Fujinon 19-90 T2.9 S35 Cine/ENG lens...

[brett ogden]

I shot a feature with this lens this summer and fell in love with it. Sadly it was a rental from Chater Camera. Now I have to buy one. It is awesome by all accounts.

This summer WOW...I ask was that a Per-release Lens Because my Friend got the 1st one shipped on Sep.26

 

[Peter Strietmann]

I think it was an early one. Not sure about a "pre-release" though. We set up up for cine style shooting. The macro function came in very handy. It matched up well with the angenieuxs.

 

[Curt Pair]

Mitch can the servo control Focus & Iris too?

Yes! I own the lens, and have now tested with Preston for sure! Works great!

I am willing to rent the lens if anyone is interested too!

 

[Curt Pair]

Bumping this thread for any feedback on using the Fujinon. How are the optics?

Absolutely spectacular optics! I couldn't be happier with my purchase! This lens is flat out awesome! Great clarity, color rendition, the whole package. I'm so glad I bought this! I'm first in line for the 85-300 and can't wait for that one to round out the terrific lens package!

 

[John DeBoer]

We received the first 2 delivered to North America in late August.......and now have 8, with more coming in all the time. They are constantly booked......dramatics, multicam and eng style shows. Versatile lens, with very good optics at that price point.

John DeBoer
SIM Digital
www.SIMDIGITAL.com

 

[Paul Hazlett]

Is anybody getting servo creep on the Cabrio? all servos on mine creep on the Epic. Its not a steady creep but a pulse. going all manual stops it except iris which is a dip switch. The strange thing is The lens has no power supplied to it so it must be coming from Epic.

 

[alejo taube]

Does someone know what is the min focus distance?

 

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

Not sure, I can't recall what it is on the lens in regards to on the normal scale. From images online it looks to be 2' 10" in the normal pull-focus range.

But I do know it can do macro via the ENG-style back-focus adjustment on the lens. So you really won't be able to rack focus from normal world -> Macro world... but you can get those macro shots, it seems.


I get mine next weekish... excited.

 

[Dominic DeSantis]

Paul,
I also have this problem. I have not resolved it yet, but have not had the time. If both servo switches are on manual the iris still creeps. Going to try and figure this out tomorrow.

 

[paul engstrom]

Just began to (finally!) test ours today.

What a lens!!!! Very sharp at both ends. Very little breathing. Holds focus nicely through the zoom. Great ergonomics. 19-90 in a handheld lens is something entirely new. Put it on there and shoot all day. We'll be doing lots more tests with this lens (including comparisons with Optimos and how it cuts with Aluras and/or Ultraprimes) and continue to work out different camera configurations, but this appears to deliver on the promise.

 

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

Just got mine today, and haven't had much time to test, but from looking at 19-90 at 5k on the epic, and feeling how light it is, I'm super happy. Will be doing tests later, but it's pretty terrific. Wondering how much lighter it is without the servo handle.

I'll post some tests here later tonight. Will compare against my set of Cooke Mini-S4's to see how the lens matches them or does not. I didn't buy it to match, but I do want to see how they handle color differently, and etc! Can compare the 25-32-40-50-and 75.

I have yet to hit the dip-switches and get everything ironed out. Can't wait though.

 

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

My Epic and Lens are not communicating right now... anyone know what's up? Running 3.3.14

My Cookes communicate just fine... a little disappointing when I have this awesome new lens. Is it just me? I assumed it powered through i/data.

 

[John Chater]

Ryan when we first got ours Fujinon told us that the issue was to do with the wrong voltage from the Red data pins. We were told they were working with Red on this. I never followed up to see if the issue was resolved. Fujinon does sell a AB P-Tap cable that works around the power issue.

Best
John

 

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

Ryan when we first got ours Fujinon told us that the issue was to do with the wrong voltage from the Red data pins. We were told they were working with Red on this. I never followed up to see if the issue was resolved. Fujinon does sell a AB P-Tap cable that works around the power issue.

Best
John

Once you got the power cable, did the i/data stream through the camera? Or did that just enable the servo grip?

 

[Karsten Jaeger]

we are actualy thinking about adding this lens to our Epic setup. I found a lot of information about the technical details and advantages of the lens. But what about the 'subjective' quality? Any thoughts about the bokeh? Some footage or screenshots would be awesome! (there isn't a single picture on the internet, which is shot with the cabrio...)

 

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

we are actualy thinking about adding this lens to our Epic setup. I found a lot of information about the technical details and advantages of the lens. But what about the 'subjective' quality? Any thoughts about the bokeh? Some footage or screenshots would be awesome! (there isn't a single picture on the internet, which is shot with the cabrio...)

Coming soon.

 

[Daniel Murphy]

we are actualy thinking about adding this lens to our Epic setup. I found a lot of information about the technical details and advantages of the lens. But what about the 'subjective' quality? Any thoughts about the bokeh? Some footage or screenshots would be awesome! (there isn't a single picture on the internet, which is shot with the cabrio...)

Also reach out to Curt Pair here on RedUser, he was amongst first if not first to take delivery of this lens and has great screen shots.

 

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

So after some initial testing, this lens is pretty rad. Mechanics are great, image is fantastic. I can't explain how crazy a T/2.9 speed is. I'm pretty sure a T/2.9 is about a T/2.8 and 1/6th of a stop. I took off the handle for now, which was super easy, btw...and it's even lighter now.

The macro ability was fun. I did some floating dust particle shots on a 60mm-ish length and the out of focus areas looked like a painting. It was pretty cool.

The color was hard to gauge. Using my cooke mini-s4's as a bench mark, it seemed pretty close. I tried to use some scopes on my computer to analyze some .tiff stills from RCX, and it might just be me, but these lenses looked close in color, but the scopes were telling me the Fuji had a little less color in R,G, and B! So I suppose that means they were just a bit less with saturation? I'm still digging into the color, as it's sometimes a hard thing to nail down. Also, despite being lower in R,G, and B values, I think the Fuji did have a touch of green more than the Cookes. As mentioned, I'm still going through the information. But beautiful none-the-less.

The bokeh test was easy enough! Here is a still from wide open (T/2.9) and five stops down (to T/16):

Also, the Cabrio handles distortion very well, but I found the distortion of this lens to be a bit greater than the Mini-s4's (which are pretty badass in this regard). But shouldn't that be expected of a zoom lens, especially one of this size and focal range?! This zoom covers the range of almost six of my mini-S4's and does it in a size and weight of just two of them. Look at the 25mm Mini-S4 compared to the cabrio at 25mm.

The image quality above is crap (sorry, I had to upload to DVXuser to host the images), but if you look carefully, you can see the edge of the doors in the Cooke Mini-S4, and the Cabrio "stretches" the doors around the edges of the frame a bit more. This is more apparent the closer the subject is to the lens and how wide you are. I remember last night I had a grid chart at 2'10" to test distortion, and I framed the Cabrio at 25mm perfectly from edge-to-edge, corner-to-corner. I then swapped the lens for the mini-S4 and I could see off the chart... by about 1" on each side or so. I thought maybe there was a discrepancy with FoV between the Cabrio 25mm and the cooke 25mm, but when I did the above test, I found the door (about 18 feet or so away) was almost identical in both 25mm's, so it wasn't a FoV magnification thing.... If I didn't have a Cooke prime to compare to, I'd likely not have noticed the distortion much. It's mild for the most part and because of this, it is almost an illusion. It's only obvious with very close vertical lines on the edge of the 5k image. It's mild, but not as much as the Cookes. They are pretty accurate.

That said, the center sharpness of both lenses out performed the siemen's star I had, and although I didn't test for it, I didn't see any CA or issues worth noting. I'll be looking at corner sharpness and corner CA in an upcoming test.

Mechanics:
Super smooth! I had a debate with my roommate which was smoother, the Cookes or the Cabrio. I said cookes, since they feel more liquid smooth. The Cabrio was smooth, but my means of taking a hair less effort to move the ring. I like a little more fluid resistance/dampening, but not as much as UP's. Anyway, I did the test with the servo removed and it's just an amazing lens without, not to mention the things the lens can do with it! Still have yet to jump in that pool.

Over all, this lens is pretty amazing for it's range and size. It may not be the best zoom ever made, but it's versatile as hell. It is made to cover 5k, can do macro (which helps because the minimum focus length is not that great on the wider lengths, but it is on the longer... for instance, it's 2'10"... my Mini S4 25mm is 10" and the 50mm is 1'8", although I almost never need to use that end of these lenses (hardly get below 3' on most shots) it is nice to have the ability and that is where the macro function of the Cabrio comes in handy. It will help get those close up shots when you need them and the 2'10" CU might be an issue. I tested the macro just a little and it seems it gets exponentially more useful the lower the focal length. At 90mm, the macro ability gains maybe half a foot.... but that said, my Mini-S4 100mm is close focus of 3', so the 90mm naturally being 2'10" is competitive at that level.

Anyway, now I just need someone to hire me on a big doc!

 

[Dominic DeSantis]

I have not been able to work out the communication between the cabrio and my red. The AB cable cleaned up the surging that I was experiencing earlier. Tried a few different dip switch selections, but to no avail. Every now and then the camera displays some data in the viewfinder but it is momentary and usually not accurate. This is a bit disappointing, hoping to figure out the problem soon.

 

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

I have not been able to work out the communication between the cabrio and my red. The AB cable cleaned up the surging that I was experiencing earlier. Tried a few different dip switch selections, but to no avail. Every now and then the camera displays some data in the viewfinder but it is momentary and usually not accurate. This is a bit disappointing, hoping to figure out the problem soon.

The dip-switch for idata is to toggle between ArriLDS and Cooke i/tech. It comes default on Cooke's. Also, since the dip is in the servo grip, I'm wondering if the i/data is passed through only when the handle is on. I would doubt it since all my other lenses with i/data are internal, however, if the LDS/itech toggle is in the servo handle, it makes you wonder. Have not tested the i/data in the camera without servo yet.

I don't know who's fault the errors are, but when I bought my Cooke Mini-S4's, they worked on Red1's and then the Epic did not work whatsoever. It took RED a very long time to get that corrected, and even now, they don't work sometimes and I'll have to restart the camera. Red has a bunch going on right now, but I really wish they'd hunt down all the bugs in the i/data stream.

Like I said, not sure where the ball is dropped, but my money is on Red. I have a feeling the i/data will stream wonderfully on the Sony's.