First Cine-Lens

[Tom Chase]

So, I keep seeing reviews pop up for the New Xeen lens and on B&H they are coming around $2500. I own a Dragon with both the EF and FD mounts, I love the look of my older Canon FD Lens like the 24mm and 35 f2, they have simple gears for focus pulling but I am really wanting to up my lenses to real cine glass. So here's my question - I have long been looking at the Schnieder Xeon's mainly the 35mm & the 75mm to start off with. I know they are slower than the Xeen's (1.2) vs Xeon (2.1) and about $1500 more per lens.

Any thoughts on which way to go? I seldom rent out my gear (it's hard to find productions who have a budget to rent out a Dragon in San Anontio) so most of this will be for my own projects. I have seen a few reviews comparing the CP2s and the Canon Cine Lenses to the Xeens but none comparing them to the Xeons.

Thanks for any help.

Tommy

 

[Tom Chase]

Oh one other thing - I was also considering looking at some of the GL Optics rehoused lenses as well.

 

[Christoffer Glans]

I'm also intrigued by the GL Optics as well. I mean, everyone wants Sigma to release cine-lenses but GL optics already have a 35 and 50mm of the art series converted.

 

[JayEmm]

The GL Optics housings are much nicer than you would expect. The 18-35 is pretty hard to argue with for sheer bang-for-buck.

 

[Patrick Grossien]

I can only speak from what I've heard, but a friend of mine was a reseller for GL. And from what I gather, QC on these is not the best. So you better have a lens technician with a collimator nearby who can do a QC on these for you and correct or clean them if necessary (which seemed to be necessary on quite a lot of them). I don't know if they worked on the issues in the last few months. this might have been resolved in the meantime so I don't want to bad mouth GL Optics because these are cool rehousings if they are properly checked.

 

[francisco santos]

Tom I will tell you this owning a dragon I have no problem with my cooke minis at 2.8. And get some amazing results. I would take better glass over speed anyday. I tested out the canons xenon and others cookes look the best to my eyes. The have a very 3d non perfect feel. Helps with what I am going for. Not sure if that helps

 

[jordan levy]

there are many posts in forums including this one about people sending back there GL optics lenses from very poor quality control and loose gears and what not, that veered me away from even considering them anymore for the prices they ask.

 

[Tom Chase]

Good info on the GL Glass, @franciso I've shot on cookes before and your right they amazing glass, but at almost 8K a lens I could only have a budget of 1 1/3 lenses.

So no info on the the quality of Xeens? I understand they are total budget lenses.

 

[Mark K.]

Another option at an even better price than the Xeens, is the Sony Cinealta set. Six lenses, T/2 across the set, 20-135mm, all for just $12,900.

It's not perfect glass, and can't be at that price point, and they're a little heavy, but the optics are sound, and the mechanics are good. They seem absolutely work a look for anyone considering getting some entry level cine glass.

 

[Christoffer Glans]

Well, that killed my interest in GL optics haha

Another option at an even better price than the Xeens, is the Sony Cinealta set. Six lenses, T/2 across the set, 20-135mm, all for just $12,900.

It's not perfect glass, and can't be at that price point, and they're a little heavy, but the optics are sound, and the mechanics are good. They seem absolutely work a look for anyone considering getting some entry level cine glass.

I'm considering either the Xeens or CineAltas, but the CineAltas won't cover Dragon 6K perfectly. I haven't ruled them out because I still haven't done a proper test of my own with the Xeens versus CineAltas, but from what I've heard the CineAlta have better glass so if they cover 6K they are probably better than the Xeens, although the CineAltas are very heavy.