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Nikon 20-35mm f2.8 for Red?

A

Anthony Gratl

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Anyone have any thoughts on how this lens might work with le mighty Red?
 
Similar to the 17-35 2.8 except less wide range (aww) but you get hard stops (yaay). Probably slightly inferior to the 17-35 optically but since the 17-35 is great you might be okay.

EDIT: I was going to get that lens for my HV20 + 35mm adapter combo but instead ended up going for a 50mm 1.4 (Nikon), a 24mm 2.0 (Nikon) and a 16mm 2.8 (Zenitar). All used. I think the total cost was under $400. One day I'll get a nice 14mm 2.8 but for now this should suffice!

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com
 
Thanks for your thoughts Bruce. What made you decide not to get the 20-35? I'm reading some mixed reviews on it, some great, some not so great, and got an opportunity to pick one up for 600 bucks, so I'm trying to figure out if that's a good deal or not.
 
With a lot of stills zooms focus distances tend to not track that accurately from one end of the zoom to the other making things a bit of a nightmere for your focus puller. I think a set of primes when it comes to stills would be a better choice.
 
Damn, another JonathanLB quote in someone's signature. The guy is becoming an icon. :)

Steve
 
Muroshi, how do you like your HV20? I just told someone who was looking to spend a $1000 on a video camera to take a look at that model because I've heard really good things overall about its price/performance.

Steve
 
Hi Steve, I don't have a HD TV only SD (I guess 95% of all TVs here are still SD currently). I have made some first test shots with my secondhand HV20 and with my SGpro yesterday using a Nikkor 135mm. It looks far better than expected at least on a SD TV. I think it kicks ass for the money, it looks more cineastic than anything you see in German TV series. I rather would go for the flip lexus instead of the SGpro, especially if you are from the States, heard some good things about it on the HV20 forum. It saves some hazzle in either attaching the camera upside down and using an external monitor or rendering the material afterwards, but eats more light.

Filming with the HV20 is not that funny without an adapter to be honest, but if you use it with an adapter the only controls you need are probably the exposure-setting and the shot-button and with the adapter (which is bigger than the camera itself) it looks more indiefreaky than a betacam. :)

And it has a great community at HV20.com, with some very technically skilled folks around.
 
na, sehr kool heurt sich gut aus. Und was helden sie von 20-35mm lens?
hey, very cool sounds good. and what do you think of the 20-35mm lens?
 
Evolve, sorry about that little thread hijack. Back on track now. :-)

steve
 
No no it's all good. I'm guilty of it myself sometimes. Cheers
 
I have the Nikkor 20-35, but will be replacing it with the 12-24mm and 24-70mm, because, if you're thinking of going the Birger Nikon Mount route, it is NOT AF-S and, therefore, will not have electronic focusing functionality.
 
I'm using a 17-35mm on a feature right now without problems. The soft stops are hard enough that my a.c. isn't complaining. It's easy enough to reset a ff wheel if you overrun the soft stop. Just keep a mark at infinity or the closest focus and, should you overrun, disengage the ff drive gear, roll the lens focus barrel to one end, roll the ff disc to the same, and reengage the drive gear.

Michael
 
Obrigado :biggrin:

Granted, any set of still lenses are no match for the usability of a set of cine lenses. And, yes, we've been shooting hand held at times with camera and talent on the move. Remember the 17-35 has a pretty deep DoF even at f2.8 so there's room for error.

I just realized there is an even easier way to correct the focus wheel when the a.c. has overrun the lens' soft stop: Simply keep rotating the focus wheel through the lens' soft stop until you return to your mark again.

Chuck, "aaight" is a slang/contraction of "all right" introduced into English language by African-American culture.

Michael
 
Steve Sanacore said:
I used the Nikon 20-35 2.8 for a while with my D1x and F5's and found it soft. Make sure you test it on the RED before using it on a job where sharpness counts.
Click to expand...

Some reviews seem to indicate that it's fairly close to the 17-35mm, which suffered from some early "bad batches" where users reported softness issues. Nikon stomped all over the problem like a gorilla. Although I don't really know the manufacturing history of the 20-35, I wonder if maybe it's the specific lens you have??

Agreed, lots and lots of pre shoot testing that's for sure. I suspect the boards will be flooded with nikon lens test threads once the mount starts shipping. I've got my fingers crossed that there will be good news for all of us trying to lens features without spending a fortune on lens rentals...
thanks everyone by the way for your thoughts so far.
 
Nikon mounts on motion picture cameras have been a staple for at least forty years. I've put them on Arris, Eclairs, Bell and Howells, Mitchells etc. Very popular with the Eyemo crash cameras where losing a lens that only cost a grand or two was prefered over the lost of a professional cine lens. I've looked at hundreds of Nikkor lenses on collimation and projection testers and have found them more then adaqute for film work. I don't know about the latest crop of zooms, but the ones from about ten years or so back were in no way useable as a zooming optic. Still good though as a variable prime if closed downed one or two f stops.
 
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