New Zeiss Compact Primes

Y

yoclay

Veteran
Pretty interesting news about the compact primes with interchangeable EF and Pl mounts. Makes a lot of sense. 14 blade apertures too. Let's hope their 50mm performs better than their current f1.4's...

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What do you think?
 
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They look to be the exact same Compact Primes that they already offer, but with a direct Canon mount instead of PL mount. Which, of course, solves the problem of the mirror. And $3500/lens is cheaper than the existing Compact Primes. And, it said they'd have the possibility of an interchangeable mount.

And, the Compact Primes are, IINM, the only set of cinema prime lenses available that cover the full still frame.

They're not perfect, and they're the exact same glass as the ZF and ZE lenses, so the increase in price is for the mechanicals.
 
No? So they would have to make new designs just to make them slower?

I mean, I understand that they can't be the same as the current compact primes and be offered cheaper. Not if you can switch mounts/modify them and get the same for less...

"In addition, the lenses feature an interchangeable mount system that can be changed to a PL mount"

I don't follow Barry.
 
And their price is only a few hundred off... they gotta be the same speed. Maybe the premium on the current Compact Primes will be for the "extra solid" non interchangeable design..? Or a better crop of hand picked elements..?
 
Not sure about them being the same speeds. 14 blade aperture means they will be different than the primes. The 50/1.4 has 9 blades for instance. How this will effect speed is not clear yet, but it is a good sign.
 
Barry_Green said:
They look to be the exact same Compact Primes that they already offer, but with a direct Canon mount instead of PL mount. Which, of course, solves the problem of the mirror.
Click to expand...

Barry's right on the money (as usual). I was at Createasphere (formerly, HD Expo) today and stopped by the Zeiss booth. The above reasoning was almost exactly what the rep told me. He added that the customer has the choice between PL or EF mount; they are "interchangeable." He said they hope to ship the lenses in time for NAB, and that they made this announcement now so that "it does not get lost" in the noise of NAB. He was caution about giving prices.
 
I think the price in that article was confusing US dollars with Euros.
If I recall from just six months ago, they were selling a set of six CP's for 20000 EUROS. If it is not a mistake, then it really would be a steal in US dollars.
Either that, or the Euro has really tanked while I've been busy.
 
Last time I checked, the CP's are about $5,000 each, so six CP's for $30,000 would make sense. Six for $20k seems pretty amazingly cheap.
 
Red Pro Primes are about $4,000 each. And anyways, it's irrelevant -- the Red Pro Primes won't work on a Canon. At least, not without permanently modifying it by pulling out the mirror. And even if you did that, they wouldn't provide full coverage on a 5D. The Compact Primes will.
 
Barry_Green said:
It won't affect speed at all. It will affect bokeh however.
Click to expand...


This from AdamM over at Cinema5D:

"Remember: the # of aperture blades won't make the bokeh smoother, it will just make the OOF highlight areas rounder.

Good bokeh is a result of many things, little of it being the # of aperture blades. Aperture blades just define the out of focus highlight shape.

Don't believe me? Ok, open your lens right up. You now have a perfectly circular opening - and you can still have crap bokeh if that's what the lens does."


I have the sense that there may have been other reasons than just to make OOF highlights rounder for these new lenses. I suspect that from a design point of view it may allow them to get a little more speed out of the larger glass elements. A pentagon for instance is going to cut more light than a more circular diaphragm and this becomes even more true as the size of the glass increases.
 
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