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Lens for Red One

Don Whitley

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Just purchased Red One about a week ago being trying to find a general overall lens was trying maybe to find a used red 18-50 but haven't had any luck. or anything in that price range

Just wanted to know whats a good starter lens for the red not looking for anything too expensive being that I have already spent over 30 stacks and still dont have a lens. Any suggestions Red or any other vendor
 
Buy an RPP 35mm or a RED Zoom as a second choice. As always ... the lens is the camera.
 
CHeck these out:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=PL+lens+18-50&N=0&InitialSearch=yes

These appear to be of similar design to the older RED zooms. I don't think you'll get the support or QA RED delivered, but you should get decent glass for a good price. Better than SLR zooms at any rate.

That said, the new RPZ 17-50 is a better bargain for most productions. You do get what you pay for.

In my opinion the best zooms are the Cooke 15-40 t/2 and the Angeniuex zooms- but they are WAY out of the price range we are talking about.
 
I second the "Buy one RPP" advice.

The 18-50's I have seen have been of very inconsistent quality, from "Good" to "Bad".

I see why a zoom may be attractive, but then I'd go for the 17-50.

If you don't get the 18-50 in the 2k$ range...

But the RPP is way faster... And really fun glass in comparison.
 
My 2 cents...i have a Red 18-50 and it's available for sale (not because i don't like it) but because i rarely use it. Is there better glass? yes....love arri and cook primes or zoom. But hell....we all do and if $$ is no worry, that's the route.

Practically speaking i'd say a guy with a RED and trying to shoot with one good quality lens to cover a variety of shooting.....I'd go Nikon mount from Jacek the Pro-Lok and some nikon glass. My glass ranges from a variety of nice and expensive Arri primes, the lovely tokina 11-16PL mount to some long lenses like cannon 800 w/pl mount and Nikon 600 with pl mount.

Having two RED's i shoot 99% of my topside footage with Nikon glass and the Pro-Lok nikon mount and most underwater with PL Tokina 11-16 and Arri 14 std. prime- and sometimes Red 18-50. My PREFERRED and now MOST used lens is the Nikon 18-200. That lens just covers the field....from there i rarely run to another lens topside---of course i shoot mostly documentary....no narrative/drama work. Anyway for the price of a nice piece of PL glass, i bet you can get 3 or 4 great nikons to cover most work. My choice again: 18-200; 80-400; 10-17 tokina(fisheye) and also like the nikon 80-200, but that's covered with 80-400---although not as tight in the 80-200 range. Anyway, i'm sure there are going to be as many opinions as posts, but that's where i've landed....and i do have an 18-50 i'd sell.....but if me, i'd NOT buy it and go Nikon if you are on a tight budget.
 
RED 18-50: what i have to say on that lens:

Is a nice lens, then i shot with arri ultra primes and then cooke zooms....presented and graded on the big screen there is a definite viewable difference. But in the televsion world...that 18-50 IMO has no problem and has been a workhorse. BUt again if you shoot for the big srceen, then go for something else....
 
I go with Johnny and Anson on this one. Get a Nikon Mount with the positive lock from Jacek, the Pro-lock from Optitek, and a good set of Nikon Primes. My base set are the AIS primes: 24 f2, 35 f1.4, 50 f1.4, 85 f1.4, 105 f1.8. These are sharp gorgeous lenses. I have shot many TV commercials on these lenses on a 35mm Arri modified with a Nikon hard front, and am now using them on my RED MX, and I love the results.
 
CHeck these out:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=PL+lens+18-50&N=0&InitialSearch=yes

These appear to be of similar design to the older RED zooms. I don't think you'll get the support or QA RED delivered, but you should get decent glass for a good price. Better than SLR zooms at any rate.

That said, the new RPZ 17-50 is a better bargain for most productions. You do get what you pay for.

In my opinion the best zooms are the Cooke 15-40 t/2 and the Angeniuex zooms- but they are WAY out of the price range we are talking about.
Like the price of the lens but don't know anything about the quality
 
My 2 cents...i have a Red 18-50 and it's available for sale (not because i don't like it) but because i rarely use it. Is there better glass? yes....love arri and cook primes or zoom. But hell....we all do and if $$ is no worry, that's the route.

Practically speaking i'd say a guy with a RED and trying to shoot with one good quality lens to cover a variety of shooting.....I'd go Nikon mount from Jacek the Pro-Lok and some nikon glass. My glass ranges from a variety of nice and expensive Arri primes, the lovely tokina 11-16PL mount to some long lenses like cannon 800 w/pl mount and Nikon 600 with pl mount.

Having two RED's i shoot 99% of my topside footage with Nikon glass and the Pro-Lok nikon mount and most underwater with PL Tokina 11-16 and Arri 14 std. prime- and sometimes Red 18-50. My PREFERRED and now MOST used lens is the Nikon 18-200. That lens just covers the field....from there i rarely run to another lens topside---of course i shoot mostly documentary....no narrative/drama work. Anyway for the price of a nice piece of PL glass, i bet you can get 3 or 4 great nikons to cover most work. My choice again: 18-200; 80-400; 10-17 tokina(fisheye) and also like the nikon 80-200, but that's covered with 80-400---although not as tight in the 80-200 range. Anyway, i'm sure there are going to be as many opinions as posts, but that's where i've landed....and i do have an 18-50 i'd sell.....but if me, i'd NOT buy it and go Nikon if you are on a tight budget.
I think will look at the Nikon route if I can find them for a good price also what are you selling your Red 18-50 for PM me.
 
I go with Johnny and Anson on this one. Get a Nikon Mount with the positive lock from Jacek, the Pro-lock from Optitek, and a good set of Nikon Primes. My base set are the AIS primes: 24 f2, 35 f1.4, 50 f1.4, 85 f1.4, 105 f1.8. These are sharp gorgeous lenses. I have shot many TV commercials on these lenses on a 35mm Arri modified with a Nikon hard front, and am now using them on my RED MX, and I love the results.
Any links to the vendor websites you mention
 
Nikons all the way. Currently, the setup I have ready is a Tokina 10-17, Nikon 14-24 (my favorite lens ever) Nikon 24-70 and then the 80-400, for things longer than that, I go with diopters, but those zooms are awesome, sharp from corner to corner and just great glass.
 
Don here's the link to the Nikon Promount. http://www.optitek.org/nikon-prolock.php

As to zooms I have besides the primes the AFS f2.8 17-35, 28-70, 80-200. All are incredible glass. I also have the 16mm f2.8 fisheye and 55mm f2,8 macro. I seldom shoot longer than 200 and if I do i rent. Same goes for wider than 17.

You can pick up used Nikon glass on ebay if you look carefully at the product and who's selling. I have had good success with betteroffblu and rokas_photo_video as being reliable and helpful. I like the AIS period glass in the professional models. Good info on Nikon lenses can be found at http://www.kenrockwell.com/ and http://www.naturfotograf.com/lens_surv.html.

Hope this helps.
 
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