FS7: One lens fits all 30 mm or 18-35 good choice?

P

Publimix

Veteran
I am going to make a series of interviews/reportages from artists at work.

I want to use one lens. I think a 1.4 30mm lens will do the job or the F1.8 18-35 Sigma zoom.

Sigma is on my wish list, but they don't have native e-mount (the 18-35 zoom hasn't) which lens mount is the best choise for the FS7 nikon, canon or A-mount?

Or is a non-zoom like a 30mm a better choice? And are there budget friendly options?
 
I'd choose the 18-35 over a 30mm prime. You'll love the 18-35 and use it quite a lot. I suggest buying the EF mount version, as well as sigma's MC-11 e mount adapter. If your other lenses are E mount already, you can leave that e mount adapter on the lens all the time. EF mount seems to me (in my circle at least) to be the standard that most people also have. Value in terms of resale, and also multi camera shoots where another operator and you might end up sharing lenses - the more standard the better in my opinion there.


Other budget friendly options would be rokinon cine primes. I pieced together a set buying one at a time, second hand, after I initially purchased the 35mm T1.5. They're nice to operate with, smooth focus rings and creamy backgrounds. Somewhat surprising considering their low cost, I've been complimented on their creamy bokeh and asked what lens I shot with multiple times. I'm not saying their phenomenal, but they're really something nice for the price.

Hope that helps. I'd go with the 18-35 if I were you.
 
The cine Sigma zooms can be E mount .. I have the PL versions.. Its a no brainer .. the set of two with the pelican case for about $10K.. 50-100 for interviews and the 18-35 from hand held.. the only thing is the breathing of the 50-100.. but you learn to live with it..and Ive had no complaints yet.. hard to ***** at that price.. these two in a small box.. all you need.. and crazy cheap..
 
Thanks.

I guess the Sigma marketeers have their reasons not to sell an e-mount version. (the 4.000 dollar cine version is out of my budget.)
The FS7 is a popular camera, I guess they want to sell the 'cine version' or at least an extra 250 dollar adapter.

I decided to rent a canon version with the mc-11 adapter.
 
Going back more or less to the original question - I used to have an older Sigma 30mm/1.4 and the 24mm/1.8 -- found myself using the 24mm far more often than the 30mm. And the 30mm never felt really sharp or had quite the contrast I wanted.
I now have the Sigma 18-35 and the more recent Sigma 24/1.4 -- and am extremely happy with the sharpness, contrast and overall look of both lenses.
Happy enough that I bought the 50-100 to better match the look of the 18-35 when doing interviews.
There are certain jobs I shoot using only a single lens - the 24/1.4 -- but these are 'POV Teleprompter' hand-held shoots where the camera plays the role of a character. A consistent field of view helps the story and POV feeling. Other than a specific reason like that, I think limiting oneself to a single focal length would be too restricting.
Obviously mount choices by manufacturers are a business/marketing question -- but the thing to remember with the 18-35 and 50-100 is that they are NOT full frame lenses! They do a good job on the Super35 sensor area, but will vignette on the A7 cameras unless those are set to 'crop' mode. I have a feeling that this might be a factor in their decision.
 
I rented the Sigma 18-35 today. I used a commlite FE-Emount adapter. Adapter didn't work. No AF, and bad connections. The lens info worked sometimes and sometimes it didn't.
Then I tried the MC-11 adapter on the camera (at a camerastore) and all worked fine. Even the AF worked as good as on my sony 18-105 lens. (This lens seems to have a bad reputation but I like it anyway).

As expected is the lens a bit soft at 1.8 at 2.8 it performed better.
The lens is NOT parfocal. (Neither is the Sony.)

I found the image quality not noticably better than the Sony lens. I watched the (non-scientific) footage I made on a 50inch 4K screen.
The Sony is distorted at 18mm but that is not a big deal, this is corrected in no time with Davinci.
Manual focus is OK, but not noticably better than the Sony.

Conclusion, the combo mc-11 and Sigma 18-35 works well on the FS7 even the AF is OK. (For me this is the first non-Sony lens/adapter combo that has a working auto-focus AF on my FS7.)
The sigma has an F1.7 (according to the lens info in Catalyst Prepare)

But after one day testing I am still not convinced if the 2 F-stops compensate the zoom range of the 18-105 lens.
 
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Paul Cronin said:
When you have the budget I would rent the Fujinon MK 18-55. One of the best lens for the FS7.
Click to expand...

I agree, first lens I've used that actually felt like it was made for the camera. I am very happy with mine and it stays on the camera 75% of the time
 
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