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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 :)

Evin Grant's NAB 2011 lens roundup...

Thanks for the report, Evin. Been wondering about the pricing on the Duclos 70-200.
 
Yeahh baby... I knew I didn't have to drive my ass up to Vegas. ;)

(I wanted to go but couldn't get around work)

Reading now...

Edit: OK, right off the bat, the Canons look like you are on a Broadcast camera. Not just the look, but the size of the darn things!
Edit2: OK, big the 30-300 is light!! The 24-290 is 24lbs!
Edit3:
Evin Grant said:
And the [Leica] flares, oh my are the flares wonderful.
Click to expand...
QFT

Edit4:
Evin Grant said:
It [the 70-200mm Nikkor does breath a tad more than the Optimo but it's not distracting or even close to as bad as a 10:1 HR.
Click to expand...
How does the breathing stack up to the Canon 30-300mm?

Evin Grant said:
It has a proper direction, ample 180º focus rotation with built in gears and the final unit will have witness marks on both sides of the lens body. A 95mm front diameter will allow for clip on shades and a lens support will be available for vehicle mounts and DLR use. Speaking of DSLRs one of the best features is a user interchangeable mount for PL, Nikon-F and Canon EOS. Expected price $11K
Click to expand...

Not so crazy about the Nikon and Canon mounts though I bet that will make it a hot seller. But the focus ring being ready is awesome! Focusing the right way is key. But is there any chance the throw will be made longer? 180 degrees doesn't sound like a lot for the focal range. I would probably be happier with closer to a full turn, like 270.
 
Evin Grant said:
Total redesign, better overall performance across the board. Much better field illumination, much better corner sharpness performance and much less veiling flare wide open thanks to the Nano Crystal coat.
It's the best 70-200MM lens ever designed IMHO.
Click to expand...

Totally agree. For the Canon lovers out there who like to rave over their latest 70-200 lens (like Tom Lowe), it's a beautiful lens... But not as good as the latest Nikon. This Nikon zoom is pretty amazing, IMO.

As for the rest of the lens info, I have to concur with Evin as well. The Canon zooms were sized a bit differently and weighed less than I expected. The 30-300 still remains as a possible attractive option. It very well could be a good alternative to the Optimo 12X. I could not get any pricing info when I crashed through there on monday. The 14.5-60 to me is still a bit of an oddball lens. Almost as big as the Cooke or Optimo "workhorse" zooms like the 17-80. Weighs less... It's huge compared to the Angenieux and Cooke wide zooms, but does offer 20mm more on the range. Pricing will be key, but from the rumors I don't think that the pricing will be that attractive. I was personally not that impressed with the image on these lenses. They just seemed "flat". Noticeable breathing -- similar, possibly a bit better, than the RED 17-50... Not enough better warrant the extra (estimated) price and bulk, IMO.

When Canon markets these as covering "4K", they're speaking from the standpoint of covering a 16:9 area within a typical APS-C or Super35 imager. It's enough resolving power to give us adequate "4K' from a variety of 4K (or close to that) cameras -- Alexa, F35, F65, the RED One of course. Larger areas like 5K on Epic or even full aperture S35 were obviously not a consideration when they designed the lenses. If the lenses do cover S35 full aperture, it would be only just...

The new Optimo 45-120 is made of pure sex... If I had $50K+ burning a hole in my pocket, which I don't, but if I did, that would have been the one thing I would've ordered ASAP from the show floor. That lens paired with the Optimo 15-40 would just be an awesome combo.

I didn't take pictures... I lugged my cheapie point n' shoot with me and used it all of 4 times in 2 days. why did I bother...
 
That Angie looks darn sexy. A bit of an odd range, so not getting a lot of attention, but if it is the sort of gem the others are, then it is great to be able to go longer while keeping some normal range and dropping 20lbs.?!!?! Are you sure the 4.3lbs weight is not a scam to get attention? Did you pick up the lens? Haha, that is in their levitating range.

Or course one could wonder, can't I get around to dealing with controlled breathing, 90 degrees less focus throw, T0.4 less, and swapping the 70-200 on and off a bit. But remain light, and keep lots of money in the budget.

Depends.
 
The Optimo 45-120 is very sleek and light. It's very similar in size/weight compared to the Optimo 15-40. Just a bit longer and only 0.1 lbs heavier. Like I said, pure sex.

I also really liked what I saw from the 1.4X and 2X PL doublers. Sexy.
 
Somehow I missed running into Matt on the floor. I'm dying to try out that Duclos 70-200 on the Epic! It's going to be such a useful lens. I do indeed love my Canon 70-200mm IS 2.8 II. It's my sharpest EF lens. If the Nikon optics are equal or even better, than this Duclos 70-200 is going to be a major winner, IMHO.

The Canon zooms seemed pretty solid. They are not exotic, super-high-end cinema glass, like the Leicas, for example, but they will probably be solid workhorse lenses.

Previously, I had been thinking about using EF glass on my Epic, and I will get the EF mount for the Epic when it's available, but the more I think about it, the more I want to keep using PL lenses on my Epic.

Jeff, what PL 2x have you seen? I need a new one... need it to be very sharp.
 
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  • #28
Roberto Lequeux said:
How does the breathing stack up to the Canon 30-300mm?
Click to expand...

I'd put the 70-200 just below the 30-300 Canon but it all depends on focal length, the breathing characteristics of both lenses were different depending on the MM. Neither of them is as breathless as the Optimos.

Roberto Lequeux said:
Not so crazy about the Nikon and Canon mounts though I bet that will make it a hot seller. But the focus ring being ready is awesome! Focusing the right way is key. But is there any chance the throw will be made longer? 180 degrees doesn't sound like a lot for the focal range. I would probably be happier with closer to a full turn, like 270.
Click to expand...

First off, according to Matt they designed it so that the focus throw would match one full rotation on a standard follow focus (FF4?) secondly the minimum focus is 4.6' which is a bit far compared to most cinema lenses that usually go to 2', so you actually don't need quite as much rotation to get adequate accuracy. Here is a photo of the other side of the focus scale...
DuclosFocus.jpg


As you can see there are plenty of marks and rotation for the closer distances, this is also not the final marking, there may still be some tweaking done before the final lenses ship.
 
Evin Grant said:
Total redesign, better overall performance across the board. Much better field illumination, much better corner sharpness performance and much less veiling flare wide open thanks to the Nano Crystal coat.
It's the best 70-200MM lens ever designed IMHO.
Click to expand...

Nikon has been really pulling out all the stops with it's recent releases. I'm a big fan of the look their lenses have at their best. Im so happy that I'll be able to use them on Epic, but I'd be even happier if they could all be given the Duclos treatment.
 
Here is a vote for Duclos skipping the normal zoom for now and starting the G-Primes after the 70-200mm. First up, 50mm. Then 35mm, 24mm and 75mm in that order. And hopefully by then there will be a new Nikkor normal zoom to crown the Duclos Nikkor rehouse set.
 
Evin wrote : "The 14.5-60 may be under $40K according to a retailer I spoke to but I expect the 30-300 to be over $60K. No price was given by Canon themselves"

Hi Evin

I heard $47k list for the 30-300mm. Street price will be lower. So a pretty good price for a lens like this when used 25-250HRs are priced around $25k. Its a focal range in demand.
Im not sure I could tell very much about most lenses in the NAB environment. The monitors that display the images are so far from adequate that I cant tell what Im seeing beyond functional characteristics. I was impressed by the minimal breathing of the 30-300mm across the whole range.

Best
John Chater
Chater Camera
San Francisco
 
John Chater said:
Im not sure I could tell very much about most lenses in the NAB environment. The monitors that display the images are so far from adequate that I cant tell what Im seeing beyond functional characteristics. I was impressed by the minimal breathing of the 30-300mm across the whole range.
Click to expand...

That is something we always have to consider. It really is hard to tell anything about lenses on the tradeshow floor. You can get a feel for size, weight, mechanics, etc.. But you can't analyze the image characteristics or most of the properties of what comes through the glass itself.

If you're right about the 30-300 and it's around $47K.... While still significantly more than picking up a 25-250HR, it's nearly 45% less than an Optimo 12X... I'm still interested. Good chance it covers 5K on the Epic at a good bit of the focal length range too. Of course, we would have to mount it on a projector or an Epic to see for sure.
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
If you're right about the 30-300 and it's around $47K.... While still significantly more than picking up a 25-250HR, it's nearly 45% less than an Optimo 12X... I'm still interested.
Click to expand...

Im fairly confident about the price. Came from my favorite Canon sales rep I have been buying lenses from for 15years. Unless he heard wrong.

John Chater
 
Evin, I thought the sleeper announcement was the teaming of ARRI and Zeiss to make anamorphic lenses, which they've been working on according to the Zeiss booth. Unfortunately, as of now, only for rental houses.
 
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  • #37
Tim Duran said:
Evin, I thought the sleeper announcement was the teaming of ARRI and Zeiss to make anamorphic lenses, which they've been working on according to the Zeiss booth. Unfortunately, as of now, only for rental houses.
Click to expand...

I went to the Arri booth but did not see that announcement. Very cool but not actually their first attempt, there was an ill gotten attempt in the 90s called Arriscope with ISCO these should be much better though. Also the guys behind the Illuminas are supposedly working on anamorphics.

47K for the Canon is definitely in the right direction, I'm still not sure that would persuade me to not save up the extra 20K for an Optimo, but I'd strongly consider it if I was in the market for a hubble.
As far as what can be gathered from a trade show floor, of course it's not meant to be a final judgement but after spending thousands of hours of my life looking through lenses I did develop an eye for the subtle optical cues that inform me about the character of a particular design. Again, I don't think the Canons will be unsharp, or breath even close to that of a still lens, but then pretty much all Canon lenses leave me wanting. I've just never been too fond of their color character or contrast, which is why I've always shot with Leica, Nikon, Angenieux, Cooke & Zeiss.

A question specifically for John,
How much less would you charge to rent this lens than a 12:1 Optimo given the price difference? (A percentage is fine if you don't want to include a price)
 
Evin Grant said:
A question specifically for John,
How much less would you charge to rent this lens than a 12:1 Optimo given the price difference? (A percentage is fine if you don't want to include a price)
Click to expand...

Hi Evin

Its got to be out the door for $400 or less after discounts.
I have a different attachment to Canon. I came up through the 16mm documentary world. Canon zooms were a marked functional improvement over the Zeiss 10-100mm. The 8-64mm was an excellent lens for its time.
I think Canon make good judgement of functional needs for 80% of users. Focal range, weight, size and price. The could have killed this lens at 200mm and said it doesnt ramp across the range. But I bet you on location that extra 100mm of reach will add up to way more functionality than concern for a small iris ramp. Which if you can trust the monitors in the Canon booth didnt seem at all bothersome.
All to be tested in the future becuase as is normal these days nothing will be seen until 2012.

John Chater
Chater Camera
 
Evin Grant said:
I went to the Arri booth but did not see that announcement. Very cool but not actually their first attempt, there was an ill gotten attempt in the 90s called Arriscope with ISCO these should be much better though.


I shot a project with the Arriscopes about 8 years ago... Of course very big and heavy, but on the lens projector they were very good. Couldn't get them to flare very much, even looking into the sun. I don't know if I could qualify them as an ill-gotten attempt - it was my first anamorphic show and I remember being blown away in projected dailies. But I also remember the looks of pain on my steadicam operators face, and also on my focus puller's when using the 135mm. Last I heard Clairmont sold them to an Indian production company.
Click to expand...
 
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