Lenses for Alexa Mini LF

Eric Coughlin said:
Why would their rates be lower than mine? If they're the most talented DP's than their rates would likely be higher than mine. Rates are just a matter of finding out where you belong, which mainly depends on how busy you are. The busier you are, the higher the rates you can charge.

Well yeah, obviously real commercial work is more impressive, but spec ads are better than nothing. Right now under the commercial section on my website I've got a YMCA ad which I DPed, a Culver's commercial I was a cam op for, and a BMW sorta doc style video which I guess can sorta pass as a commercial I was also a cam op for. The YMCA ad looks okayish, but nothing special nor something I'm that proud of. I didn't DP the other two ads, but they look good, and the BMW one is pretty cool and got 4 million views. I just took down a couple of the lower end commercials I DPed, aiming for quality over quantity.

But I think that having some well shot spec ads up there which I've DPed would be beneficial.

How is it $20-$50k savings to rent a partial lens set vs a full lens set? I guess if it's a five day commercial shoot and charging $5k per day, then yeah. But as far as I know most commercials in the under $200k range are likely one to two day shoots. And then if it's say a million dollar budget for a five day shoot, then they've got more money to pay the DP and equipment rental.

The DP I'm working with on my current shoot DPed a couple shots for this ad as pickup shots; Claudio Miranda was the 1st unit DP. Five day shoot with one day of pickups, Arri camera (not sure which model) with Cooke lenses.

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Sorry, I was unclear. I meant if a budget is $20k-$50k, saving $2.5k by not going with a full lens set would actually be a significant amount vs. the $500k budget, which may be the types of commercials you're initially work on (which may help crunch numbers for ROI).

I'm only going from hearing stories about larger markets being so competitive and therefore you may see highly skilled DPs with lower rates. It may not actually be an issue but if there are enough lower cost alternatives floating around then maybe that's what you're up against, for certain types of jobs.
 
Oh, right. Which as I said works well for me because starting out I wouldn't own a full set and would be working on the lower budget $20k-$50k commercials that would likely be fine with say a 3-6 lens prime set. Then if the higher end jobs come in I could continue purchasing more and eventually complete the set if it makes sense.

What do you mean by larger markets? Like L.A.? Or just high end commercial work in general? Like anything you've got to beat the competition in terms of skill-set, equipment, portfolio, marketing ability, etc. At the high end I've often found clients respect you more if you quote them high rates, and if they can afford those rates, then you're hired (otherwise why did they bother contacting you in the first place). I'm having no trouble with that now; I could care less if a Red owner/op will go out for $400 per day when I charge ten times that for going out with an Arri cause I have the clients willing to pay my rates.

I always hear commercial DPs making hefty rates, so I just want a piece of that pie, just like when I used to be a wedding videographer who heard tell of corporate videographers making more money, and now I'm a corporate videographer. If anything I could guess the corporate world is more crowded then the commercial world, but I don't know.
 
Potato Jet (I forget his real name) just put out a clip of "buying the cheapest Alexa he could find". He got a Classic off eBay (or Craiglist) for $6,000. I have to say, that compared with that C500 MKII Jaguar commercial, any Alexa footage is better looking.
 
DLD said:
Potato Jet (I forget his real name) just put out a clip of "buying the cheapest Alexa he could find". He got a Classic off eBay (or Craiglist) for $6,000. I have to say, that compared with that C500 MKII Jaguar commercial, any Alexa footage is better looking.
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1080p Alexa dusts most cameras at 4K and higher (due to color/DR/look/effort; size & weight is still an issue as PJ video noted); Red Monstro VV and Sony Venice have their moments though. For those shooting full-time/pro, Alexa Mini LF is a wise choice (GS DPAF RF mount Red Komodo could make some waves at the lower end and/or B/C cam).
 
Ya, Classic is very heavy on the shoulder ... and then a cop came over to them and said, "no video allowed" ... had they had RX100 ...

PS. With LF out, there ought to be a bunch of used XT's and SXT's out on the resale sites. I saw a couple of SXT's on Alan Gordon (? .. something Gordon) in the low-$30's.
 
Well I just bought a Canon 17-120 on Ebay for $12.5k with a USM kit installed so switching between EF and PL is easy. Good deal if it's all in good order as described. Arrives this week. Should be easy to make rentals off of that lens since I've already got a client base that will pay for it. Deal was too good to pass up as this lens was $30k just a few years ago, typically goes for 15-18k on the used market, and can still fetch a hefty rental rate.

The Ebay lens did not come with a hood, so I need to find out where to buy that as I'm not finding it available online.

I'm tempted to send one of my C300 Mark II's in to get a locking EF mount installed so I could use the 17-120 without lens support. I also have to figure out power supply to the lens as a 90+ watt Anton Bauer battery seems like overkill for just powering the lens, though I suppose if fully rigging up the camera for proper balance the battery can help for that. I like to keep my camera setups as small as I can for doc style work.


Also just put an offer on a house and that got accepted, so hopefully the rest of that goes smoothly. House or camera is the eternal owner/op question.

Alexa Mini LF and higher end lenses for next year.
 
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Eric Coughlin said:
Well I just bought a Canon 17-120 on Ebay for $12.5k with a USM kit installed so switching between EF and PL is easy. Good deal if it's all in good order as described. Arrives this week. Should be easy to make rentals off of that lens since I've already got a client base that will pay for it. Deal was too good to pass up as this lens was $30k just a few years ago, typically goes for 15-18k on the used market, and can still fetch a hefty rental rate.

The Ebay lens did not come with a hood, so I need to find out where to buy that as I'm not finding it available online.

I'm tempted to send one of my C300 Mark II's in to get a locking EF mount installed so I could use the 17-120 without lens support. I also have to figure out power supply to the lens as a 90+ watt Anton Bauer battery seems like overkill for just powering the lens, though I suppose if fully rigging up the camera for proper balance the battery can help for that. I like to keep my camera setups as small as I can for doc style work.


Also just put an offer on a house and that got accepted, so hopefully the rest of that goes smoothly. House or camera is the eternal owner/op question.

Alexa Mini LF and higher end lenses for next year.
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Nice buy on the 17-120, that lens looks awesome.

You should add your house to the equipment list on your site. I'd be way more impressed with a DP that owns property vs. a set of modified nikkor primes.
 
The house is really nice looking and massive too, 5400 square feet with over an acre of property, backs up to several acres of woods which go to a lake and river so I can go camping, play airsoft, and boating from my backyard. The size of the house will also give great possibilities for filming as well. As you'd said with one of my previous short films lacking wide shots due to my current rental house location being somewhat sparsely decorated and not all that big, so owning, properly decorating, and having a lot of space in a house, to me, is a better filming location than a studio because a studio often limits angles and is small (such as a single family room set, so then you can't have background depth showing other rooms, can't do a 360, etc.). I personally dislike studio shooting in general, but a good house gives lots of options for filming. Someone I used to work with insists on not shooting at his house but he owns a studio he shoots at a lot, and a lot of his short films look like they're shot in a studio and not at an actual location, which does not look good. I'm talking about for personal projects; I wouldn't do client jobs at my house.

Haven't closed yet so don't want to get my hopes too high but looking good so far. Gotta love Georgia and the cheap housing market here. I still don't understand filmmakers who move out to the more saturated L.A. where they'll probably get lower rates and live in shacks due to the high cost of the housing market there when there's so much film work being done in GA now.
 
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Eric Coughlin said:
Well I just bought a Canon 17-120 on Ebay for $12.5k with a USM kit installed so switching between EF and PL is easy. Good deal if it's all in good order as described. Arrives this week. Should be easy to make rentals off of that lens since I've already got a client base that will pay for it. Deal was too good to pass up as this lens was $30k just a few years ago, typically goes for 15-18k on the used market, and can still fetch a hefty rental rate.

The Ebay lens did not come with a hood, so I need to find out where to buy that as I'm not finding it available online.

I'm tempted to send one of my C300 Mark II's in to get a locking EF mount installed so I could use the 17-120 without lens support. I also have to figure out power supply to the lens as a 90+ watt Anton Bauer battery seems like overkill for just powering the lens, though I suppose if fully rigging up the camera for proper balance the battery can help for that. I like to keep my camera setups as small as I can for doc style work.


Also just put an offer on a house and that got accepted, so hopefully the rest of that goes smoothly. House or camera is the eternal owner/op question.

Alexa Mini LF and higher end lenses for next year.
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I saw that lens on eBay, as well. I believe one of the members on here was selling it. I have owned my 17-120 for a few years now(with the eUMS mount). You DO NOT want to mount this lens just by the EF mount, regardless of whether the camera has a locking EF mount or not. That would be a tiny amount of surface area with an extreme amount of torque being applied to it, especially if you are operating with the lens grip. The lens is approaching 6.5lbs and it's not evenly distributed. It's very front heavy, which will contribute to even more torque than if it were a more balanced lens design, like an ENG lens. I see guys using it PL without support all the time(I don't for multiple reasons), but I don't think I've ever seen anyone run it EF without support. Just trying to help a brother out...

As far as OEM lens hoods go, they have always been notoriously expensive. Although, I have no idea how much this one is, ENG lens hoods were often over $400-$500. Maybe consider the Bright Tangerine Misfit Atom. It's lighter than the original Canon hood and slides on and off easier, too. I picked one up on special about a year ago or so, and sometimes run it instead of the factory Canon hood. It can hold a 4x5.65 filter and it has an available carbon fiber top flag, too, if you would need it.
 
Ah cool, I didn't realize the lens was being sold by Newsguy from DVXuser.

Yeah, I was sort of wondering about the strength of the EF mount so was hoping you'd chime in. Though as mentioned with the UMS adapter on there apparently switching to PL mount is pretty simple; I guess I'd just need to buy the PL mount parts for it. I didn't see on B&H where to get the PL mount for the UMS adapter; do you know about that? I also wonder if the UMS adapter is as strong as the standard mounts; I would imagine so.

That said, I don't want any of my C300s to be PL mount so then I could only use that setup on the Amiras. I may get a C500 Mark II in a year or two which then has the user changeable mounts.

I almost always use lens support with the C300s and CN-e compact zooms which are a pound or two lighter than the 17-120, though sometimes if it's just a basic interview I'll forgo setting up lens support. With the Amira's locking mount, though, I find it feels plenty sturdy to handle the CN-e compact zooms without lens support, so I never use lens support, which saves me the weight and size of needing a base plate since I mount rods from the top for wireless follow focus. As you mentioned, though, the 17-120 is also thinner at it's base than the compact servos and more front heavy.


I was on a shoot once as an AC where they rented my C300 Mark II, they had a second standard EF mount C300 Mark II rental with a 17-120, but did not rent lens support (rental companies should really make sure that comes with the rental), so, I gerry rigged some lens support with different parts and tape, but apparently it got in the DP's way, so he took it off and ran around the day without lens support on the standard EF mount. Just glad it wasn't my camera.

Also a reason I don't like renting out my gear. Little things like that, where the renters are thinking, "This probably won't damage the camera or lens to a noticeable amount and it will save us time so what have we got to lose." Then when the mounts get loose over time from this happening too much, and as the renter, not knowing who to blame.

I cam opped last week on a shoot so the DP was using my C300 Mark II, and I had all the lens support rigged up, but then also see him taking the camera off the rod mounted support setup and running the 15.5-47 and 30-105 bare. The shoot was well paid so I'm not gonna complain too much but ugh.

I have a couple Misfit matte boxes now. They have the newer Misfit Pola which is on black Friday sale now. I need to buy a more featured Misfit Viv, so if I get that then I'd have three matte boxes so perhaps could skip on buying the hood, unless the hood is cheap. The hood does look smaller form factor than the Misfit, which can be nice.
 
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Yep. Pretty sure it is Newsguy. If it's in good shape, it's a good dang deal. The eUMS system is $2800, by itself. I think Abel is the only place you can buy it. It's a collaboration between them and IBE Optics(which also make some cine macro lenses, I meant to post in that other thread the other day). The base mount of the UMS is PL. So if it has the EF mount on it, you just give the outer ring about a 1/4-1/3 twist and lift it off, then put the "inner ring" portion of the PL mount back and tighten the four screws down. I can swap mounts in about 45 seconds on it. I can send you some pics or a short video of the swap, if it would make more sense. To use it with C series cams via EF, you also need a LANC cable to plug into the REMOTE port on the camera if you want to trigger the camera to roll from the lens. Abel sells it, also. Mine is LANC and power tap on one side and the multi-pin for the lens pigtail on the other. The EF mount on the camera is capable of data transfer with the lens(if it has the contacts on the mount), but not power or control.

I honestly have no idea how that guy managed to shoot with a 17-120 on a normal EF mount with no support. I have to fully support mine with my hand when mounting it on my 300, until I get the lens support engaged and locked or I can see the lens actually pulling out of/deflecting in the mount. Besides just being bad for the mount, the lens is now no longer square to the sensor and at a different back focus/flange distance.

Yeah, the Misfit does have a bigger footprint than the stock Canon hood, but it's still pretty small(at least compared to the Arri MB's I have) I looked at my lens hood and saw a number molded into it(HR-114S), but Google didn't return anything associated with it. I also looked in my manual and couldn't find any part number listed for it, either. That's gonna probably take a call to a dealer like Abel or Filmtools or directly to Canon(they're usually pretty helpful). Looking at Canon ENG hoods on B&H, I saw one for $200 something and one for $525, just to give you an idea of what you may be up against.
 
And the 17-120mm is a fantastic lens! Congrats. There's no better run 'n gun lens out there for S35mm (in my opinion).

And good luck with the house. I definitely made the wrong call buying cameras and lenses over property seven years ago.
 
Grug said:
And the 17-120mm is a fantastic lens! Congrats.

There's no better run 'n gun lens out there for S35mm (in my opinion).
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Nothing else like it. And I've shot plenty of feature sit-down interviews with it, as well. The 17-120 and a full set of CN-E primes is a powerful glass package. Maybe swap the Canon 14mm(T3.2) for the Sigma 14mm(T2) (the Sigma Cine Primes match with the CN-E primes really well, IMO). There's not a lot you can't do with all of that.
 
So funny story, while actually shipping the lens, and giving UPS the shipping info, I saw the name on there, and thought “this name rings a bell.” I didn’t think much of it because it was going to Georgia and the people I know there in the industry work in the business side of things. Now I see this post about LF lenses and realize why the name sounded so familiar.

So yes the lens works fine and is in good shape. It has some very basic wear and that’s probably all from transporting it around in the case. I’m literally selling it because it was my personal lens that I had paired with the Varicam LT (which I just sold as well) and wasn’t using it enough. The network I work for got a flood of 17-120s and F55’s as hand me downs from another division. Once that happened, I figured it wouldn’t make sense to have my kit at home anymore. The F55 is still a hell of a camera, and I have enough experience with SLOG to make it looks good in post.

Sorry the lens cap is missing. I think it was placed in another persons case at some point and I never saw it again. The case I sent it in I bought used. It’s pretty beat up on the outside, but inside it’s in good shape and the inner space cases are like tanks. But yeah, for $12,500 that’s a steal for that lens. I always say it’s the closest thing to a proper ENG lens for S35 cams because it can live on the cam. Profiles,, sports, ENG etc. In 1080 you can put the camera in center crop and you have your extender if needed.

As for support I would say definitely try to. PL is strong, but I always fear the worst. The ef mount is definitely more shallow if you use it that way, and on a camera without the positive locking ef mount it’s risky. The LT has the positive locking ef mount, but I don’t trust it without support. Anyway, enjoy the lens, and since you plan on renting it, it should make you money since you can swap from ef to pl depending on the client!
 
Grug said:
And the 17-120mm is a fantastic lens! Congrats. There's no better run 'n gun lens out there for S35mm (in my opinion).

And good luck with the house. I definitely made the wrong call buying cameras and lenses over property seven years ago.
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Other than a Ronin 2, editing computer, van, wireless video system, 12x v-mount batteries, and custom fabrication jobs, buying a house is at the top of my list.
 
Grug said:
And the 17-120mm is a fantastic lens! Congrats. There's no better run 'n gun lens out there for S35mm (in my opinion).

And good luck with the house. I definitely made the wrong call buying cameras and lenses over property seven years ago.
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rob norton said:
Other than a Ronin 2, editing computer, van, wireless video system, 12x v-mount batteries, and custom fabrication jobs, buying a house is at the top of my list.
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Up until this latest generation, the 'American Dream' has always been to own a home. Now I think it's to only have three instead of five roommates in your 800 sq ft apartment and an Instagram account with more than 10 followers. But gear vs. "other stuff" is kind of a catch 22, because you actually make money with gear. Yes, the house is more than likely going to appreciate, but can you afford to buy the house without owning gear to do the work? Let's say you buy(take out a mortgage for) a $250K house and when you decide to move in 5-7 years the houses value has gone up $50K and you've paid it down enough that you walk away with $100K to put towards your next house. Not bad. But say you bought a $50K camera instead and you're billing out $150K-$250K per year or more. There is a happy medium, but buy gear(within reason) first, then get the money rolling in to buy a house.
 
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