FS7: Zeiss Milvus

Ben Scott said:
Never shot on those Canons. Report back.
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They were nice. Worked well, paired with an Arri LMB-25 matte box. Also, balanced well on my camera with the XDCA back and V-Lock battery. The lenses have great contrast, excellent flare control, super smooth focus, good close focussing, excellent bokeh, great build quality and feel good in the hand. Sharp wide open, not as sharp as the Zeiss in my mind, but plenty sharp enough, maybe a touch warm too, neither of which are a problem though. All in all, great value, a good product for the solo user, maybe not so much for crews as witness marks a small.

The 50mm was my favourite and worth the rental price for the set on it's own.

The only issue for me was the missing focal lengths - there's nothing between 14mm and 24mm. an 18mm or 21mm would have been great.

As usual with most of my stuff - can't post any images yet.
 
Liam Hall said:
maybe a touch warm
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One thing to consider when choosing primes is how well they color match any zooms you may also be using. For most of us that is going to be Canon EF zooms. Thus, if you care much about color matching, the Canon CN-e primes are going to better color-match the Canon EF zooms than will the Zeiss primes. I don't know of many shooters who own Zeiss Compact zooms.


The EF-only nature of the Canon CN-e's is a turnoff for some. Although, if you own an EF-to-e adapter and don't own a PL-to-e adapter the EF mount of the CN-e's is to your advantage. The general thought is that PL-mount is better for rental potential. If you are never going to rent out your primes, no matter. The thinking is also that PL is going to have better resale value than is EF. But that said, the PL-mount C300's are not able to command as high a resale value as are the EF-mount C300's. EF-mount, be it native or via adapter, is more widely used today than is PL. I'd venture to guess that 90+% of professional video today is shot with EF mount glass.

My conclusion after study of feedback on Reduser is that the consensus opinion there is that the CN-e's win out over the CP.2's. It could just be that the CN-e's are more the latest-greatest, more the "In" lens right now.

Whatever your preference, keep in mind that both the CN-e's and CP.2's ARE "just" rehoused still glass. You are not significantly gaining much optically over the EF primes and ZF/ZE line. Most of what you gain for that substantial price difference is ergonomics. Greater focus travel, greater iris travel, focus gearing.

I would still like to see Zeiss, Canon, Cooke, or Schneider release a set of "cine" primes with a smaller diameter barrel that is better for 1-man band shooting. Sizing more along the lines of the Zeiss Standard speeds / super speeds. With focus travel in the 180 degree range. A size like that of the Celere HS's. Focus ring and iris ring of the same diameter instead of different diameters as is the case with the CP.2's and CN-e's.
 
JPNola said:
One thing to consider when choosing primes is how well they color match any zooms you may also be using. For most of us that is going to be Canon EF zooms. Thus, if you care much about color matching, the Canon CN-e primes are going to better color-match the Canon EF zooms than will the Zeiss primes.
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Yes, I agree. Though, I didn't use any of my Canon zooms last week - so have no idea whether they'll match well or not.

JPNola said:
I'd venture to guess that 90+% of professional video today is shot with EF mount glass.
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Depends how you define professional. EF doesn't have much of a foothold in broadcast.

JPNola said:
Whatever your preference, keep in mind that both the CN-e's and CP.2's ARE "just" rehoused still glass.
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Probably more accurate to say they are based on stills designs. And pretty good stills design at that! There are differences though. Minor differences, but they are there. Certainly, the CN-E's don't breathe like their stills counterparts. And, to my eyes, both the 85mm and 50mm are much better wide open than their stills versions - they didn't deliver that cut and paste feel that the stills versions do.

JPNola said:
You are not significantly gaining much optically over the EF primes and ZF/ZE line. Most of what you gain for that substantial price difference is ergonomics. Greater focus travel, greater iris travel, focus gearing.
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True, minor gains. That's why I'm interested in the Milvus lenses.
 
m15.1.jpg


Even if it was just a rehouse of the existing 15mm, you want this. Hands down the best ultra-wide I've used.

18mm - a brand new f2.8 design.

m18.2.png


135mm f2

m135.3.png
 
I agree, the 15mm is da bomb. I even asked my supplier if they were going to add the 15mm to the range. Happy days...
 
Has anyone found any more info on these new lenses? Interested to know if they are new designs, like the 50mm and 85mm, or updates of the classic designs.
 
Thanks Ben. I am an idiot - I see that you wrote that above!

Of all the lens announcements, I still think these are the best fit for me.
 
I sort of want to sell my 21mm milvus, get the 15mm and get that 21mm-100mm zoom.

I won't be doing this. Inexpensive but decent wireless monitoring and DJI Focus up next I think. Then you know, mortgage. And food.
 
We just got a set of them at the shop.

Hard stops, very well made metal housings.

Installed the focus gears yesterday.

Sweet glass.
 
Yeah I saw that. Makes sense to wait for the proper Zeiss ones as the mechanics and breathing characteristics are already brilliant - so it's about $4,000 for a mechanical iris.
 
mcgeedigital said:
We just got a set of them at the shop.

Hard stops, very well made metal housings.

Installed the focus gears yesterday.

Sweet glass.
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Matt - just confirming you are talking about the 4 lens Milvus set? All this new glass on the market - has me head spinning.
 
I wonder how the new Sigma Cine will compete against Milvus? Milvus will certainly be a good bit cheaper, but the Sigma lenses are all f1.4 vs 2.8 and 2 on the wider Milvus. I like the Nikon mount Zeiss because it has an aperture ring, but focus is the wrong way. EF Milvus has electronic aperture which I hate. I love Zeiss color rendition but the Sigma Art is pretty damn nice as well.

But yeah, Sigma Cine primes likely to cost quite a bit more. But I might just have to do it.
 
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