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$1 Million Lens Question - What To Get?

Zack Birlew

Zack Birlew

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Okay, I've been looking at some high end cine lenses to see what's out there and I found some I didn't even hear about and others I didn't even consider before. Granted there's lenses like the Sigma Art Cine lenses, Zeiss CP2/3, SLR Magic APOs, and Rokinon DS/Xeen lenses that often get discussed along with many newcomers, however, then on the highest end there's things like the Angenieux Optimos, Zeiss Supremes, and the typical Cooke and Arri selections along with new custom and luxury boutique providers.

So, with such a colossal price difference between these lenses, I wondered, if you had a $1 million dollar budget, what would you pick and why? Granted there are various threads about many of these different lenses but we're talking the highest end here, is there some sort of consensus about what one would go for as for a "Money Is No Object" set or is it variable? I know there isn't one set that fits the $1 million budget mark, so the second part is, while you have your main top set, what other lenses or even entire set of lenses do you throw in with it? Whether your concept is to fill out a professional gear goal or if you have an ideal toolset planned for equipping your dream movie studio with, what are your choices if given a $1 million dollar budget just for lenses?

Remember, there's no wrong answers or anything like that, it's all subjective, and if there are any examples you'd like to show why you picked what lenses you picked, please share! Maybe someone reading the thread will be inspired by your lens choices.
 
Thinking aloud... for the high end stuff, just rent them. But if you're going to own lenses, they should be both affordable and unique. And when I say unique, that means that you can't just go out and rent them. Otherwise, if you could just go out and rent them, you don't need to own them.

So, I'm thinking that a unique lens set could be modified or rehoused: Mamiya 645, Pentax 645, Nikon F vintage, Canon FD, Minolta MD, Pentax M42 and K, Tokina vintage, etc. So much to choose from.

In some cases, people will have to come to you for your lens sets, because very few rental houses will have any exactly like yours.
 
Don't spoil the game, Karim! This is all hypothetical, forget about renting, if you had the budget to buy, what would you buy?

That's a good point about rehoused lenses though as there are many new rehousing companies and seemingly more lenses are going to be rehoused over time and some places are more expensive than others. I'm not so sure about rehousing medium format lenses like the Mamiya 645s just yet as there isn't anything medium format besides the Alexa 65 that I can think of that has PL or LPL, perhaps staying on native mounts until that time comes would be a safer bet but then who knows what could come down the line camera-wise?

Back to the topic, I've been thinking about what I would choose, after looking at some videos I'm leaning toward Cooke S8i lenses as they seem to combine the best of Cooke's line along with being fast full frame lenses, although the Panchro/i Classics look pretty nice too. If I'm going Cooke then of course I'd have to toss in a set of Cooke Anamorphics and Cooke Varotal zooms as well! However, Angenieux Optimo primes caught my eye too and I'm also quite liking the Leitz Cine lenses which are being used on a few recent shows I've been watching, however I'm not quite sure which ones as I would like Full Frame but most seem to be shot with the Summilux-Cs so more research is needed unless the Leitz full frame lenses just came out like the Cooke S8is. Until further notice, I'm leaning toward a Cooke lineup.

Also, I would have to throw in an Angenieux Optimo Ultra 24-290 2.8 zoom set to FF35, it just covers so much, and a Canon 50-1000 S35 zoom of course as I love a crazy zoom lens. As for rehoused lenses, I'd toss in a Canon FD 50-300, a Tokina 11-20 Cine, a Canon 50mm 0.95, a Leica 50mm 0.95 Noctilux, a Sigma 18-35/50-100 combo, and might as well add an Angenieux 28-70 2.6 to cover the middle ground for FF35. I would also have to throw in some odd long telephoto cine rehoused lenses too that I've seen around, you just never know when you might need a 400mm or 800mm cine lens! If there was space for anything else, I'd probably add a set of rehoused Nikon F lenses and Sigma Art Cine primes to cover non-Cooke times. Granted some stuff may not mix for all situations but there is more than enough tools in post to make everything play along.

My picks may not be everybody's picks and I might feel differently about it later, especially if I were to decide Angenieux or Leitz over Cooke, but for now I think that would be a pretty cool setup and enough to play with for a bit. There's plenty of stills lenses that could be added in too but I'm sticking to cine and rehoused lenses for this game.
 
Zack Birlew said:
Don't spoil the game, Karim! This is all hypothetical, forget about renting, if you had the budget to buy, what would you buy?
Click to expand...

Sorry to spoil your fun! :-P For me the answer is easy: the Summicron C's.
 
Panavision would be fun! Very good call! I see them go pretty quickly if any closeout rental units pop up at auction, usually legacy ones as they don't sell them new anymore do they? I always thought of them as direct rental-only so I never looked into it.
 
Yep, rental only.
Three of my all time favorite movies were shot on them, sooo... :)
 
If I started my own rental house just to get the rental-only Panavisions, this would be my first set, of course! ;)

Now seriously, I can't imagine what lenses I'd buy to get rid of a full million but it would probably be some of the really rarely used lenses that I won't buy otherwise, like for example some microscope or quartz lenses, which I would use only for a few shoots in special situations and then not again for long time, and these are rare enough that I cannot even rent them. There are many lenses that I'd like to have just for making "this one absolutely perfect five seconds" but aren't worth the effort it takes to get them because I can get the clip a bit less perfect with the glass in the drawer.

It's often a spontaneous decision to rent/buy certain lenses for the next project depending on what I think would be a good fit for the look and style of the content. But I don't have a favorite set that I want to use most of the time.
 
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