FS7: What is your best lens with your FS7

My supervisor thinks I already have spent too much time researching lenses, but I forgive him.S.

My 2p:

From your enthusiastic prose, I suspect your supervisor is right.

I suggest you buy as little as possible. Perhaps get the kit 28-135 plus a wide angle zoom to complement it for now. Vario-Tessar 16-35?

The FS7 is in such flux at the mo - there are so many gotchas, especially with lenses. I think the picture will change over the next year or so.

If you're going from a GH3, you've got a not-insignificant learning curve and leap of faith to take with SLog and Cine EI anyway.

I suggest you squirrel some of your budget away for later, get your head around the new camera (I recommend Doug's course), buy a cheap Commlite EF to Sony adapter and beg/borrow/steal EF and Sony lenses to try. You don't need to go to LA - any half decent local camera shop can source EF and Sony lenses.

One tip - all electronic lenses, Sony and Canon, have the same awful iris control on the FS7. I'd go as far as to say it's currently a defect on the camera. Maybe it will change with firmware.

The lens company that can come up with a range of manual iris and focus lenses and with IS will clean up. At the mo, the 28-135 is the nearest thing out there and it offers a glimmer of hope that Sony will bring out another at the wider end.

Ben.
 
That center crop scan will be truly useful mostly for HFR - Sony will be able to sell FS7 as a camera that can get same clean hfr as C300II...Unless you're shooting ONLY in HD I see it pointless otherwise. You can zoom in with two simple clicks in post (while still having ability to reframe or stabilise).

I was referring to this post. Why would center crop be especially useful in HFR? Doe sit make the image cleaner?
 
Just got the 18-105 and will report on it when I've had the chance to work with it.

Ned

I have done a blog post/review on it (although I was using it on the FS700) Short version is that
it has some very nice pluses and glaring minuses.

Pros

Great range
Non ramping iris
Non extending zoom (nice if you need to use a mattebox)
Smooth variable speed zoom when used with the zoom rocker (you can actually set it
to variable speed or fixed speed in the menu. If you set it to fixed you can choose the speed).
Once the correction is on, the images are pretty good
The lens is actually pretty light
Has a lot of E-Mount 'goodies' like image stabilization, auto focus (which actually works pretty decent),
auto iris, touch LCD screen to focus (spot focus) and so on.

Cons

'Fly by wire' focus and zoom. Almost impossible to 'hit spots' with the focus ring.
No snap zooms either.
Feels a little 'plasticy'.
Apparently image correction won't work in 4k (this is what I was told by Sony.)
However, I was NOT able to test this as again, I have a FS700 and not a FS7.
Further, I was also told by Sony that the image correction wouldn't work past 60p
with the FS700 AND IT DID! Even at 480fps! So not 100% sure.

For more on this along with test videos, you can check out the blog entry at:

http://alaskacameradude.blogspot.com/
 
My 2p:

From your enthusiastic prose, I suspect your supervisor is right.

I suggest you buy as little as possible. Perhaps get the kit 28-135 plus a wide angle zoom to complement it for now. Vario-Tessar 16-35?


I think one should research shots not lenses.

Typically I will shoot a sequence..

Introduce the place one (wide)
Many mids
Many Cu's

Leading me to want an 18, a 35 and a 80, with a simple change between 35 and 80

Which logically leads to owning a Cabrio, 19-90, A crappy plastic zoom like the 18-105 or an 18 prime and a 35-70 zoom, or three primes.

The trouble with the 28-135 is that it is I guess slow to remove and only offers me 2/3 of the shots I want, meaning I can do 3/3 of the shots I want more quickly (and at faster tstop and with proper manual focus) with other lens choices.

S
 
I have done a blog post/review on it (although I was using it on the FS700) Short version is that
it has some very nice pluses and glaring minuses.

Pros

Great range
Non ramping iris
Non extending zoom (nice if you need to use a mattebox)
Smooth variable speed zoom when used with the zoom rocker (you can actually set it
to variable speed or fixed speed in the menu. If you set it to fixed you can choose the speed).
Once the correction is on, the images are pretty good
The lens is actually pretty light
Has a lot of E-Mount 'goodies' like image stabilization, auto focus (which actually works pretty decent),
auto iris, touch LCD screen to focus (spot focus) and so on.

Cons

'Fly by wire' focus and zoom. Almost impossible to 'hit spots' with the focus ring.
No snap zooms either.
Feels a little 'plasticy'.
Apparently image correction won't work in 4k (this is what I was told by Sony.)
However, I was NOT able to test this as again, I have a FS700 and not a FS7.
Further, I was also told by Sony that the image correction wouldn't work past 60p
with the FS700 AND IT DID! Even at 480fps! So not 100% sure.

For more on this along with test videos, you can check out the blog entry at:

http://alaskacameradude.blogspot.com/

With the lens here for a day, I can pretty much agree with your assessment.

Information you have regarding lens correction is accurate. But one more thing-- MLUT is disabled with correction on.

Ned
 
If you use the same f-stop whether center scan is active or not, then the sensitivety is the same. I've had an F55 for two years and frequently use center scan so I am familiar with how it works already. The f/4 lens remains an f/4 lens and the ISO is the same. This is not open to interpretation.

But the DOF is that of an f8 lens on s35, and the ISO remains the same but gets noisier, so is it really the same if you need to lower ISO to get equivalent ISO performance. Whether or not it's 'noticeable' in 'most' situations doesn't change the fact that it is actually different. Of course anyone is welcome to ignore or believe what they want to or be realistic about the image characteristics if they feel it works well for their use, but that doesn't change the characteristics.
 
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what difference does center crop make with HFR?
Currently HFR are calculated from the whole 4K sensor and because it has to do it couple times faster then in normal speed calculations are less precise to deal with the bandwith/limited CPU power. With center scan one photosite will correspond to one pixel in the final image - no need for extra calculations. Less aliasing and other artefacts. Overall better image.
 
Currently HFR are calculated from the whole 4K sensor and because it has to do it couple times faster then in normal speed calculations are less precise to deal with the bandwith/limited CPU power. With center scan one photosite will correspond to one pixel in the final image - no need for extra calculations. Less aliasing and other artefacts. Overall better image.
Fabulous - sounds like Christmas for free !
Have you observed this in actual practice !
 
Hi Ben,
Thanks for your reply.

The reason for my enthusiasm and intensity, and for the amount of time I'm spending researching lenses for the FS7, comes down to three things:
1) The complexity of the current situation matching lenses to the FS7 with various adapters, including even Sony's own line of lenses
2) The learning curve, especially with my limited experience
3) The significant likelihood that the budget available for starting up video production capability is strongest NOW (meaning in the next few weeks only...end of fiscal year coming up...), and that money will be tight next year and the year after. I believe I'm in a "strike while the iron is hot" situation, and I'm trying to make sure I am covered in terms of the lenses I will need for the next year or two.

It's not possible to squirrel away budget: I wish I could, but, after June 30, this money goes "poof." Strange, I know, but that's the reality.

###
I will certainly request that we buy Doug's course on the FS7 to help me get up to speed.

S.
 
With center scan one photosite will correspond to one pixel in the final image - no need for extra calculations. Less aliasing and other artefacts. Overall better image.

I used to say that, but the more I use center scan for HFR on my F55, the less I like it. It is definately courser, grainier, and does not look very good. Normal frame rates with center scan look good, but not HFR. If you give me the choice of a 600mm lens shooting HFR with Full Scan vs. a 300mm lens shooting HFR with Center Scan, I'd take the real optics any day because the difference in image quality would be huge.

If you want some proof, here's some footage I shot on vacation last week and edited today. The image quality of all the HFR shots is clearly not up to par. The differences get smoothed out a little on Vimeo, but if you saw the original footage you'd agree. http://vimeo.com/127201592
 
I used to say that, but the more I use center scan for HFR on my F55, the less I like it. It is definately courser, grainier, and does not look very good. Normal frame rates with center scan look good, but not HFR. If you give me the choice of a 600mm lens shooting HFR with Full Scan vs. a 300mm lens shooting HFR with Center Scan, I'd take the real optics any day because the difference in image quality would be huge.

If you want some proof, here's some footage I shot on vacation last week and edited today. The image quality of all the HFR shots is clearly not up to par. The differences get smoothed out a little on Vimeo, but if you saw the original footage you'd agree. http://vimeo.com/127201592
Thank you Doug for clarifying that and giving some samples. I agree, there's something wrong with it, doesn't look as good.
 
Nikon G w/ Speedbooster >> manual aperture control; workaround for FS7 dial issue?

Nikon G w/ Speedbooster >> manual aperture control; workaround for FS7 dial issue?

Another newbie question:

If the Metabones adapters for Nikon include manual clickless control over aperture, how come I'm not hearing anyone propose Nikon lenses on the FS7 as a way around that hinky aperture control on the handgrip?


S.
 
Yup.
For years I've been begging adapter makers to add power to Nikon adapters for IS but no one bothers. If they did Nikon's would be the preferred choice and they would sell tons of adapters. I've never even gotten a response yjpoughhm. Write to Metabones.

You have to pick your poison because none of these lenses are perfect. I chose IS smooth iris,
 
Worth noting; Lenses with IS don't always work well, sometimes it completely ruins a shot. It can work but it's not a magic bullet.
 
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