FS7: sony 70-200 or nikon/canon 70-200 adapter /speedbooster

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Publimix

Veteran
After a day filming and changing lenses and changing lenses, changing lenses and changing lenses, it seems all the action takes place during the lens change. (This must be some Filming Law). So now I am in the market for zoom, a 70-200mm zoom. It is always windy here and we have unstable land (peatsoil) so I like image stabilisation. Therefore some nice old lenses are excluded. And I am a happy owner of the sony 18-105 zoom which I like.

The shortlist is:
Sony 70-200 f4 1500 euro crop factor 1,4 focussing difficult?
Nikon 70-200 f4 1100 euro without adapter/speedbooster 600 euro 1,5 or 0.71 crop? Not sure VR works
canon 70-200 f4 1100 euro without adapter/speedbooster 600 euro 1,5 or 0.71 crop? Not sure SI works

As I write this down I think it is almost obvious: Sony

or isn't it?

Like your professional or emotional opinions.
 
If my advice counts for anything get one of the old manual 80-200 AIS F4 Nikkors. A good example should be £150.
 
I've not shot with the Sony or nikon, but can assure you that the Is on Canon lenses (including the 70-200) does work in both static and panning modes via the SB ultra. I use it quite often when handheld in bumpy environments.

Hope that helps, Jason
 
the sony e 70-200 f4 is an excellent lens, stabilized, great optical performance and pretty compact...only drawback is the f4 but i find it hard to talk about bokeh when talking about zooms, some are better then others but none have really great....
i find the sony e lenses in general really nice....there are lenses with more character but when it comes to modern glass, i don't see any reason to go with canon or nikon unless you have a ton and want to deal with adapters...
 
Paul schefz said:
the sony e 70-200 f4 is an excellent lens, stabilized, great optical performance and pretty compact...only drawback is the f4 but i find it hard to talk about bokeh when talking about zooms, some are better then others but none have really great....
i find the sony e lenses in general really nice....there are lenses with more character but when it comes to modern glass, i don't see any reason to go with canon or nikon unless you have a ton and want to deal with adapters...
Click to expand...

I tried this lens on my FS100 and couldn't get on with the focus for such an expensive lens, I had no complaints about the image quality but I returned it because at the time I didn't think it was a big enough win over the kit 18-200 for the money. I rather think the FS100 did not allow the good glass to shine and maybe if I tried the 70-200 on the FS7 the quality difference may be more obvious.

For manual operation I haven't found better feel than the Nikkor AIS zooms but on occasion I crave that push auto focus for speed.
 
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If your considering non-Sony lenses, let me recommend my old friend the Nikon 80-200 2.8D ED lens. It's the previous generation AF/MF but still made new and is damn near parfocal. I've owned mine for over 15 years from when I was a still shooter and have been using it on my F3 and then F5 for the past few years. I dont do it often but on mine I can manually zoom in or out during a shot to a acceptable level of smoothness. The best part, $1,222 USD

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/124669-USA/Nikon_1986_AF_Zoom_Nikkor_80_200mm_f_2_8D.html
 
I would suggest that you have a look at the Minolta AF 70-210 f4 lens (the mighty "beercan" lens) in A-mount with a LA-EA3 adaptor for E-mount.
This lens is inexpensive (~$110), sharp, and truly parfocal throughout the zoom range. If you are on a tripod (which I think you should be) the absence of stabilization is not an issue, and f 4 is plenty enough for shallow dof at this zoom range.
Another option is the Canon EF 80-200mm f2.8 L lens which is also parfocal and one stop faster.
The Sony e-mount lens is nice for photography, but costs 10 times as much and has the fly by wire focus ring of modern lenses, which is a nightmare for video as it is non-linear and it seems as you do not have full control for manual focus.
 
Publimix said:
all the action takes place during the lens change. (This must be some Filming Law)..
Click to expand...

Mount a gh4/goPro on your rig with a wide!

Personally 50-300 either nikon or canon FD is what Id check and/or a modern 70-200 F4.

70-200 2.8 are a bit 2005, many have swapped to the smaller lenses to save their back.

Also modern 70-200 2.8 seem to fall apart. Ive given up on Nikon versions (now owning the 70-200 f4AF), cohort Paul's 2 canon versions seem to live at CPS or Fixation.

S
 
Just got a mint example of the Nikkor 100-300 F5.6, too slow for most here but I like it.

When I say mint it's in its original packaging with a dealer warranty dated 1985 and there's absolutely no sign use whatsoever. This lens does not creep even when held vertically yet the zoom and focus motion is buttery smooth.
 
kostas said:
I would suggest that you have a look at the Minolta AF 70-210 f4 lens (the mighty "beercan" lens) in A-mount with a LA-EA3 adaptor for E-mount.
This lens is inexpensive (~$110), sharp, and truly parfocal throughout the zoom range. If you are on a tripod (which I think you should be) the absence of stabilization is not an issue, and f 4 is plenty enough for shallow dof at this zoom range.
Another option is the Canon EF 80-200mm f2.8 L lens which is also parfocal and one stop faster.
The Sony e-mount lens is nice for photography, but costs 10 times as much and has the fly by wire focus ring of modern lenses, which is a nightmare for video as it is non-linear and it seems as you do not have full control for manual focus.
Click to expand...

Great tip Kostas...how does the Minolta lens and adapter cope with autofocus? How does it look at 1080/4k?
 
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