Favorite “Wild Card” Lenses for your Raptor

[Ryan Chernin]

Thought it might be fun to get a thread going of all the “weird” or surprisingly good lenses you’ve used so far on your Raptor. I considered opening this up to all Red owners, but leaving it here for now since a lot of weird SLR lenses for example cover 7K full frame.

Best case scenario, this thread leads you to discover a new/old lens that’s perfect for your particular project!

I’ll start!

Weirdest so far: cheap PL modded projector lens found on ebay
Surprisingly Good: Sirui 50mm FF anamorphic

 

[Russ Fill]

I used my Summilux lenses just the other day for a set of interviews we needed to make the BG pretty soft and wanted to give the interviewers a very nice look..
Leica 50mm 1.4 Summilux R, Duclos Cine Mod.. Wide open...This image is the snap shot function on the RED controls app for the DSMC3's BTW..

 

[Phil Holland]

Glass I have that works with V-Raptor (and largely built on my experiences with VistaVision, Dragon 8K VV, and Monstro 8K VV)

- Leica-R
- Leica-M
- Olympus-OM
- Mamiya-645
- Hasselblad-V
- Pentax-645
- Pentax-67
- Various M42 Primes (Helios and such)
- Various M39 Screw Mount Primes
- Rollei-6000
- Canon-FD
- Canon-FL
- Nikon-F
- Minolta - Various
- Older Sigma
- Older Iscorama
- A whole bunch of other stuff that I've either made 3D Printed adapters or had something machined. Like 80+ year old stuff.
- Some newer mirrorless lenses I've fully converted, which is a process and likely something I'm tinkering with for long term rehousing.

A lot of this journey is well documented here on REDuser. What I can say that is exciting about VV is massive potential for all sorts of glass to be mounted to it. Now that V-Raptor is RF mount that opens up things that weren't possible via DSMC2 for instance.

The go to lenses are pretty obvious now which is reflected in their used price. There was a time when Leica-R primes could be had for $50-$200 bucks, but we're not there anymore. My beloved Olympus and Mamiyas I was fortunate to have the foresight to make several sets before the more recent price increases. All the vintage glass will always be a limited commodity. The difficulty and cost of aiming at year and look matched sets becoming harder to do everyday.

Lot's worth tinkering with. Be careful with M39 and Leica-M mount wides as they have issues often when it comes to drawing an image on modern sensors with their retrofocus design. Other than that, well worth exploring so many things.

 

[Steve Phillipps]

I'm finding the relatively inexpensive Meike 24mm FF lens to be fantastic - super sharp, very little chromatic aberration and easily covers 8k