russian lenses I mentioned for £150 you could have a great matched fast (f2-2.8) vintage shooting set with all metal construction, hard stops and longer focus throws, plus lovely optics and old coatings giving you great rendition on your images.

All for less than a third the price of even a Canon 24-105mm 4f.
 
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Ben Scott said:
Not sure you would lock yourself into Canon or Nikon..

There's a world of phenomenal manual glass out there far better suited to video and motion work than AF glass, and often for fractions of the price of their AF cousins, and they can be easily adapted to canon/nikon/sony etc...

Whether it's the higher end offerings like Contax Zeiss or Leica R stuff, or even the sexy Russian lenses like the Helios 44-2, Jupiter 9 and Mir 1b there's tons of choices for every budget and aesthetic. With those old Russian lenses I mentioned for £150 you could have a great matched fast (f2-2.8) vintage shooting set with all metal construction, hard stops and longer focus throws, plus lovely optics and old coatings giving you great rendition on your images.

All for less than a third the price of even a Canon 24-105mm 4f.
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Spot on - I'd love to use more legacy lenses. But what to do about micro vibrations?

It's a trade-off between heft (heavy camera that naturally damps out handheld micro vibration) and portability (lovely lightweight camera, but needs IS to eliminate those vibes.)

I tried it again last week with the 18-105. IS on and IS off. I'm all for a natural flowing handheld look - but it's those vibrations, exacerbated by increasing resolutions of HD and 4K, that are spoiling the shot. And I'm reasonably fit and regularly play sport and cycle 50 miles every few days, so I'm doing what I can to not wobble too much!

Here's a thought, with the caveat that I don't know where the IS needs to sit in the optical path:

Is it feasible to have an E-mount to <lens mount X, Y and Z> adapter purely for image stabilisation duties? ie, it sits in between the cam and whatever lens you want to use and damps out those vibes?

In a single stroke, you could eliminate all of the lens issues with this cam, by freeing us up to use whatever lens we want, we get manual iris and those vibrations are compensated for...
 
I'll be honest, I've not noticed anything of that sort and I don't think I have ever had an electronic lens on my FS7.

Is the camera balanced properly? I find it hard without using v mounts.
 
Ben Scott said:
Is the camera balanced properly? I find it hard without using v mounts.
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It's not bad - but it's still work in progress, as mentioned in my other grip thread. I'm balancing with a V Lok battery on the back.

I'd dearly love to ditch IS lenses and the conundrum they tie us into - but I've yet to find a way to avoid micro vibration on handheld material over the past 4 years, with an AF100, C100, C300 and the FS7.

Food for thought, though - it may well just be bad practice on my part.

Would welcome a debate - do we need Image Stabilisation for handheld HD and 4K?
 
My tuppence worth.. I've never used IS and I've been shooting 4k on Red and Sony for about 4 years now. But then they do keep hiring me for those Bourne shakeycam spoofs.
 
Buy a Sigma 18-35 1.8 Nikon w/ Novoflex adapter. Will be the last lens you ever buy for S35. (28-50 equiv) :)

Can't help you with a long range equivalent as I rarely shoot w/ a long lens.
 
I just sold my A-Mount lenses and decided to focus on mostly Nikon glass for the modestly high-end stuff. (I also have some FE lenses). Right now I'm shooting on a rigged out A7S, but plan to move to an FS700 replacement if/when it's available (or just go with the FS7 if Sony doesn't have anything else this year in that class.)

My primary stills camera is the D810, which is a phenomenal camera. The video out of it isn't bad, either. I decided on which camera would be my primary stills camera and then decided to build my lens kit (for double-duty on whatever I'm shooting from Sony) around that. Canon, it seems, has lost the plot in terms of sensors lately so basing my lenses on Canon's seemed like a dead end (for me, since I have no interest in the EOS Cinema line). That said, the one thing that's good about building around either Nikon or Canon is that you're pretty much guaranteed a good return on your lenses if you ever decide to sell them.

Right now I'm using the Nikon 70-200 F/2.8 VRII, 16-35 F/4 and 50mm F/1.4 with a $50 Vello adaptor on the A7S (with iris ring). The one thing I will caution with Nikon is that I've run into some issues with the feel of their manual focus rings on their "lower end" lenses. Initially I had purchased the 70-200 f/4 for travel and returned it for the much larger f/2.8 since I simply couldn't focus it smoothly. I tried several and tiny adjustments are "sticky." Odd, since it's not an issue with the 16-35 f/4. That said, their top-line lenses are phenomenal in terms of build, image and focus feel. My A7S never looked as good as it does now through the 70-200 f/2.8.

Side note: compared to Canon, the Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 has significantly less breathing distortion.

Vintage lenses are fun, but I prefer to have the look of my lenses to match for production stuff since I'll often shoot various focal lengths for any single projects. YMMV.
 
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Personally, I think you should future proof you lenses for different camera systems.

I have a set of Zeiss ZF Nikon mount primes for more narrative / controlled situations, and Nikon works on every camera.

For run and gun / fast workflow I have several Canon zoom which work on Sony, Arri, Red, Canon, BMC and Panasonic with electronic adapters.

Personally, I would avoid buying more niche glass like Sony or Micro 43rds unless you are never planning to switch manufacturers. Then you'd have to sell all you glass, take a huge loss and re-buy. No thanks.
 
I'm not sure what you mean by micro vibrations. Can you post an example - preferably with and without IS, but just any example would be cool.
 
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...u-shooting-planning-to-shot-on-FS7&highlight=

If you look at the pool I did early the year for FS7, its obvious Canon lens is most popular choices, followed by Sony and Nikon mount.
I don't feel you will go wrong with either Nikon or Canon, but if budget is your concern, there are large number of used Canon lens selling cheaply on eBay and here.

But I don't like Canon, so if I am gonna start from scratch with my lens collection, I would go with the Sigma 18-35 in A mount with LAEA4 adapter plus the Sony 28-135 kit lens and get Sony A7 series for DSLR. A7 is a solid full frame DSLR, small and compact, very adaptable for any vintage lenses.
 
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