Manual Zoom Lens Recommendations? For Smooth Zooms

salils

salils

Well-known member
I'm looking for a replacmenet for the kit lens to use as a walk arund video lens. Basically I need:
Something in the range of 28-135
No slower than f5.6 at the longest focal length
Fairly smooth zoom
No exposure changes as I zoom in movie mode (on the 28-135 IS even if i set the stop to 5.6 I still get this jerky exposure jump while zooming)
I don't mind if it's full manual
Would be nice to have a decent focus barrel throw like the 28-135 (for an slr lens any ways...)

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
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I can't really think of a constant aperture lens with that great of a zoom length. You're probably going to have to divvy up to an 17-50 and 50-150, both available at 2.8.
 
Wait so even manual lenses have this crazy compensation feature where it makes this clicking noise when I zoom in and the image randomly gets brighter even though the f-stop is still the same?
 
my 24-70 2.8L with my 5D2 has the same issue with the brightness changing when im zooming
even at a constant aperture, it doesnt seem to matter as the glass spreads apart or closer together and causes the exposure to change
 
You need a constant aperture zoom. I had the 70-300mm EF f 4 to 5.6 and it did the flicker/ light change while zooming.

I now have the Tamron 17-50 f 2.8 and there is NO flicker while zooming. I was at Samy's Camera and we tried another constant aperture zoom (an L Series but I can't remember which one) and there was NO stutter either.

The salesperson was curious so we tried 3 other variable aperture zooms and they all had the stutter while zooming.

So I believe that you just need a constant zoom. I also have a 100-300mm Nikon AIS manual (for filming surfing), but I'm waiting for the adapter to come so I can't say how it is, but since it's an f 5.6 constant, it should in theory be fine while zooming.
 
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