Canon lenses

[wlaroussi]

Hi ,

With the new Canon mount adaptor for Red , what canon lenses should be the bests to ride this Camera ? Is there any limitation types ?

Regards .

[Craig Schober]

since red is officially releasing a canon lens adapter (hopefully just after nab), i too would like to know exactly which lenses will work with this.

for instance, i'm planning on getting a canon d5 and until my redzoom is released, i would like to use the same lens (prime or zoom) on my d5 as on the red. i understand the basic difference between cine and still lenses but what are the physical limitations to using 1 lens on 2 completely different systems? is it mechanical, optics or just power/auto stuff?

[Moir]

Unless I've missed something, it's unknown but probably doubtful whether the Red Canon adapter will allow use of the more modern Canon EOS lenses. The problem is these don't have an iris ring (same applies for some of the more recent Nikon lenses).

Birger Engineering is looking to make an adapter that will electronically control the iris in Canon EOS lenses, but until and unless that happens, you are looking at using discontinued Canon FD lenses which will not work without an adapter on any Canon DSLR.

[Evin Grant]

The Canon mount available for the Red will be the older Canon FD mount, not the EOS mount. There are some intersting lenses for this mount.
The 24mm 1.4
http://www.keh.com/ProductImages/fullSize/CA06000004250.jpg
35mm Tilt & Shift
http://www.keh.com/ProductImages/fullSize/CA06010400800.jpg
the 50mm f1.2L
http://www.keh.com/ProductImages/fullSize/CA06009002306.jpg
And 85mm f1.2L
http://www.keh.com/ProductImages/fullSize/CA06010400515.jpg
If you prefer the look of Canon glass this may be the way to go.

[Steve Gibby]

For nature and sports long focal lengths some other Canon FD candidates are:

Telephoto
Canon FD 300mm f2.8 ED, Canon FD 400mm f2.8, Canon FD 500mm f3.5, Canon FD 600mm f5.6 ED-IF

Long zoom
Canon FD 150-600mm f5.6 ‘L’

[Evin Grant]

Just to be fair Nikon also has some nice MF super teles for this kind of work...
200mm F2 (these are awesome!)
300mm F2 (If you can find and afford one)
300mm F2.8
400mm F2.8
400mm F3.5 (this is a great lens and a bargain)
500mm F4
600mm f5.6 (very compact for this long a lens)
800mm f5.6

[Steve Gibby]

No doubt Evin...I actually prefer the Nikkor long teles and zooms over the Canons, but I have had some real good results with those Canon lenses I posted, and this is a Canon lens thread. If someone is buying long teles and zooms the Canon FD also seem to be a little more affordable than the Nikkor counterparts. A good shooter will get good results with either brand...

[Paul Hazlett]

OH OH, you know this new mount cold start a whole canon vs. nikon war
that can only lead to chipped lens and broken focus rings.

[Evin Grant]

Don't even get me started, I'm a Leica guy at heart!

[Steve Gibby]

I love Leica lenses too...great glass and workmanship...

[wlaroussi]

Hi ,

Is there any good wide angle Canon FD bellow the 12 mm .

Regards

[Pig]

Evin, thanks for all your lens help on this forum. All your contributions are very welcome, informative, and VERY helpful! Keep up the good work!

For when Canon FD shopping, I found the Canon Museum to be an invaluable resource for comparing the lens options:
http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/camera/lens/f_lens.html

By the way, which reminds of a question I had: the FL series lenses from Canon should also work, no? We havesome of those laying around here too....

[Evin Grant]

By the way, which reminds of a question I had: the FL series lenses from Canon should also work, no? We havesome of those laying around here too....

I believe so, I really don't know much about hte FL series though.

[Ken Willinger]

Those L lenses are very nice. I'm using Canon lenses with the Brevis 35mm adapter on the HVX. But I don't have any L's. I have a nice set of SSC's though and I do have the 35mm shift/tilt lens. I was hoping I'd be able to get some of the great effects I've been able to get with the Century Swing/Shift lens set. I use it with a B4 mount on video cameras and it's killer! Unfortunately the still camera version does not create those great focus shifts available on the Century or Arri sets. Do you think it may be because of the very small chipset size in the HVX?

[Paris Remillard]

<Do you think it may be because of the very small chipset size in the HVX?>

You say it's used with a 35mm adapter right? So it wouldn't be the chipsize of the HVX, but the size of the ground glass in the adapter. I also think that the Brevis and at least some other 35mm adapters are actually 24x36mm "stills" 35mm sized instead of (approx.)24x18mm "cine" 35mm sized. So, it shouldn't be a limitation of the adapter. I'd guess that it's just that the Canon doesn't have a large degree of tilt or shift. It seems that they were designed more to correct perspective and increase DOF but don't have the extreme tilts and shifts that give the cool large format looking selective focus effects. I remember trying one of the newer EOS versions out at B&H on a 20d, (which has a similar chip size to RED) and being very disappointed. I'd been shooting 4x5 where you have total control of perspective and focal plane, and on the smaller format camera I could hardly tell that it was tilting or shifting.
The Century is much more like view camera in design and allows a lot more movement than the Canons or Nikons.