Starting lens kit when you buy this camera

J

Julienmassie

Member
Hi,

Sorry for my bad english im french

I have read 2-3 pages of thread in this forum but I ....still have some questions.
Im from the professinoal VIDEO production world, I was always used to work whit standart video zoom lens ( eng or hard body style lens ). I made a couple of docs, corporate, tv show whit the XDCAM series camcorder and used some regural video zoom lens.

In the past 18 month I worked a couple of time whit the 5d but since the (*&#@ sound and all the negative aspect of this camera i was like ... I will wait for a better option.

Now the AF100 come out. Yes, finally when i read the spec i see all my option ( sound, TC, monitoring ... ) .. But when i look at the other side of the camera im like Ok ... what type of lens im gonna put there ... ?

Now i see all these adapters for canon, nikon, dslr lens... Im like ok nice problem solved, lets buy this. But when i take a closer look im like ... ooh ... where is my Iris rig ? I realle HATED the fact that whit the 5d, ex1, and semi-pro camcorder I had to control my iris whit the camera body control. When i shoot docs i dont have time to set-up my iris in a menu, go back, record ... now a cloud go away and i have to close 2-3fstop but i cant ! Because my dam god iris control is not on the lens ! Its so faster to do it when you have a Iris ring since your hand is already on the focus ring !

So my question and my needs are simple.

I need to buy some FAST lens whit ALL the MANUAL control on it. ( Iris, Focus, Zoom ( if its a zoom lens )). And the right adaptor too !
I would like to have

- A FAST lens that can do verry wide shot ( under 25mm whit the X factor if possible ) under 1000$
- A FAST zoom lens for run and gun ( like around 35-130 ) under 1500$ ( it will be my primary one )
- A FAST 50mm lens under 1000$

And if i have some money left i will consider a telephoto lens, but i dont need it or i will rent it if i need one. But i just want a 2 lens kit to start. I need to keep some money for the soulder rig, matte box, ...
 
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Your lens choices will be limited to the still or film world. There are a lot fo choices but a lot will need an adaptor to connect to the AF-100. Video style servo driven zoom lenses are out of the question as of right now. I wish but it is not a reality. This is a cinema designed camera and is not the best choice for "video" style work. Not to say it has no value in this space but your workflow has to be more cinema style to use the type of camera effectively.

The Zeiss lenses are some of the best for video work as they have very nice focus movement for a still lens and great glass.
 
Yes most of my projet will be more cinematic ( Tv spot, docs, corporative ). I know i have to switch to cine-photo lens but since some of you seem to really know and have tried a couple of lens i was wondering what would be your choice if you had these needs.

I need to buy some FAST lens whit ALL the MANUAL control on it ( iris, focus, zoom ( if its a zoom lens ))

- A FAST lens that can do verry wide shot ( under 25mm whit the X factor if possible ) under 1000$
- A FAST zoom lens for run and gun ( like around 35-130 ) under 1500$ ( it will be my primary one )
- A FAST 50mm lens under 1000$

For the 50mm i would probably buy something like the Zeiss Ikon (ZM) C Sonnar T* 1,5/50 ZM at 1000 €
But for my cine style zoom one ... ?

but what would be the X factor of this zeiss lens ? Since ...
"... sensor size being micro four thirds means most of your 35mm lens are a bit telephoto. With a 2x crop from a full frame 35mm sensor you lose a lot on those lenses. So my 50mm gives me a field of view of 100mm. That is the biggest issue. ....Panasonic urgently need to bring out some fast wide lenses."
 
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Many people that have/had 35mm adaptors will use their manual Nikon and Canon FD lenses. These can be had at reasonable prices, have a manual iris and have fast primes available, plus some reasonable (but slower) zooms.
 
I don't think you'll find any neat fits at this time. Most of the manual still lenses out there were built for 35mm and don't go wider than 24mm or maybe 21mm, which will not be very wide on this camera with the crop factor. For a run-and-gun lens, esp at 35-100, I assume you'd want image stabilization since there isn't any in-camera. I don't know of any stabilized zooms with manual aperture rings. Even if you don't need IS, you're options are very limited.

You could try adapting C-Mount lenses or use PL lenses, but the former seems a bit fiddly to me and the latter will get very expensive. Otherwise you may need to learn to love adjusting iris on the camera. Even then, wide-fast lenses are not this camera's strong suit at the moment, as is well documented in many other threads here. I think those lenses will come, but they're not here yet (and they're unlikely to have manual iris control when they arrive.)

Here would be my suggestions from the current field:

Wide lenses:
- Panasonic 7-14 f/4. Not fast but very wide and very nice.
- Olympus 11-22 f/2.8-3.5 - Not as wide but still pretty wide and a bit faster. Also there's a Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 that lots of people love.
- Panasonic 14 f/2.5 - Not as fast as we'd like and will look ridiculously tiny on this camera, but the cheapest option.

Zooms for run-and-gun:
- Panasonic 14-140 f/4-5.8 - Sloooow but otherwise good, excellent stabilization and good AF capability if you care.
- Olympus 12-60 f/2.8-4 or 14-54 f/2.8-3.5 - Not stabilized but otherwise excellent.
- Olympus 14-35 and 35-100 f/2 - $2,000 each and not stabilized, but top quality.
 
Here is my setup ( soon to be )

tokina 11-16mm f2.8 = 600
panasonic 20mm f1.7 = 350
nikon 24mm f2
nikon 35mm f2
nikon 50mm f1.4
nikon 85mm f2
nikon 105mm f2.5
nikon 135mm f2.8

and i picked up all those nikons for around a grand. They were in amazing condition.
:)
 
The Rainbow imaging Nikon to micro 4/3 adapter I recently got does control the apeture on the Tokina 12-24 (which does not have an apeture ring). I read a quite a number of customer reviews on other adapters and people were having a lot of trouble removing the adapter from the lens on several of the other models... There are a lot of still lenses available on Ebay and elsewhere, but as has been stated frequently on this forum, the Panasonic 14-140 will be a good standby... at least to start with.
 
PaPa said:
Here is my setup ( soon to be )

tokina 11-16mm f2.8 = 600
panasonic 20mm f1.7 = 350
nikon 24mm f2
nikon 35mm f2
nikon 50mm f1.4
nikon 85mm f2
nikon 105mm f2.5
nikon 135mm f2.8

and i picked up all those nikons for around a grand. They were in amazing condition.
:)
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Aren't these all Nikon 35mm still lenses? The reason I ask is because I'm also considering using my current primes for my Canon 7D on the AF100 when it comes out. Do you know if the magnification factor is for such lenses?
 
Finnegan said:
Aren't these all Nikon 35mm still lenses? The reason I ask is because I'm also considering using my current primes for my Canon 7D on the AF100 when it comes out. Do you know if the magnification factor is for such lenses?
Click to expand...

1.18

-JJ Labritakis
 
Seems to me the lens everyone should get for this cam is the 20mm Lumix f/1.7. It's cheap, high quality for the dollar, native 4/3, fast and wide. It's definitely tops on my list with the tokina 11-16 with adaptor a close second.

Beyond that, it seems the sky is the limit with this camera and lenses. As long as you don't get caught up in the "crop-factor" tizzy and realize that this is a film-like movie cam, and NOT a 35mm stills cam, lens finding will be easy!
 
Yeah, that pancake lens is definitely a must have for the camera. Gives us the 24mm back, pretty much.
 
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