Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • 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 :)

I (heart) this lens...Optimo 15-40 T2.6

C.H.Haskell

C.H.Haskell

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 25, 2007
Messages
2,686
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Los Angeles
Website
www.haskellfilms.com
I am sold, I know the Optimo family of glass is popular but after working with the Optimo 15-40 recently...now I know why. Incredibly compact this lens, no problem for steadicam work...smooth mechanics and optically comparable to cooke in my opinion. I would consider shooting a feature using this lens but my question for those who have worked with it, what other lenses match well? Does the 28-78 perform just as well?

I felt like there was no distortion at 15mm and the way this lens renders skin was very smooth, colors just seem to rolllllll. At 40 grand I would hope so.

Very impressed. Where in New York City can I rent this puppy?

Here is Sputnik with 15-40 attached.
 
It does belong to the new crop of razor sharp cine lenses, pretty different to a cooke 18-100 for instance. I've shot quite often with this lens and found it matches well with UPs.

A great lens! Although not on the cheap side it will hold its value for a long time, I guess.

Hans
 
I've been saying it for years now... Angenieux produces superb optics.
The 28-76mm will give you all the same dazzling quality and feel that the 15-40mm gave you. As I have said many, many times, you really do get what you pay for.
 
I agree Mattew...the more I work with my RED the more I feel choosing the right optics is half the battle to achieving the kinds of images I am looking for. I have used everything from cinema S4s to Nikon Zfs and I know you can create amazing images accross the spectrum but personally I am most impressed with the Optimo, I felt this lens rendered the most cinematic looking images I have seen from my RED right out of the box...this was ext daylight only with some bounce.
 
We have all of the Optimo zooms available for rent at Abel.
 
They are very popular. Some of our glass is out on a feature right now. I don't know what availability is as I don't track the rental bookings.
 
I do love that lens. I disagree though about it not having any distortion. I found it had subtle barreling at 15mm. Not bad, but noticeable and worse than most primes.
 
It's a superb lens, the Optimo rouge 16-42 should be quite close in performance for 1/2 the price. Almost every commercial I go out on has the 15-40, 28-76 and 24-290mm Optimos. My favorite though is the 17-80 T2.2. I could shoot a feature on that lens. I just finished a short where I used that lens about 85% of the time. Just beautiful luminous glass.
 
I'm mixed on the short Optimo. It's little, focuses close, just a little breathing, not much CA and really good field illumination. Kind of lacking in dimensionality, the same way Ultraprimes do.

More than a little bit of barrel distortion on the wide end... Not like that's not to be expected @ 15- 20mm on a 35 format zoom. Came up as a problem last week on a VFX heavy Dell commercial I shot. Lacking acuity at the wide end from 2.6 to T4 too, but certainly good enough for 1080x1920 at any stop.

I agree with Evin that the 17-80 is sweet.

Matt Uhry
www.mattuhry.com
 
Max Penner at Paradisefx is using a pair of the 15-40's on a 3D rig built for the RED1 camera. He told me they match perfectly to each other and in fact better then most primes he has tried for that application.
 
15mm f2.6 looks quite soft but that's still at 15mm! And quite fast at that.

I'd like to see what 18mm f2.6, looks like and hopefully (getting greedy here, feel free to ignore me) the wide end at f2.8 and f3.0.

I can see why so many of you consider it a phenomenal tiny zoom... I guess its main specialty purpose is steady cam use. But of course also quite also handy for tight spots when you are in a time crunch as you guys also mention it.
 
The wide shot of the city was sick. The flag was so sharp I felt like it was going to pop out of the screen. I hope to own some of these lenses in time.
 
by the way, the 30-80 is very similar in quality, and it is amazingly sharp.

i have one, the image pops into focus, apparently in part due to the extra glass in the back. i am looking forward to the 16-42. by the way, i may be interested in selling my 30-80 because i want to get a 24-290 instead, in combination with the 16-42, so let me know if someone is interested.
__________________
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top