First 2 days with the Xeen lenses!

[Erik Vanlenten]

Hello RED family,

I had the opportunity to shoot a great commercial for a heart screening program here in orlando FL. We had a healthy budget and decided to get some toys for the shoot, the most interesting being the new Xeen lenses (24, 50, 85). We decided to shoot 6k 2:1 to utilize the full 6k area of the sensor (something we don't get to do often with our RED PRO PRIMES). I absolutely love the Xeens, they are all around great lenses, fast, light, and very sharp. We also added a classic soft 1 to smooth out the highlights a bit and add a bit of character to the image. Shot with almost 100% natural light (battled the rain the entire time) plus some bounce/shinny and a 12x12' silk. I think for the price these lenses are fantastic and I can't wait to use them again. Big props to my fellow RedUser and Dragon owner Brian Shephard, he had one hell of a time pulling focus with all my crazy movements and general "terrence malick-ness". He and all the crew did a great job this week! Can't wait to see how it turns out.

Here are a few stills strait out of camera (some of which we shot in 6k full frame to use for print adds)


Thanks for viewing!


*UPDATE*

Here is the final edit for the spot...

Thanks!

 

[Terry VerHaar]

Shit... they are now $300 off at B&H ($2195). Tempting.

 

[Jake Wilganowski]

Nice job. Which Olpf?

 

[Eamon Long]

How was the flaring? Those rokinons were pretty sharp on a 5D. I'm curious how they held up for you and your image quality? How big was the throw on those lenses for your focus puller?

 

[Erik Vanlenten]

Nice job. Which Olpf?

We have the skin tone / highlight protection OLPF.

Thanks Jake!

 

[Erik Vanlenten]

How was the flaring? Those rokinons were pretty sharp on a 5D. I'm curious how they held up for you and your image quality? How big was the throw on those lenses for your focus puller?

The flaring was minimal (which in most of my work isn't a bad thing). The lenses have a neutral look to them which I like for the stuff I work on, meaning I can define the look with filters and in post. They are very clean and sharp, I had mild ghosting on one scene but I'm not sure if it was being caused by the filters or the lens. Quality was great, solid build and super smooth focus and iris rings. The focus throw is 300 degrees I think, the AC seemed to be fine with the throw of the lens.

Thanks Eamon!

 

[Eamon Long]

Those Bower/Roke's always did a good job for me. You knew what you were getting and made due. Glad to hear they have a neutral feel to them. Black pro mist for days with those rokinons. I get usually get ghosting when using those Tiffen Cut filters but usually when a practical is just beeming out of control...or a party scene.

 

[Marc Oberdorfer]

Hi Erik,

looks great, be sure to post a link of the finished video if it ever goes online.
I'm really curious about the Xeens as I have some Samyangs and wonder how different they are with the new coatings and 11 blade iris.
Can you draw a comparisson? Can only imagine what great value they must be.

 

[Erik Vanlenten]

Here is the final version of the spot...

Thanks for checking it out!

 

[patrickortman]

Nice work, Erik!

 

[Josh Becker]

Did you find that they bloom in the highlights at all? My Rokinon 24mm has some soft glowy highlights when it's wide open.

EDIT: d'oh, realized someone else asked about flaring already!

 

[Christoffer Glans]

As mentioned in other threads about the Xeens, I don't think they should be used wide open at all. It's there and you CAN use it, but consider them ok at T1.9 at least. Based on that video I still cannot believe people trash these lenses. They are good period, for their price it's amazing. If I hadn't got a good deal on the Canons I bought I would have gotten these probably.

 

[Mike P.]

What stop were you running at for the majority? T2ish? Looked great at 1080p (woulda loved to see 4k.)

 

[Erik Vanlenten]

Did you find that they bloom in the highlights at all? My Rokinon 24mm has some soft glowy highlights when it's wide open.

EDIT: d'oh, realized someone else asked about flaring already!

I couldn't really say, we used classic softs for the whole shoot. I will check it out next time we shoot with them.

Thank you!

 

[Erik Vanlenten]

What stop were you running at for the majority? T2ish? Looked great at 1080p (woulda loved to see 4k.)

Mike,

It was a really quick run and gun shoot so T stop was all over the place (not how I like to work but its what we had to do). We finished in 1080 because of time and it being a social media ad. I will see if we can post some of footage in 4kws.

Thank you!

 

[Erik Vanlenten]

Nice work, Erik!

Thank you!

 

[Steve Strickler]

You could've shot that on iPhone and would be a win...nice creative! (and looks great).