Epic with canon lenses? (++)

[eivind nilsen]

Hi!

I'm planing to buy the Epic and been looking at the lens set. But I see that i can get the same type of lenses from Canon at less than half the price!

Is there any reason i should buy the Red prime lens set?

Also im wondering what I should buy as a good "start package" for the Epic. To me, at least, these things look like a good investment:

1. A prime set
2. Red mag ssd 256mb
3. A power pack (when available)
4. Rail components base production pack (when available)

Is this good? Something else I need?

 

[Matt Uhry]

Hi Nilsen,

It's a real name forum so you might want to change your user name.

You might get better answers if you gave an indication of how you intend to use the camera - for your own projects or to rent to others. How you design your camera package is going to be highly specific to your needs and budget.

A Digital Cinema Camera is not really an investment in the sense that it will appreciate or even hold value like an house, an oil well or a classic car. You are in a race to realize as much benefit and or profit as possible before Red releases their next amazing product and the value of your Epic is greatly diminished. Red will eventually make and ship as many units as the market can absorb.

Matt Uhry
www.mattuhry.com

 

[Julio Quintana]

Canon lenses are NOT the same as RED primes. Canon lenses are not designed for focus pulling at all, so they have no usable focus marks that you would expect on cine lenses. That being said, with the new touch focus feature on the Epic, there might now be compelling reasons to use Canon lenses, namely size and price. What thing to keep in mind is that there don't seem to be any fast lenses in the wider focal lengths, mainly because it's much harder to build fast lenses that cover full frame sensors.

 

[Ketch Rossi]

In deed "nilsen" this is a Real Name Board, so please make sure to change it by visiting here: http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=32432

Canon Lenses wil be very successfully used on Epic via the RED Epic/Canon mount with full electronic control, including also giving full IS capability.

However the fact that this lenses will work as efficiently and possibly better then on their on Canon cameras they were originally design for,
especially the AF given the much more powerful design and Motors inside the Epic

But it all entirely will depend u[on its intended use, as you have been told already, Cine Lenses are specific for their application, which mostly requires
Focus pulling either manually, or electronically, but they posses a specific design to allow for a precise Focus Puling, were the Still lenses don't.

Yes they can be Pimped up via Ring adaptors to allow for Focus pulling, but they will never achieve the same results, do to luck of Focus Markings and
few other things in their design, but if used as manual focus only then this can be done and it is been done for the past 3 years on RED cameras,
and I'm pretty sure it has been done for some time with other cameras as well.

However even so , there are more specific ENG lenses for this type of application, nonetheless Canon and Nikon lenses on Epic and Epic-S will be very popular.

Just choose wisely based on the needs and Budget.

 

[Thomas Koch]

I just put together a blog post about my Canon Lens set for under $5000 and why I bought the ones I did. I'll be getting the Epic-S and use the 5D now. http://www.bayareafilmmakers.com It's on the front page.

I went that way to let me use the lenses today, as well as with the REDMOTE pro. If RED wasn't making the REDMOTE Pro, I would have opted for the Zeiss ZE lenses.

The REDMOTE Pro will allow for focus pulls on the Canon lenses. As I type this, I sure hope that they are still making that item.

 

[Matt Uhry]

In deed "nilsen" this is a Real Name Board, so please make sure to change it by visiting here: http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=32432

Canon Lenses wil be very successfully used on Epic via the RED Epic/Canon mount with full electronic control, including also giving full IS capability.

However the fact that this lenses will work as efficiently and possibly better then on their on Canon cameras they were originally design for,
especially the AF given the much more powerful design and Motors inside the Epic

But it all entirely will depend u[on its intended use, as you have been told already, Cine Lenses are specific for their application, which mostly requires
Focus pulling either manually, or electronically, but they posses a specific design to allow for a precise Focus Puling, were the Still lenses don't.

Yes they can be Pimped up via Ring adaptors to allow for Focus pulling, but they will never achieve the same results, do to luck of Focus Markings and
few other things in their design, but if used as manual focus only then this can be done and it is been done for the past 3 years on RED cameras,
and I'm pretty sure it has been done for some time with other cameras as well.

However even so , there are more specific ENG lenses for this type of application, nonetheless Canon and Nikon lenses on Epic and Epic-S will be very popular.

Just choose wisely based on the needs and Budget.

What Ketch has said is right on - It really depends on what you are using the camera for and how much you want to spend. Motion Picture lenses remain the best tool for Motion Pictures - that is if cost and mobility are not concerns. If cost and mobility are of great concern there will be some decent choices from the stills world.

Your camerawork and lighting have much more influence on how good or bad your film will look than your lenses will.

Matt Uhry
www.mattuhry.com

 

[Mark Andersen]

Canon lenses are NOT the same as RED primes. Canon lenses are not designed for focus pulling at all, so they have no usable focus marks that you would expect on cine lenses. That being said, with the new touch focus feature on the Epic, there might now be compelling reasons to use Canon lenses, namely size and price. What thing to keep in mind is that there don't seem to be any fast lenses in the wider focal lengths, mainly because it's much harder to build fast lenses that cover full frame sensors.

I believe the widest fast (sub t2) lens canon makes is the 24mm f1.4. The also have some other really nice fast lenses in 35, 50, 85, and 135mm.

 

[Daniel Hurst]

Hi, another Canon user here looking for some advice on cine lenses for the Epic. My most used lens currently is a Canon 70-200 2.8, is there anything comparable in the cine market that you would recommend? Sub $10K, size and weight are not a big concern for me.