FINALLY!!! Got my Canon mounts and just tested the hell out of it!

[Mark Toia]

FINALLY!!! The illusive Canon mounts have turned up! Talk about unicorns, almost as bad as the 1 year wait of the BOM EVF!

Anyway... We have just gone through hard core internal testing here with amazing results !!
To be honest, I did not think at all the mount and the lens system would amount to anything for us other than a toy for our toy lenses... But I was quietly optimistic.
Professional made PL glass has always been my weapon of choice (and for technical work PL will always be my choice, but as usaul, RED have impressed me once again with there technology and technical thinking to turn a simple mount into a AF dream. And I hear it's only going to get faster and better as RED techs hone the AF's abilities in up in coming firmware updates. AND NO IT WONT REPLACE A GOOD FOCUS PULLER! not yet anyway.

Two tests were under taken. One was purely camera based - AF CONTROL - Ease of use, aperture controls etc... Just searching for anything and everything that can benefit a shoot or hold it up, Faults, jam ups, glitches.. you name it, we pushed for it.
We never use untested equipment on out shoots. So this testing is highly important for us. The big thing is mount strength. Canon mounts are a flimsy design at best, but this thing is solid. far more stronger than I ever thought or hope for A+ for that guysWe hung an Epic off the 600mm (NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND) and it did not move at all. But the balance is out so we will make a special mount to support both.

Test two was purely optical. LENSE testing, Variable ND testing. Just quickly, I HATE VND's, but we tested them anyway.... and I thing for the very first time I maybe a convert. But only brand stood out : The Singh Ray, Bloody expensive for what it is... but a stand out winner.

We quite literally did everything you shouldn't do, we shot all the tests at the worst part of the lenses, Wide open., loaded filters on them, adapters, doublers, converters etc... I wanted to see the best and the worst from the lens.
if your going to see flaws in a lenses performance it's usually at max open aperture with layered filters and converters...

I'm going to upload our optical tests for you with a brief insight over the great, good, bad and ugly points of the AF system. (per lens)
Here is a quick one with a 600mm F4, with a 1.4 converter in shoot wide open, using the AF control (Single mode)





The 600mm came out trumps. Clarity I gave it 9 out 10 (no converters - no filters)
The 600mm came out trumps. Clarity I gave it 6 out 10 (With converters - UV internal filters) The image attached is with filters and converters.
AF control was surprisingly good considering the amount of turning that goes on inside a lens like that. No it will not track or pull focus on a Racing car !. (but could only hope it will one day)
But it was good for Single shot line ups, were usually as a manual user you tend to rock the focus back and forth a few times to nail the sharps. What I noticed with this is it came in once and nailed it. But only in good contrast situations in SPOT Mode. One great feature is a little RED box in the centre of your screen (which you can move around) turns another clour when sharp. This is a great AID for pulling sharps!
Back light scenes really annoyed the focus system for some reason.

The 70 - 200 F2.8 was the over all winner for ZOOMs. It just did everything good. Sharp everywhere, AF system work well (considering its a ZOOM with lots of glass to spin around)
Sharpness, Easy 9 out of 10 even with Variable ND's on.
The lens stabilisation function is what go me... Un believable. !



The 24mm 1.4l is pretty much one of my most favourite wides. Im not big on lenses under this as I've never been a fan of wides or lens distortion.
This lens how ever never looked that sharp on my 5D (retired) but for some reason, even at f1.4 its sharp as!
Way sharper than the Ziess Super speed, sharper than Arri ultra prim and a master prime, plus you get lens capable of 7K image area meaning no dark corners like you get on the lens I just spoke of.



[COLOR=#FFFFFF !important]Lets get this straight.. Regarding ND's
I get this same look when I stack to many ND's in front of the lens.

So lets be fair to the little VND.

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More to come.

[Mark Toia]

NOTE: I matched a $540 Canon 50mm 1.4 up against a $12,000 50mm Arri Master prime today...
Quite literally could not tell the difference in RCX... Even at 800%

makes we want to sell alot of my PL glass when I see shit like this,

EDIT IN:::

[COLOR=#FFFFFF !important]I just finished shooting another quicky music clip for my daughter... (yes another one!)

Decided to use the CANON glass for it all... Its my first project ever using stills glass on RED, I just wanted to see all the things that would catch me out, trip me or stuff me up.
Better to do it on a personal project, not a paid one I say.

REPORT CARD:

*Shit to manually focus. (but we all new that)
*Amazingly clean edges... no vignetting.
*Sharp as... but smooth, very smooth... better than I hoped for.
*Great at night, smooth and creamy, little to no specular bounce, meaning good coatings.
*Low flare threshold but when there is a lens flare, its not a pretty one.
*AUTO focus on the EPIC is quick to prefocus when not recording... I really like it. No need to ZOOM in for a look, it just snaps to sharps with little hunting. Low light AF is a slower. When you roll and want to focus its abut 1/4 speed. (I'm sure this because the chip is processing information and trying to focus at the same time)
*After a bit of getting use to, I think I became faster in setting focus with canon glass than my PL glass.. Sad! Only because there are focus aids and Im really starting the trust the AF on the EPIC as being dead on.... so far.
* Setting Aperture is a bore. The toggle just in front of the record button on the side grip is the logical place to have a aperture adjuster. The up and down buttons are just too slow and awkward. I'm quicker at setting the aperture with the touch screen or through the thumb controls on the side handle as if you were changing anything other settings across the top menu bar.

Over all rating. is 7 out of 10 from me. (which could slip out to a 8.5 out of ten if the AF gets quicker and the Aperture gets quicker to adjust and the aperture dial gets reassigned to a better place.

Put it this way, My ZIESS MKIII's I only give a 6 out of 10,

To be honest... I doubt I'd use these lenses much in the world I work in, Big crews, with big gear, big shots, cranes, stabilised heads, Mo Con etc... forget it, Canon stills just dont live in this world....
But for simple arty jobs, were you want to travel around the world with a back pack shooting art, Yes please....

Here's a couple of stills from the shoot.

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[Phil Holland]

Looks nice Mark! I'm guessing your "100%" on all of those images is a typo?

[Mark Toia]

Looks nice Mark! I'm guessing your "100%" on all of those images is a typo?

oops.. Refresh :)

[Christian Munoz D]

Thanks Mark for sharing. Great tests as always!!

I am curious to see a clip with the 600mm 1.4 extender. Any chance?

[Jarred Land]

The Canon 70-200mm 2.8 is my favorite all around lens... , so it was the first one and longest one we worked on, glad you like it.

the new build coming in the next couple days will have a lot more lenses supported, like the Zeiss MF etc, and a new revision of the AF algorithm that performs a lot better across all lenses.

[CK Olsen]

Nice stuff Mark... thanks for sharing!
-CK

[Luc Bouvrette]

Looks really nice. I'm definitely stoked. :)

[Rob Macey]

Awesome!

[Mark Toia]

The Canon 70-200mm 2.8 is my favorite all around lens... , so it was the first one and longest one we worked on, glad you like it.

the new build coming in the next couple days will have a lot more lenses supported, like the Zeiss MF etc, and a new revision of the AF algorithm that performs a lot better across all lenses.

You've done a special thing here mate.. and Im keen about the new AF algorithm, I never thought I get into AF, but it certainly is addictive and quick the more you use it.