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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Gems in the Photo Lens realm

E

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I'll come back later with my own list, which isn't very long.

I figure we can build a definitive guide to those lenses that really are worth it for the red, and especially those that will be FF35 ready.

Sharpness all over, little breathing, zooms that don't change aperture, lenses with good metal construction, and most of all, maybe you know one that most people haven't head about...
 
I swear by Zeiss medium format lenses of the 1960s.
Best glass Zeiss ever made IMHO. Incredibly cinematic out of the box.
Super long throw like cine lenses. Build like a tank and also about the same wight ;-).

Light passes the new Zeiss lenses and they barely leave a trace, but the old glass has a sweet signature.
You can tell it once you have seen it.
That´s not what anyone wants thou, but I love it.


Frank
 
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Frank Glencairn said:
[snip] but the old glass has a sweet signature.
You can tell it once you have seen it.
That´s not what anyone wants thou, but I love it.

Frank
Click to expand...

I love my old Minolta-Rokkor 58mm f/1.2 (w/ mount conversion to EF).

Nothing looks like that lens. Beautiful flares, great rendering of people. Mechanics are pretty good. When Scarlet/Epic come out, with their 1st party EF mounts, I'm going to be pretty excited to put this one them. Covers FF35, obviously, as it predates APS-C...

But again, people don't generally want that "70's" look.
 
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I want that 70's look.

The modern look makes me want to break something
 
My Nikkor 105 mm. 1.8 smells 70´s like David Bowie :-)
 
Contax/Yashica Zeiss, best deal in stills for cinema. T* coatings, long smooth focus throws, cover full frame 24mmx36mm 35mm and easy adapters to Canon, RED, etc.

50mm 1.4, 85mm 1.4 are tough to beat.
 
My basic Nikon prime set, all AIS:
24 f2, 35 f1.4, 50 f1.4, 85 f1.4, 105 f1.8. All are very beautiful lenses, the only hole in Nikon's set is at 18, since it's a 4 and too slow, so I got the 17-35 f2.8 zoom, and it's cherry.

My other 2 zooms are the 28-70 and 80-200, both f2.8, also very nice performers.

And for close focus the micro-nikkor 55 f2.8. I know some like the f3.5 better, but I have tested both and like the extra speed, and it's very sharp.

My other oddball is the 16mm f2.8 Fisheye, a very useful distorted drama lens.

I used to have a 8mm f2.8 fisheye which is a sweet lens. They used to use them in Omnimax for projection lenses (don't know if they still do.) It was a great lens but I just hardly ever used it.

I have used Nikon glass for over 35 years and if you can find good ones, they are wonderful. i have had to go through a couple occasionally to find one I like, as has been pointed out here before, their quality control is not as stringent as say Zeiss. But when you find one that's sharp and up to specs I love the look of their glass.

Good resources for specific Nikon lenses ratings are:

http://www.naturfotograf.com/lens_surv.html
http://www.kenrockwell.com/

Hope this helps. The 35, 50 and 85 1.4s are particularly sweet. If I could only have 3 these would be them. I find the 50 1.4 sharper than the 1.2, so the extra half stop is not worth it to me.
 
Richard Foster said:
My basic Nikon prime set, all AIS:
24 f2, 35 f1.4, 50 f1.4, 85 f1.4, 105 f1.8. All are very beautiful lenses, the only hole in Nikon's set is at 18, since it's a 4 and too slow, so I got the 17-35 f2.8 zoom, and it's cherry.

My other 2 zooms are the 28-70 and 80-200, both f2.8, also very nice performers.

And for close focus the micro-nikkor 55 f2.8. I know some like the f3.5 better, but I have tested both and like the extra speed, and it's very sharp.

My other oddball is the 16mm f2.8 Fisheye, a very useful distorted drama lens.

I used to have a 8mm f2.8 fisheye which is a sweet lens. They used to use them in Omnimax for projection lenses (don't know if they still do.) It was a great lens but I just hardly ever used it.

I have used Nikon glass for over 35 years and if you can find good ones, they are wonderful. i have had to go through a couple occasionally to find one I like, as has been pointed out here before, their quality control is not as stringent as say Zeiss. But when you find one that's sharp and up to specs I love the look of their glass.

Good resources for specific Nikon lenses ratings are:

http://www.naturfotograf.com/lens_surv.html
http://www.kenrockwell.com/

Hope this helps. The 35, 50 and 85 1.4s are particularly sweet. If I could only have 3 these would be them. I find the 50 1.4 sharper than the 1.2, so the extra half stop is not worth it to me.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this Richard. That's a great help for me, as I am going down the Nikon route too due to a limited budget.

Best wishes, Julian
 
You're very welcome, Julien. You can do very well getting some of these on ebay if you look carefully and buy from reputable sources. I am not associated with any but have had good success with two in particular, betteroffblu and shutterblade. The lenses I have purchased from them have been exactly as represented and they were responsive to phone conversations and emails.
 
Hmmm, since everyone else has posted still mount glass I'll post some PL beauties...

The 20,28 and 40mm T2.1 Zeiss standard speeds are the best of the bunch IMO, especially the 28mm which has a floating element. The 20 and 28 were the last T2.1 to be developed. BTW I think the 28mm F2 ZF and Contax are the same formula.

Nikon 200mm T2 (PL converted or Nikon F) this is THE lens for those out of focus highlights behind people at night. I often have christmas tree lights in the lighting kit just for this lens.

Any Optimo, this is obvious to anyone whose used them but all the Optimos are just stunning. Although the range is less useful my favorite for pure IQ is the 17-80 T2.2
Even the Rouges are exemplary optically, the 16-42 is on my short list, the 30-80 is right after.

The Cooke 25-250 MII T3.9, many on this board have this old work horse 10:1 but it's really a beautiful lens and although softer than the Optimo 12:1 it has an extremely flattering skin tone rendition that works especially well on women. It also breathes less than the 25-250 HR, although it's not quite as crisp (though plenty sharp for 4K) and a bit warmer.

Duclos/Tokina 11-16mm T2.8 & Focus Optics/Nikon 14-24 T2.8 both of these converted still lenses are spectacular and a great bargain, the 14-24 will even cover full frame 24x36.
 
Michael Hastings said:
Contax/Yashica Zeiss, best deal in stills for cinema. T* coatings, long smooth focus throws, cover full frame 24mmx36mm 35mm and easy adapters to Canon, RED, etc.
Click to expand...

The conversion to Canon is not easy, is it? I think it's very expensive and tough to do through Conurus, right?

I wonder if Red could make a direct Epic mount for Contax/Zeiss? I have been dying to try these lenses.
 
Tom Lowe said:
The conversion to Canon is not easy, is it? I think it's very expensive and tough to do through Conurus, right?

I wonder if Red could make a direct Epic mount for Contax/Zeiss? I have been dying to try these lenses.
Click to expand...

Conurus seems to be for Contax-N mount, not for the C/Y mount.

C/Y mount is adaptable to Canon EF with a dumb adapter (just a piece of precision-machined metal) that fits on the back of the lens.
 
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