Need advice. Nikon or Canon mount?

[Miltos Pilalitos]

Hey guys. I need some advice.

Next month I will be going on a long roadtrip and would like to have my Epic with me. Carrying my RED Zooms will not be an option though as I will definitely need something smaller and lighter.

So, I am thinking of getting just one DSLR zoom lens with me. What I am looking for is good resolution, rather inexpensive and easy to carry (light, small). Is there something close to that in the market? I never had a DSLR and don't have any photographic lenses so I am not bonded with any particular brand/mount. Depending on the lens I will get the appropriate mount from RED.

Any help is welcome. :D

[Tim Morten]

I'm a Nikon guy... not sure I would go with a single lens though. I'd probably take my 17-35 and 70-200. If it really had to be one, maybe the 24-70. There's a DX 18-200 and even an 18-300 coming, but the sensor crop, slower glass, lower sharpness, and marked vignetting on my 18-200 make that a rarely used lens for me. Duclos does a nice job cinevizing if you want to use a follow focus. No electronic mount from Red yet, but soon allegedly. I'm on the Optitek for now which is great for manual work.

[Victor Lazaro]

I'm a Nikon guy as well. you can use your Nikon lens virtually anywhere (even on a canon cameras with an adapter).
But for your situation, I think that Canon would be a good choice with the Ability to use the image stabilizer and auto focus (with touch to focus on the screen). This makes the canon mount a good asset for the Red.

[Nick Timmons]

The Canon adapter is way cool. Autofocus in the latest builds is very precise in single mode. Plus, you can change iris with the side handle rocker switches. Another plus is all lens properties are recorded as metadata.
Of course, I'm a Canon guy.
Victor, call me this afternoon.

[Miltos Pilalitos]

Thanks for the initial responses! You have already mentioned some stuff I never considered.

The canon mount sounds cool but if you had to choose on the glass only what would the choicebe? Is it true that Nikon glass is better?

Also if I go the canon way, what lens would you recommend?

[Cory Schulthies]

If you are going to be shooting mostly outdoors with plenty of light I Highly recommend the Nikon DX 18-200. It is a bit slow but is extremely convenient. its by far the best lens to travel with if you only want to bring one lens. as Tim Morten mentioned they will be releasing a 18-300 in the near future, at which point im sure it will take the crown as the best lens for travel. Canon makes some pretty great lenses too, and I have liked the Canon mount. Honestly if you already own lenses from ether canon or nikon id stick to what you already have.

[rod bradley]

I have a lot of Nikon glass and use the Optitek mount. But Canon makes great glass too. And depends precisely which lenses you're talking about. So while Nikon takes the nod in certain areas, Canon has outstanding glass as well. So there is no determinating factor.

I would say overall the more recent Nikon glass is astonishingly good, even the rather inexpensive and almost punky 18-200 is pretty amazing as Cory mentioned. And could cover everything except for low-light situations and it will vignette on the wide in on 5K.

Using Canon glass gives you many potential (especially one-man-band) advantages that Nick mentioned -- and have been pointed out by a number of others, notably Mark T. It is pretty hard to discount those unless you happen to already have Nikon glass. Of course those same advantages will probably be available in two months via the Red Nikon mount. And apparently Jacek at Optitek has an electronic lens mount in the works.

I would say it depends on your shooting style. If the autofocus and handle iris control and meta-data don't really do much for you, then some of the Canon (right now) advantages go away. If those do count and you don't already have Nikon glass, I'd say buy maybe the Canon 17-55 EF-S -- although I don't know if it will cover 5K on the wide side, my guess is not. But if you don't need wide, then go with a FF Canon L (or 2) -- that will allow you to cover at least 18-200 F of V and cover at least 4.5K (Of course this brings up another issue, what format/aspect ratio are you shooting in.)

Perhaps you would get some better advice if we knew a bit more about the project -- a lot of hand-held, sticks, nature, people, urban -- narrative, doc, etc. Does road-trip mean on foot, bike, vehicle, etc. I would think if by vehicle, a couple of lenses, maybe wide-medium zoom and a medium to moderate (70-200 say) would be in order and not too much of a burden. With either Canon or Nikon -- or even consider some Tokina's and Sigmas.

[Aleksandar Colancevski]

Hi Miltos,
I have all the Nikons (cinevized) and Zeiss ZFs and from extensive experience in last 4 years I can say that focusing is difficult.
I have Ti Canon mount but still have not tried it out.
No photo lenses compare to Red zooms in sharpness especially 18-85.
If focusing is easier with Canon L series I would go that way.
If you need to borrow the Canon Ti for Epic you can have mine for free because I will not use it for a while.
The only thing is that you have to come in Skopje for a beer.

[Miltos Pilalitos]

Well, the roadtrip is for personal reasons and I will not shoot any kind of project in its duration so a variety of focal lengths is not necessary. Having said that, a lens equivalent to red's 18-85 zoom would be a dream come true.

The question though goes beyond this roadtrip. Since I will have to buy a new mount anyway, I better get one that will give me the best lens options later on if I would decide to enlarge the glass collection. EPIC is a particular camera and not all lenses will cover its sensor area or resolve the needed resolution for 5K (or 6K later)

From the responses above I have the impression that I should go with Canon if I need autofocus conveniences or Nikon if I need the better image. Is that the case?

[Miltos Pilalitos]

Hi Miltos,
I have all the Nikons (cinevized) and Zeiss ZFs and from extensive experience in last 4 years I can say that focusing is difficult.
I have Ti Canon mount but still have not tried it out.
No photo lenses compare to Red zooms in sharpness especially 18-85.
If focusing is easier with Canon L series I would go that way.
If you need to borrow the Canon Ti for Epic you can have mine for free because I will not use it for a while.
The only thing is that you have to come in Skopje for a beer.

Thanks for the offer Aleksandar! That beer sounds tempting. :D

If we leave focusing issues aside for a second, how well do your Nikons perform optically on the Epic?