Canon Cine Primes? Anybody seen or touched them?

[Robino_J]

I'm picking up the 24mm cn-e this afternoon and the 24mm L series on sat. I'll have some R3d comparisons from the scarlet. No scientific testing though just field tests.

Hopefully you can do a breathing test comparison and let us know the result. I am curious to what "minimized breathing"(canon's words) means in the real world.

[Nick Morrison]

As you'd expect given the success Zeiss has had with reusing their still lens optical formulas in their CP.2s.

True, but if you go back through history, it does appear that Zeiss's cinema designs ALSO influenced some of their still lenses. The 28 f2 for example, is supposed to be derived from an older cinema design. And there have been contant rumblings that Zeiss's 35 1.4, 50 1.4 and 85 1.4 still lenses were derived in some manner from older Super Speed designs.

It wouldn't surprise me if these new CP2 Super Speeds have at least something in common with the original Super Speeds . Obviously, the CP2 image circle is much larger (these new ones cover full frame), so there clearly have been changes...and the new coating is quite different. But point is...Zeiss appears to be flexible with designs, and they may even go back and forth...from cinema to still...and back again.

[Ryan Emanuel]

Hopefully you can do a breathing test comparison and let us know the result. I am curious to what "minimized breathing"(canon's words) means in the real world.

The breathing actually is really minimal, better than cp.2

[Anderson Boyd]

Can you link to some R3D's or test footage? Curious about these lenses.

[Ryan Emanuel]

I wanted to test the lens more but a production took all my time this weekend. What I can tell you about the lens, having shot on cp.2 and owning zeiss ze glass is that the canon glass are sharper throughout different f stops. They are still sharp at 1.5, though there is some green chromatic aberation on high contrast edges wide open. But still the CA is less noticable on the canon then on the zeiss wide open. Zeiss has this distracting magenta halo that happens under f4. Cp.2 Focus and iris rings have a better feel but I love that the canon communicates with the scarlet showing f stop and lens focal distance and its pretty responsive. I'm gonna sell my zeiss ze cinemod set and get these canons, I think they are really what the mid range indie guy was looking for. CP.2 are great but not sharp all the time and breath a little. The Canon is a little better mostly across the board, at least thats my opinion.

Also I was impressed by the minimal distortion the lens had at least when cropped to super35, I'll try to upload some R3ds tomorrow

[Alan Peterson]

Thanks for the info, Ryan. I'm going to be buying a small set of proper cine primes or a decent zoom within the next year, and I suspect that the Canons will be my best bet in terms of IQ and covering the Epic's sensor. I'm really looking forward to seeing comprehensive tests once the whole set is available.

[Carlos Prio]

Ryan, Please post any additional impressions and any images.

Thanks,
Prio

[Matt Gottshalk]

Anyone know if the new Canon Cinema primes will ever come out with a PL mount?

[Alan Peterson]

Canon at one point said that they would be releasing their cinema lenses in both PL and EF mounts, but I have yet to find any specific mention of the primes being made available in PL mount. It would be a shame if they didn't.

[Björn Benckert]

They should, as somebody mentioned here, just start make the K35's again... how can it be that hard to do what they did back then. K-35, are super compact, highspeed, sharp and has beautiful falloff and dof. Why invent something new then... ?