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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 :)

which offer better quality lenses? red or zeiss zf

C

chaman films

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I have 10,000 budget for my set lens
which offer better quality lenses?
the red or the Zeiss zf
Zeiss zf lens photography offer good quality?
I can use in 4k?
www.chaman.tv
 
I own a set of the Zeiss ZF primes and they are very solid. They compete neck and neck with the Zeiss master primes so you be the judge on the Red lenses. They easily cover the 4K image. Very pleased with my purchase. I ordered mine from www.RPlens.com and Peter is the man to talk to. He provides a full turn key service with the ZF lenses conveerting them into Cine style lenses. Overall, they are a great value.
 
Lee Dashiell said:
They compete neck and neck with the Zeiss master primes so you be the judge on the Red lenses. .
Click to expand...

Hi,

That's not true the Master Primes are all T1.3, the ZF are not as fast and have different maximum apertures. Master Primes go as wide as 14mm, the ZF's don't have any wide lenses for a S35 sensor.

Stephen
 
Stephen Williams said:
Hi,

That's not true the Master Primes are all T1.3, the ZF are not as fast and have different maximum apertures. Master Primes go as wide as 14mm, the ZF's don't have any wide lenses for a S35 sensor.

Stephen
Click to expand...

The speed of the ZF's is obvious. The image from them is what I was refering to, I believe that they are a great value for the $$. They certainly deliver the quality you would expect from Zeiss.
 
For less than $10,000 you can have a whole range of fast (ie. f/1.2-f/2.0) Nikon primes and the top three AF-S zooms plus the Tokina 11-16mm 2.8 DX.

You could also get the full range of ZF's and/or pick and choose the best ZF's and mix with Nikon primes and still have some left over for the zooms.

A more conservative option is to aim for some of the legendary Nikon lenses, like the 28mm f/1.4 and the 58mm f/1.2, and pick the most useful prime focal lengths or zoom, as the 17-35mm f/2.8 is hard to beat.

Zeiss ZF are a good choice but just because they're Zeiss doesn't mean they're better than their Nikon equivalents. There's a lot more than brand name to consider when purchasing lenses, especially for RED cameras at the moment with full frame getting ready to take over the RED scene.
 
Yeah, as Zack said, that's something to possibly consider. If you plan on upgrading to one of the FF35 Scarlets or Epics, the stills lenses, whether Zeiss or Nikon (as long as it's not DX), will cover the full stills 35mm (24x36mm) frame. Most PL-Mount lenses won't.
 
Today I bought a ZF set. 21,25,35,50macro,85,100macro.

Damn nice lenses. BUT ofcourse they are not Masterprimes:)

Mechanically speaking, this is the only alternative to cine lenses in my opinion.
Go to a shop and pull the focus ring on the Zeiss then do it on a Nikon, enough said. - Nikon are made for Autofocus Zeiss has no autofocus, so they are old school, like cinelenses.

As mentioned. there really is no wide lens available. the 18mm i also f3.5 which in my opinion is too slow. also you have a 1.6 crop factor down to s35mm sensor.

So I still need a wide, fast lens, with a mechanical nicely built focus ring. any suggestions?
 
I own a set of Zeiss ZF lenses. Love them! In my opinion, I would go with quantity. We spent around 6K on lenses and got 4 primes and two zooms. Plus a few cheap lenses on ebay. So I like having more options than using just a couple of cinema lenses.
 
The 18 - 35 2.8 Nikon is really nice for a wide lens.
 
Best wide angle full frame lens is apparently the Nikon 14-24mm 2.8 zoom. Only problem is that you'll need to get the Douglas Underdahl DX/G Nikon Mount modification to use it as it doesn't have an manual aperture ring.
 
So the ZF lenses may be very popular for use with scarlet and a Nikon mount. This is good news as I was afraid I may have to spend more on lenses for Scarlet than it seems from this thread.

BTW when buying lenses what kind of indications of quality should one look out for aside from the mechanical quality of the focus ring and t/f stop?
 
In our tests the Zeiss ZF lens were less sharp than the RED 18-50mm. Also color accuracy was off on the Zeiss ZF lenses. Anyone else with similar results?
 
albert rudnicki said:
Make sure your back-focus was set correctly with your nikon mount.
Click to expand...

You could very well be right. The second camera came from RED with the Nikon mount. It belonged to a buddy of mine. Anyone else conducted a sharpness test between Zeiss ZF's and the RED 18-50mm?
 
ZF set is awesome. Add the 17-35 Nikon and the 80-200 and you'll be set.

Buy the lenses from a reputable dealer and if you're in Southern California, I highly recommend taking your lenses to Duclos Lenses in Canoga Park. Duclos will add delron, pro quality gears to each lens, front 80mm hoods and caps. They are affordable and awesome to deal with.
 
Anyone done a line pairs per mm test with the Zeiss ZF's? If so what numbers are you getting?
 
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