Clever lens choice for an indie filmmaking on a budget...

[Vincent Thomas]

First, Happy new Year! :)

Okay...Let's say i'm getting a little confused now... As for now, my humble equipement is just a 5d II and GH2 with acouple of nice Leica/Zeiss contax and Canon lens... As for now, im waiting to see next year between a Epic S , a Scarlet or the new Canon ... So for now, I will like to investigate in few lens that i need to shoot one or two projects...

My first thought was go for other prime Leica or Zeiss DSLR 35mm lens as manual focusing on a the Canon lens is a nightmare... Now Epic is supposedly to be able to understand AF of these EF lens then maybe IS as well who know? Then Canon is going to come up with his new camera, so is it still a good choice?

So what you guys will pick between

- Getting more Zeiss and Leica prime DSLR 35mm lens
- Go for Canon L IS lens or zoom like the 100 IS L macro, and 14 or 24L?
- Go for a Red lens zoom
- Pick an old Cooke T3.1 20-100 or an even older Angenieux 20-120mm T2.9?

I like the idea of a zoom which allow fast and flexible shooting ... How these 2 last zooms compared to prime DSLR lens in term of optical quality and usability?

Your words are very welcome!



vincent*

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Vincent Thomas
http://www.stranger-than-paradise.book.fr/
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[paulherrin]

i'm sorry but i wouldn't worry too much about that canon camera...

you may want to wait and see RED's new electronic lenses.

but all of those lenses might be good choices... i can't make the decision for you.
depends a lot on how and what you shoot.

[Tim Hole]

Red lenses, and ALWAYS on the look out for cheaper vintage but they are becoming increasingly hard to find nowadays.

[Vincent Thomas]

It's what i was afraid to hear :)
Yes, i think all these different options could work in some context. I guess also my confusion came to the fact also that we maybe now see a new way of shooting with light camera setup and "intelligent focus" or so... Not everyone is or could have a focus puller with a luxury follow focus, so this option interested me even i also like the old all manual school :)

I'm a little afraid to go for an old PL zoom actually... these beast are expansive today and well they quite huge and heavy which is something that may not match my way of shooting. I love their vintage look, sharpness is too often overated isn'it? But what about if i want to get away from that? Will not be easier to transform the picture capture with a modern lens to a vintage picture?

v*




i'm sorry but i wouldn't worry too much about that canon camera...

you may want to wait and see RED's new electronic lenses.

but all of those lenses might be good choices... i can't make the decision for you.
depends a lot on how and what you shoot.

[Henk van den Doel]

Besides being on the lookout for vintage glass, in your situation I don't think I would buy a lens now. You already have some nice glass to work with I think. There is always more luring (trust me I know the feeling), but often it's just great to work with what you have. And working your way around small trouble and finding out you ended up with great stuff because you worked hard to achieve what you were looking for. Often works better than being lazy and simply screwing on a different lens. If you have something wide, medium and tele, you should be able to create whatever you want.

Although a lens will probably always hold a certain value, old PL zoom lenses would not be on my list now. They are relatively expensive and I have a feeling it's best to wait and see what's coming the next half year. Unless you stumble upon a bargain somewhere of course. But maybe rather than buying more lenses, the money is better spent on the right body behind it. Or feeding the crew ;)

[Vincent Thomas]

Feel like it was much easier to get a hand on an old decent PL zoom few years ago, price have been rising to another sky recently isn'it?

I agree totally with you for the rest, unfortunately, i actually need some as i sold few...a new 50mm a 85 and a possibly very wide lens... If only Canon lens will have better focus ring honestly, and why they still making only this 70-200 in this creamy white? :)

The 85mm question is really tricky as im really afraid to regret at some point later to pick a nice lens without AF or IS option ... Then i will really like to borrow one day one of this PL zoom to see if i could fit me... I like the idea to be able to capture in 3 sec without changing lens, a close-up after just shooting a wide shoot, great for capturing the unexpected moment...

Any gentleman with a PL zoom in Vancouver i could borrow one day? :)




Besides being on the lookout for vintage glass, in your situation I don't think I would buy a lens now. You already have some nice glass to work with I think. There is always more luring (trust me I know the feeling), but often it's just great to work with what you have. And working your way around small trouble and finding out you ended up with great stuff because you worked hard to achieve what you were looking for. Often works better than being lazy and simply screwing on a different lens. If you have something wide, medium and tele, you should be able to create whatever you want.

Although a lens will probably always hold a certain value, old PL zoom lenses would not be on my list now. They are relatively expensive and I have a feeling it's best to wait and see what's coming the next half year. Unless you stumble upon a bargain somewhere of course. But maybe rather than buying more lenses, the money is better spent on the right body behind it. Or feeding the crew ;)

[Matt W.]

Because the Canon cameras are so small (prone to shake) and skewy, I find image stabilization invaluable. The Canon vDSLRs are good at one thing: being small and fast to operate for surprisingly great looking footage. The footage is too compressed to grade or push/pull aggressively and prone to aliasing and skew, but nothing else delivers such a great "look" at acceptable resolution in such a tiny package. They're great crash cameras or b cameras or good for guerilla shoots or whatever. Since the image isn't that sharp in the first place I can pull focus acceptably accurately on the LCD with the t2i if I have a lens with long enough focus throw. Strapping a huge PL mount zoom to a Canon dSLR seems to betray these strengths for little gain. The image quality will never be great so there are seriously diminishing returns if you try to do things to improve it.

On an APS-C camera, I dig the 17-50mm IS zooms... The kit lens is surprisingly useful except for its slow aperture and many scenes can be covered with these focal lengths alone. On the 5DII, I guess a 24-70mm f2.8 and 70-200mm f2.8 IS combo (or any long fast IS lens) would be relatively fast and comprehensive. I don't shoot handheld with these things except very carefully and with IS on. Also, cinema lenses won't cover the 5DII's full frame, so....

[Liam Hall]

What new Canon? Last I heard was a rumour about a rumour...

As for lenses for Epic-S; I'd wait and see how good the touch focussing is before making that call.