Lens Set Question

[Joseph Wilkins]

Hello,

I currently own a sony EX1 with a redrock lens adaptor, a Canon 5D MK II and am anxiously awaiting the RED Scarlett S35 with removable lens capability.

I am about to lay out a chunk of change on 3-4 lenses and have been looking at either Canon or Zeiss lenses. I want to use these lenses with all 3 cameras ( EX1, MK II and Scarlett)

I am getting 20mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm... all Prime lenses... no zooms.

With Canon I'll be paying around $1600 for these lenses... with Zeiss it is more like $4,000. While I can afford the $4k, I want to know if anyone thinks this is worth it... or if there is another brand I should consider in the sub $5k budget.

Thanks

[Kenneth Elkington]

Which lens models are you looking at?

[David W. Jones]

My advice would be to save money and purchase used lenses.
Your biggest decision is do you need autofocus lenses for your Canon, or will manual focus lenses work for you. If manual focus works for you, then there are many many brands that will work with a Canon EF mount that will give you excellent results. Nikon, Zeiss, Rollei, Pentax, Contax, Leica, and many others will work with inexpensive lens mount adapters.

Good Luck!

[Matthew Duclos]

The biggest difference between the Canon and Zeiss lenses you would be considering is build tolerance. Canon primes will be autofocus, which means they will have loose, lightweight internals to allow the small motors to drive the focus. Where as with Zeiss or similar "solid" lenses your focus racking will be solid and there wont be any lost motion or image shift. Optical quality won't be as much of a difference as mechanical quality.
I'm not saying that Canon build quality is bad at all, just meant for different applications.

[Andrew Rieger]

You may be interested in the upcoming version 2 Zeiss Compact Primes which can be adapted to work on Canon, Nikon and PL all in one lens set. There are expensive, in the pro prime price range but they seem to cover all your needs. If they are too expensive, I would go with the Duclos modified Zeiss ZF cine lenses. They are great in the still versions and are even better when modded.