C300: Zacuto First Look at the Canon 18-80 Zoom Lens

Really thoughtful post Ned. Thanks for that. Maybe pitch it as an article to your favorite high-volume website/blog so more can read it?

Speaking of whether buying a particular bit of kit makes good business sense, Frank Capria came up with this nice Excel spreadsheet about 10 years ago (after 20ish years as a PBS editor, post sup, etc...and then some more as a straight-up MBA business guy). Here's the text from his blog page and then a link to that page where you can download the spreadsheet:

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Equipment purchase calculator
June 7, 2006 8:43 am | 3 Comments | Frank Capria
Conflicted about which piece of equipment to buy? A colleague is considering a major capital expenditure, so I reworked an Excel spreadsheet I developed last year that compared Avid and Final Cut Pro systems to be more generic. I thought I’d post it here as well.

Input the price of each system, the percent you plan on financing, the finance rate, and your internal rate of return. Internal rate of return is your opportunity cost. If the capital to purchase this equipment were to be invested elsewhere, how much would you expect to make? Ten percent is a standard benchmark.

The spreadsheet uses a macro, so Excel will pop up a warning. Click through it and you are good to go.

Download here:
http://www.capria.tv/2006/06/equipment-purchase-calculator/comment-page-1/

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It's helped me separate "want" from "need" a few times...
 
nedcam said:
And DLD, here's my plan. ....
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Hey, Ned. As another ex-Milwaukeean, I say, "stay warm".

As to gear vs. skill, there'll always be clients that will prefer experience over gear and, especially experience to which they can relate. Gear will inevitably be getting less and less expensive and mo' better with every product cycle.

PS. Oh and what's wrong with being a 75-YO video shooting geezer in Miami? 75-YO in Miami is practically a young pup.
 
There's also an intrinsic value that gets you booked again, or referred to another gig.

The purchases I make have to make my life or my clients life easier in a tangible way:
I dropped twelve hundred on a cart this year. As carts go that's not a lot anymore, but it's still twelve hundred dollars. It obviously reduces my load in/out time while saving my back, allowing me to work more days/year. Will I recoup that investment? Not directly. Will it make my life easier? Of course, and it looks professional because it helps keep me organized during the shoot doubling as a charging station/monitor cart, etc. That's my cost/benefit ratio right there.

Cameras are on another level, I know. I too made the mistake of buying the better camera and not the popular camera once. It hurt. Nothing sucks as much as having gear sit in a closet, not working. There are at least a couple amazing cameras out there I will never touch for that reason. But a few that are right on the edge. A lot of guys get booked because they have X brand. That's the tough decision.

The last two year I've beefed up my components, only buying things that can potentially last a life time: OConnor sticks, Porta brace and Pelican cases, Bright Tangering MB, Canon cine zoom, Firecrest ND's, A/B batts', ARRI/Mole/LTM/Alladin lighting, etc. and my clients recognize the difference in quality between what I show up with and the owner/op with the 3rd party acc's that don't play well together, and have expressed it.

I've learned to really think beyond the rental/return model and have been forced to think about intrinsic value as well (rental return is important, absolutely, I'm just suggesting fundamental value is not the only consideration).

I'm probably preaching to the choir...
 
Good stuff, Ned. Hind sight kinda pisses you off, though. You will drive yourself crazy if you look back at everything you should have done, but didn't. Hell, if we all had taken the money that we used to buy our first cameras and bought Apple stock then instead, we'd all own private islands and wipe our butts with $100 bills.

And Bill, good point about the piece of gear having to make your life easier. That was a huge part of my decision on the 17-120.

It's going to be a stretch for the lens to pay for itself with a higher day rate, since not many clients are willing to pay for things like that nowadays, but it making my life easier and allowing me to shoot more efficiently, quicker and better, that has value, too. So far, it's been a good purchase. I let a lot of people know I bought it the day I took delivery. I used it a few days later on a shoot, had a friend call me right after that wanting me on a three day shoot next month with it and my 55 and had another friend text me Friday night to rent it this weekend.

It's not always a good idea to just buy something without needing it, but sometimes, certain pieces of gear are in-demand and you will get calls just because you own it. Sometimes to shoot with it, sometimes just to rent it. These days, I love renting out my gear. It's another source of income and I don't have to do anything. Like Dire Straits said, "Money for nothing and your chicks for free".
 
nedcam said:
What's left of this lifespan? Do I want to spend $ on gear when that amount of money could mean visiting somewhere I haven't been? I've travelled all over the world on other people's money my entire life as a cameraman, so having to do it on my own dime now is an ouch, and $6500 would buy a week scuba diving in Fiji, right?
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Aside from a pure profitability standpoint, I think you can also look at gear from a hobby/enjoyment standpoint. What makes my life easier/more enjoyable, a trip to Fiji or a new lens? For me, it's likely a new lens. I'd probably be bored in Fiji because I don't know anyone there, and what I most like about vacations is seeing people I know in different places.

What I'm saying is, why is it necessarily a bad thing for one to spend money on equipment that may not necessarily directly profit them? A person can splurge on a new car and that's cool, but if they splurge on equipment we should frown upon that?

Most or all of my equipment purchases have profit in mind. I'm just saying, I don't see the need to look down upon those who do spend on more than they need and call it a "disease" just because they'd rather spend their surplus money on video equipment rather than vacations to Fiji.
 
Hey Bill,

Is this the cart you bought?

http://www.kerrikart.com/index.html

I know this DP Bill Kerrigan who invented it and sold the design to Matthews to be produced, this is his hope for retirement. He also shoots litigation video, which got me more interested in it as an easy, cheap thing to do.

Back to shoveling...
 
Thanks Jim for that calculator, and DLD I hope you’re warm. And Pure Drifting for joining the IA union! They would never let me in, so I hold a grudge. Back then, only the sons and nephews could get into the union. And Eric, I'd take Fiji over gear!

Best,

Ned
 
Very nice, looks heavy duty. Me, I'm a poor boy. The shelf was $12 at Home Depot, but it does sag in the middle, and the baskets on each end were just $10. I tell the client he or she can use the basket for their little stuff opposite of my basket holding my coffee cup, and that works out great. The tripod is somewhere on a wheeled spreader and the Diva and 1x1 lights are on rolling stands. I had to downsize everything to fit into a Pilot.
 

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I know we've discussed it 1000's of times, but the Rock 'N Rollers are still one of the best buys in this industry.
 
Run&Gun said:
I know we've discussed it 1000's of times, but the Rock 'N Rollers are still one of the best buys in this industry.
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I have three of them. Saved my life so many times. When I have to go into buildings with only stair access, I pout because I can't bring my R&Rer in.
 
It's always so funny to see the kinds of carts that get used outside of Vancouver. Here every single cart needs a rain cover to be considered viable...
 
IanTheM said:
It's always so funny to see the kinds of carts that get used outside of Vancouver. Here every single cart needs a rain cover to be considered viable...
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Cart bag-

16894.JPG

Not only good for inclimate weather but also good from discouraging the Five Finger Discount when one is away from the cart and in an area where the public is milling about as you shoot.
 
nedcam said:
Very nice, looks heavy duty. Me, I'm a poor boy. The shelf was $12 at Home Depot, but it does sag in the middle, and the baskets on each end were just $10. I tell the client he or she can use the basket for their little stuff opposite of my basket holding my coffee cup, and that works out great. The tripod is somewhere on a wheeled spreader and the Diva and 1x1 lights are on rolling stands. I had to downsize everything to fit into a Pilot.
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Yep, I too have the same R&Roller cart.

Ned, how did you mount the shelf on top? I was thinking of adding one to the highest or next to highest holes on side of the handles, with some sort of right angle piece of metal, but not sure what...
 
Back to the original subject of this thread, I will be receiving a loaner 18-80 lens this week from Canon for a review for a magazine and a website. Will post in a new thread what I find. Post here if you have any requests for me to check out on the new 18-80!
 
puredrifting said:
Back to the original subject of this thread, I will be receiving a loaner 18-80 lens this week from Canon for a review for a magazine and a website. Will post in a new thread what I find. Post here if you have any requests for me to check out on the new 18-80!
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Parfocal?
Light transmission loss while zooming at reduced apertures?
Distortion at 18mm?
Green and purple chromatic aberration at high contrast and out of focus areas when wide open?

I'm really intrigued by this lens and I've been waiting surprisingly impatiently for a review. If the lens doesn't have any of the above shortcomings and and has decent zoom and AF control, I will be saving up for a purchase.
 
Yes! Please let me know if you find any clients who will pay extra if you bring it on a gig ;-)
 
I had a chance to play with the 18-80 thanks to our friends at Texas Media Systems. Here's what I can tell you…

It's a killer lens. I didn't want to like it, but I really, really did. It's small, about the same weight as the 24-70 f2.8L II Canon. You can't really "get" just how small this lens is until you've got it in your hands.

From what I can tell, it's parfocal. I zoomed into 80mm, focused, and zoomed back out. Not only did it hold focus wide open, but I didn't see any other strange behavior.

I couldn't see any obvious distortion at 18mm, though I wasn't working with a focus chart.

I also didn't see any fringing/CA issues in out of focus areas. I actually thought the OOF areas looked very, very nice on this lens.

On my FS5, I wasn't able to do much with the focus/iris control features. (I think Metabones needs to update the firwmare for their adapters for that to happen.) But the image stabilization works beautifully.

Overall, I think this lens is going to make a lot of people very, very happy. I only wish it was a hair faster (f2.8 or 3.3 even), or full frame (so we could use it with the Speedbooster). But as sensitive as modern cameras are, I don't see T4.4 as as big a limiation as it would have been two or three years ago.

I hope this helps.
 
Stephen Mick said:
I had a chance to play with the 18-80 thanks to our friends at Texas Media Systems. Here's what I can tell you…

It's a killer lens. I didn't want to like it, but I really, really did. It's small, about the same weight as the 24-70 f2.8L II Canon. You can't really "get" just how small this lens is until you've got it in your hands.

From what I can tell, it's parfocal. I zoomed into 80mm, focused, and zoomed back out. Not only did it hold focus wide open, but I didn't see any other strange behavior.

I couldn't see any obvious distortion at 18mm, though I wasn't working with a focus chart.

I also didn't see any fringing/CA issues in out of focus areas. I actually thought the OOF areas looked very, very nice on this lens.

On my FS5, I wasn't able to do much with the focus/iris control features. (I think Metabones needs to update the firwmare for their adapters for that to happen.) But the image stabilization works beautifully.

Overall, I think this lens is going to make a lot of people very, very happy. I only wish it was a hair faster (f2.8 or 3.3 even), or full frame (so we could use it with the Speedbooster). But as sensitive as modern cameras are, I don't see T4.4 as as big a limiation as it would have been two or three years ago.

I hope this helps.
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Thanks for the report Stephen, still waiting for a shipping date from Canon! I'll check the same items too.
 
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