F5: Sony PL Lens Set version II

Chris Langer said:
I really wish I could afford the whole set now because this price might never come back around. For the price per lens, which is about $2000, you won't find anything comparable to be honest. I would say these lenses are on par with the Schneider Xenar III and Ultra Primes for image, control, and color. A step up from the mid-$5000/lens offerings in lenses like the Xenons, CN-E, and CP.2's.
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Do you have any footage that bares that out Chris? The Schneider IIIs and UPs are both exceptionally good lenses, and I haven't seen anything yet from the Sonys to put them above the other entry level Cine Primes.
 
Macgregor has a set and has been posting a bunch of stills on the F35/F65 forum and online on his website. Here is a new project that looks quite nice on the F35. I know these are web sized JPGs but you can still get a good idea of the quality of the lens from these stills.

http://www.migueldeolaso.com/work-avenue/#/snake-bite/
http://www.migueldeolaso.com/work-avenue/#/la91-film/

I have shot with the Schneider Xenar III in the past and it seems they look very similar. They have similar characteristics like contrast and color.
 
Thanks you Mitch! wow, that's an amazing deal then. I mean apart from them being on the heavy side and having the Sony logo instead of Cooke or Zeiss...they don't really have drawbacks.

Do you happen to know what's the image circle cover on those? will they cover Epic 5K?
 
Chris Langer said:
Macgregor has a set and has been posting a bunch of stills on the F35/F65 forum and online on his website. Here is a new project that looks quite nice on the F35. I know these are web sized JPGs but you can still get a good idea of the quality of the lens from these stills.

http://www.migueldeolaso.com/work-avenue/#/snake-bite/
http://www.migueldeolaso.com/work-avenue/#/la91-film/

I have shot with the Schneider Xenar III in the past and it seems they look very similar. They have similar characteristics like contrast and color.
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:thumbsup:
 
I think that what happened was Sony was unable to sell the lenses at the original list price so is discounting them deeply.

Ned Soltz
 
nsoltz said:
I think that what happened was Sony was unable to sell the lenses at the original list price so is discounting them deeply.

Ned Soltz
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It's rather the biggest concern with these lenses I think. They offer FANTASTIC value at the moment, but given the firesale pricing, I imagine Sony will most likely discontinue them as soon as stock is all sold off. Which could really compromise their long-term viability is parts availability becomes an issue for servicing.
 
anatusa said:
have u seen that test, that i posted earlier..... seems like flare is not well controlled: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CF7vFr6nUE
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Just seen it now, from the test it seems the Sony has the less breathing and less flaring from the 3. for me it seems the Sony are from a higher class of lenses, they're more comparable to mid range lenses that cost around 25-40K for a set.

Generally speaking I for one use the forum more to hear first hand from pros, as Youtube and Vimeo are not always the best tool to see a lens and those lenses are hard to get on the rental market so it's not like I can go to one of the rental companies I work with and test them.

I also look for a character in a lens, all three lenses don't show much character but I would say the Sony could be mistaken for a higher end lens like Ultra Prime while the CP2 is the worst in the bunch looking basically like a still lens more than anything else, and the Xeen look decent.

I also like the Bokeh on the sony better than the other two from this test and other tests I've seen so far.

Everyone have different opinions, especially on lenses!
 
oron cohen said:
Just seen it now, from the test it seems the Sony has the less breathing and less flaring from the 3. for me it seems the Sony are from a higher class of lenses, they're more comparable to mid range lenses that cost around 25-40K for a set.

Generally speaking I for one use the forum more to hear first hand from pros, as Youtube and Vimeo are not always the best tool to see a lens and those lenses are hard to get on the rental market so it's not like I can go to one of the rental companies I work with and test them.

I also look for a character in a lens, all three lenses don't show much character but I would say the Sony could be mistaken for a higher end lens like Ultra Prime while the CP2 is the worst in the bunch looking basically like a still lens more than anything else, and the Xeen look decent.

I also like the Bokeh on the sony better than the other two from this test and other tests I've seen so far.

Everyone have different opinions, especially on lenses!
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i dont understand it, that why i asked what does it mean? when the guy in video test turn on the phone light ..... zeiss and the other one showed like a star lines in different directions, so its bad?..... and sony shows something else.... its good? i seriously dont know that....
 
When a light shines straight into a lens, it is bad if:

1. There is a ghost of the light elsewhere. I saw this in the first Zeiss, but not the first of the other two (I haven't watched the entire video. Too boring. :)
2. The area around the light, or the whole image, fogs up. None of the lenses show this too bad.

The Sony's are great lenses! (Cookes are just as heavy, by the way --- the ones that open to f-2)
 
combatentropy said:
When a light shines straight into a lens, it is bad if:

1. There is a ghost of the light elsewhere. I saw this in the first Zeiss, but not the first of the other two (I haven't watched the entire video. Too boring. :)
2. The area around the light, or the whole image, fogs up. None of the lenses show this too bad.

The Sony's are great lenses! (Cookes are just as heavy, by the way --- the ones that open to f-2)
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There's a reason why Zeiss Compact Primes are named "Compact". Their weight is comparably lighter then usual cinema primes thus we shouldn't compare other ones to them. They're from a different flock. Having that in mind Sony primes are (almost) equal to others.
 
Flaring comes in two varieties. Reflective flares are, well, reflections. Shine a bright light into the lens and see a spot of light reflected in another part of the frame. The reflection can be in various colors due to optical coatings on the lens. Depending on the optical design the reflection can be in focus or diffused.

Veiling is the glow that can surround a bright light source. It can lead to an overall reduction in contrast and resolving power.

The test repeatedly mentioned here does not compare all the focal lengths available in the Sony Cine Alta set and it does not test in any way that I would consider particularly useful. I will always point a camera and lens at some bright point sources at a far distance (at least 15 feet) to see what happens with the reflective flaring. Bad reflective flaring to me means that the point sources not only easily reflect, but they also appear in focus when the source is in focus, meaning that they focus on the same plane. If you had a lens with bad reflective flaring then imagine shooting an exterior night scene with street lams in the distance. It would light the who screen up like a Christmas tree. That's very distracting.

For Veiling, the simple test is an overexposed window, as it is also likely the most common real-life shooting scenario you may encounter with such an issue. The old Canon Super-16 zooms were known for the excessive amount of veiling they produced. There was a low cost brand of 35mm PL lenses (not the Sony Cine Altas) that almost made it to market about two years ago, but when I was sent a test set I told them to go back to the drawing board as they had the worst veiling I had ever seen in my life, like some kind of crazy effects lens. It looked fine on a test chart, but no one shoots test charts for a living. The company that was developing them told me they lost more than a million bucks when they cancelled that project.

I will not speak overly praising or ill of any current product from another manufacturer. That would be rude. I tested the Sony Cine Alta primes when they came out and I encourage others to do such tests as well. These lenses have not sold well so it may be difficult to get one's hands on demo lenses to test. I can tell you that these tests are worth doing on any glass, as are others for determining field curvature, broken artifacts, focal planing, and numerous other optical qualities.
 
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