Sony SELP18200 w/Zoom Rocker Tested

J

jcs

Veteran
Just received Sony SELP18200 lens from Amazon; updated firmware to 2.0 from Sony Asia. This lens looks physically nicer than the silver kit lens and also has a smoother manual zoom. The servo zoom with rocker goes from glacial slow to slightly faster than that at max speed. Not much variation in speed from slowest to fastest. Image quality, IS, and autofocus look similar to kit lens. Will test IQ more later. The slow servo zoom might be good for some cinematic shots but is too slow for ENG or reality type shots.
 
I'm interested in this lens although I don't know if I'll pick it up due to the fact that I already have the kit lens with the same focal length.
Would be nice to have a servo zoom once in while though.

I wonder what the second hand market is for the non servo version is these days?
 
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wish we could see the clip.... if some one who has the lens could post some clip example would be wonderful! about the zoom speed, i wonder if its something that could be changed by future firmware upgrade...
 
I think it's a far better investment to get the Red Rock micro remote and turn all of your glass in servo zoom lenses
 
True North said:
I think it's a far better investment to get the Red Rock micro remote and turn all of your glass in servo zoom lenses
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Interesting though requires a rail-rig system; lots of extra complexity and weight, batteries, etc.

This lens can work as a 1-lens does it all on the FS700. Very low light will be noisy, but can be cleaned with Neat video. Handheld, the manual zoom works well for R&G and ENG style (with autofocus, active IS, and auto ISO), and on a tripod can work for slow cinematic zooms. It won't replace my Speed Booster and Canon lenses, but it is a really nice all-around lens. Only gripe is while it's plenty slow on slow, I'd like something faster on max speed. Still need to compare IQ to kit lens and SB+Canon L's.
 
There will be sample to sample variance; housing/frame is a bit different (would also guess optics and other parts would be similar/same).
 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...dition=used&me=&qid=1363849224&seller=&sr=8-1

but be careful with that math_&_photo seller, i had a super bad experience with them. i bought a lens that was supposed to be in good condition and was definitely not. i sent it back the very next day but after it was all said and done lost almost $200 in shipping and restocking fees. looks like they maintain a decent rating by selling children's toys and fast shipping so negative reviews get bumped down super quick. anyway, if you hold out for a few months i'm sure some legit sellers like keh or adorama will probably pop up soon.
 
Just received the lens. Fast zoom is slow, that I can deal with. But what is kind of a pain is that the lens will lose focus when zoomed in all the way, and starting even the slowest zoom.
Personally I find this unacceptable, but I may just have to deal with it. Sort of defeats the purpose IMHO as I tend to shoot a lot of live music performance video and if I can not pull a zoom back without focus shifting radically what's the point really?
Bummer.
 
ksteiger said:
Just received the lens. Fast zoom is slow, that I can deal with. But what is kind of a pain is that the lens will lose focus when zoomed in all the way, and starting even the slowest zoom.
Personally I find this unacceptable, but I may just have to deal with it. Sort of defeats the purpose IMHO as I tend to shoot a lot of live music performance video and if I can not pull a zoom back without focus shifting radically what's the point really?
Bummer.
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Alister Chapman also has mentioned that the lens doesn't hold focus. I find this curious: the SEL18200 (and I've used at least 5 copies) is pretty much parfocal in my experience. Not exactly but close enough, and I suspect with some help from the electronics.

Based on the official specs of the two lenses on Sony's website, they seem to have slightly different optical designs. So hopefully the SELP has some improvements otherwise. But this makes its unparfocal-ness all the more weird.

Correction: Just tried again and actually the SEL18200 also loses focus momentarily as you zoom out, but then adjusts itself after a second or so. I never noticed it because it's done quite subtly, not "radical" as you state for the SELP.
 
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Just received mine today. (Australia). For anyone else in oz Stock is now 3 weeks away.

Due to use on a project I ended up getting it from Hong Kong on eBay. Immediately worked fine on the firmware I loaded a few weeks ago.


I was kind of hoping at the same time we would get the digital lossless crop zoom for prime lenses, but don't think so. Maybe they have to enable 4k out at same time or something?




It's nice to have the rectangle video hood, but ill miss the bag storage aspect of the petal hood (where you can reverse it onto the lens). You cannot with the power zoom, due to the underslung motor, best you can do is reverse it and sit it loosely over it vertically. Would work in a pinch if space was tight
 
Actually, I dug out my old pan bar, a manfrotto 524cfi with a zoom controller. It has a 8pin fujinon connector not 2.5mm lanc. Has anyone with a zoom / start / stop controller with a 2.5m lanc connection tried it on the sony fs700? I am pretty sure it would not send a variable zoom rate signal and magically get a faster zoom. It'd be expecting it to just zoom at the rate set on the lens hard switch. Still might be handy though to get the zoom and start/stop down onto a pan bar. Id be happy with a clamp on instead of a full bar, either way.

There are so many to choose from, cheap and cheeful would be ok too, don't plan on using it much. Anyone had one they liked they think would work?
 
timmytimetravel said:
Actually, I dug out my old pan bar, a manfrotto 524cfi with a zoom controller. It has a 8pin fujinon connector not 2.5mm lanc. Has anyone with a zoom / start / stop controller with a 2.5m lanc connection tried it on the sony fs700? I am pretty sure it would not send a variable zoom rate signal and magically get a faster zoom. It'd be expecting it to just zoom at the rate set on the lens hard switch. Still might be handy though to get the zoom and start/stop down onto a pan bar. Id be happy with a clamp on instead of a full bar, either way.

There are so many to choose from, cheap and cheeful would be ok too, don't plan on using it much. Anyone had one they liked they think would work?
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I have a vari-zoom Canon/Sony Lanc - I only have the kit lens that came with my FS700 but the LANC can control the focus of the lens as well as the Rec start/stop. Based on its existing functionality, I am pretty sure it would manage the zoom function with a zoom compatible lens like the SELP. I can't see why it wouldn't also manage the zoom rate/speed.
 
Reaaaalllly... Very interesting. I thought I had read somewhere focus control didn't work. That would be very cool.

I've confirmed in the zoom menu you can select fixed or variable, and it does work with the rocker. Max set speed is "32". which is the same as High on the lens. But if left at variable the rocker does work on a curve. So if the lanc controller has a little zoom speed dial (aside from you cannot make it go as fast as you like), you might assume it would work?

I wonder if it does both if that means you could pull focus using the remote. Does it lag a bit on non zoom lens for focus?

How about this, since you can remap focus transition to zebra , marker, last scene. Imagine if you could hit those buttons on the remote. That would give you essentially remote tethered focus for a jib. :)

Even a face detect button on the remote would be handy, turn it on and off when you run and gunning.
 
I have to admit I was a bit surprised as well that the focus control worked. It's much quicker to use a follow focus or just grab the focus ring but because of the flexibility on where you can mount the Lanc, it's a lot more convenient to use the LANC. I originally purchased the LANC for a Canon Vixia HF G10 amd I only used it for zoom and Rec Start/Stop. The LANC also controls the amount of screen data you can see with the data button. Strangely enough, the auto focus button on the lanc does not work with the FS700.

Here is the link;

http://www.varizoom.com/product-p/vzstealthlx.htm

It's also worth noting that a remote lanc is a cheaper option to buying those over-priced rosette kits
 
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Really cool news!
I tested my Varizoom LANC controller and it functions on zoom, zoom speed, focus and rec start/stop. In addition, the LANC focus control works with my metabones adapter on a Canon EOS lens.
 
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