Need Professional Advice on Lenses for my Red Epic

[Imran Mirza]

I would like someone with extensive experience (technically and in production) with Cinema Cameras, DSLRs and Lenses who can advise me on what set of Lenses I should invest in. I have a Red Epic on the way and need to purchase a good set of lenses. I am not limited financially, but i'm not looking for Ultra Primes either. So my question is....

If you had to start all over and purchase a set of "Lifetime" Lenses, what would you choose? I am looking mostly for Cinema, but would like to take some digital Stills as well on Occasion.

I come from shooting digital stills with a Nikon D800 with all Nikon lenses (which I have now sold).

I was looking into the Zeiss CP's (because almost every Epic I see on YouTube is outfitted with them)... but don't want to base my decision on that alone.

I am sure this may have been discussed before, but I was unable to find the posts on my search.

Thanks in advance! Your time and input is Much Appreciated

Imran.

 

[Matt W.]

Cooke S4s for beauty.

Zeiss Master Primes for technical perfection.

Zeiss Super Speeds for small size and a gnarly, gross, but amazing organic look.

CP2s are BORING but also harmless.

 

[Joachim Hoge]

I would recommend Phil Holland's threads on glass. Specially "a first look at the Cine-Xenars" (or something similar) a great read that will give you a lot of info to consider. He tested a lot of glass prior to his buy.

Edit: saw my spell check turned a great set of lenses into car headlights (xenon)

 

[Phil Holland]

Heh. I was in a similar situation and Ultra Primes were actually on the table for me. I ended up going with the Schneider Cine-Xenar III Primes. Almost went with Cooke S4s Primes. Almost waited on the Leica Summicron-C Primes to be released. There are a lot of glass options these days.

That big question, in terms of glass that will last you for life, is the tricky one to answer. Coverage is a concern for me, but I do have a more than full set of glass that covers 6KFF and VistaVision as well as a few larger formats.

Value and performance at the moment the Xenon FF Primes are hard to beat. CP.2s are what they are, love em or hate them. If you need the speed and need a full set and don't mind not so idea mechanics the Illumina T1.3 primes are very much worth looking at. Canon CN-E Primes are another option and especially now that Duclos Lenses is offering a PL Mount conversion.

If you are in the market for a zoom however I'd really take a close look at the Zeiss Compact Zooms. They did very right there.

My only two wiggles with my set of Cine-Xenar III Primes is that they are 1. not super speeds and 2. designed/optimized for S35 though they do all cover 6K WS and 6K HD.

 

[David W. Jones]

The next set of lenses I purchase will have a swappable mount system. I don't want to be stuck with just PL, or EF. Or have to carry two sets.

 

[Imran Mirza]

Thanks Matt. Nice way to summarize it

 

[Imran Mirza]

I would recommend Phil Holland's threads on glass. Specially "a first look at the Cine-Xenars" (or something similar) a great read that will give you a lot of info to consider. He tested a lot of glass prior to his buy.

Edit: saw my spell check turned a great set of lenses into car headlights (xenon)

Thanks Joachim,

I'll definitely take a look at them. Its overwhelming with all these choices

 

[Imran Mirza]

Heh. I was in a similar situation and Ultra Primes were actually on the table for me. I ended up going with the Schneider Cine-Xenar III Primes. Almost went with Cooke S4s Primes. Almost waited on the Leica Summicron-C Primes to be released. There are a lot of glass options these days.

That big question, in terms of glass that will last you for life, is the tricky one to answer. Coverage is a concern for me, but I do have a more than full set of glass that covers 6KFF and VistaVision as well as a few larger formats.

Value and performance at the moment the Xenon FF Primes are hard to beat. CP.2s are what they are, love em or hate them. If you need the speed and need a full set and don't mind not so idea mechanics the Illumina T1.3 primes are very much worth looking at. Canon CN-E Primes are another option and especially now that Duclos Lenses is offering a PL Mount conversion.

If you are in the market for a zoom however I'd really take a close look at the Zeiss Compact Zooms. They did very right there.

My only two wiggles with my set of Cine-Xenar III Primes is that they are 1. not super speeds and 2. designed/optimized for S35 though they do all cover 6K WS and 6K HD.

Hi Phil,

Thanks for the great reply. I'm glad now that I did not purchase the CP2s given all the other options out there. Is the industry standard for feature films Zeiss Ultra Primes? I'll see if i can try out a set of Xenons. They look pretty solid and I read your review where you state the build quality is excellent. What do you think about the interchangeable mounts? Or should i just stick to PL?

thanks again,
Imran.

 

[Imran Mirza]

The next set of lenses I purchase will have a swappable mount system. I don't want to be stuck with just PL, or EF. Or have to carry two sets.

Hi David,

Thanks for the reply.

Would it be better to just stick to one mounting system and purchase lenses with that type of mount?

thanks,
Imran.

 

[David W. Jones]

Depends on the cameras you plan on using. We still use multiple cameras with different mounts.

 

[Phil Holland]

Hi Phil,

Thanks for the great reply. I'm glad now that I did not purchase the CP2s given all the other options out there. Is the industry standard for feature films Zeiss Ultra Primes? I'll see if i can try out a set of Xenons. They look pretty solid and I read your review where you state the build quality is excellent. What do you think about the interchangeable mounts? Or should i just stick to PL?

Anytime Imran. I would go with PL for production work. It's a very secure and proper mount to hold glass like that. EF Mount is cool and opens up still lenses, but if you dealing with follow focus units and heavier lenses PL is the way to go. Solid, secure.

Ultra Primes are I would say "common". I don't think there is a "standard" however. It's really more about what lenses need to be used to tell the desired story.

 

[Imran Mirza]

Anytime Imran. I would go with PL for production work. It's a very secure and proper mount to hold glass like that. EF Mount is cool and opens up still lenses, but if you dealing with follow focus units and heavier lenses PL is the way to go. Solid, secure.

Ultra Primes are I would say "common". I don't think there is a "standard" however. It's really more about what lenses need to be used to tell the desired story.

Solid reply! Thanks again Phil

 

[Will Keir]

Phil, gave some great advice. Imran, you are being steered in a good direction.

Also take a look at the SALT I, II, III in the lens section. Great info pooled together there by Evin, Matt and more... Think in terms of the two classes of lenses available to you. Prime Lenses & Zoom Lenses. Primes, you zoom/frame with positioning. Zooms are EZ. Primes are sharp, Zooms are sharp. Primes are faster. T1.3, T2.0. Zooms are fast. T2.8+. The T-Stop is how your lenses aperture is rated. With a T1.3 Prime lens, you have only inches to hit your critical focus, it looks awesome but it's very hard to hit consistently.

I kinda wish I had the mounts and lenses to try stills glass, I just seem to keep going forward down this PL road and find it's a good place to be for my narrative work. I rack focus often, which I hear can be troubling with still lenses.

The good news is you can always buy a set, use them, then sell if you don't like. Buy used, you'll probably be able to get your money back. My Super Speeds have raised their value in the past year and we've shot a feature, several test projects, a short and interviews. So if you are going to use your gear, it's a good buy, lenses hold value if you pick em right. COVERAGE is important.

Anytime Imran. I would go with PL for production work. It's a very secure and proper mount to hold glass like that. EF Mount is cool and opens up still lenses, but if you dealing with follow focus units and heavier lenses PL is the way to go. Solid, secure.

Ultra Primes are I would say "common". I don't think there is a "standard" however. It's really more about what lenses need to be used to tell the desired story.

 

[Phil Holland]

I kinda wish I had the mounts and lenses to try stills glass, I just seem to keep going forward down this PL road and find it's a good place to be for my narrative work. I rack focus often, which I hear can be troubling with still lenses.

Spot on Will. Pulling accurate focus is just a much better experience with lenses designed to do so. Cinema primes and zooms don't experience image shift. Many still lenses suffer this issue and also have crazy drift on and off of marks.

I will say though there are some tremendous still lenses. I've got glass here that's 50 years old that looks nice even. I've got a slew of EF glass and various Nikon and other lenses adapted to EF that work nicely. Lately though I've been testing and experimenting with Leica M mount glass and that's where things can get real small and compact with somewhat amazing results.

You can make great images with both knowing the strengths and weaknesses though. And really for general production work nothing beats a matched set of cinema primes.

 

[Jiri Vrozina]

"Lifetime Lenses" should be Full Frame ;-)
so there is not too many options. (Leica Rehouse, Schneider Xenons, Perhaps Sigma ART Primes Rehouse) and 2 years later Otus Range.

 

[Phil Holland]

"Lifetime Lenses" should be Full Frame ;-)
so there is not too many options. (Leica Rehouse, Schneider Xenons, Perhaps Sigma ART Primes Rehouse) and 2 years later Otus Range.

It's a world of many formats.

 

[Hans von Sonntag]

It's a world of many formats.

Yes. And there are many, many reasons why PL S35mm will stay as THE format for moving picture production.

Hans

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

CP2s are BORING but also harmless.

HAHA... That is so fitting it's just funny. Just don't buy the 18mm CP.2, it's not harmless.


Take a look at the Schneider Xenon FF primes. Excellent value there. Set is limited at the moment, 35, 50, 75 available now. 100mm just starting to ship like right now, I think I'll have mine in a couple days, 25mm probably in October.


There are also a multitude of excellent zooms on the market now. The Angenieux DP series zooms are excellent, with a couple compromises in how they fit certain cameras, and available cheaper than ever now that they have been replaced by the new Style series. The Fuji Cabrio series is great as well. Their 19-90 is just pure awesomeness as an all purpose lens and then it can be paired with a wide prime or zoom like the Tokina 11-16 and something else on the long end.

 

[Jiri Vrozina]

Yes. And there are many, many reasons why PL S35mm will stay as THE format for moving picture production.

Hans

What are the many reasons?
Well if you see s35 as Lifetime Frame Size then you will not likely own next generations of RED Cameras.

 

[Imran Mirza]

Phil, gave some great advice. Imran, you are being steered in a good direction.

Also take a look at the SALT I, II, III in the lens section. Great info pooled together there by Evin, Matt and more... Think in terms of the two classes of lenses available to you. Prime Lenses & Zoom Lenses. Primes, you zoom/frame with positioning. Zooms are EZ. Primes are sharp, Zooms are sharp. Primes are faster. T1.3, T2.0. Zooms are fast. T2.8+. The T-Stop is how your lenses aperture is rated. With a T1.3 Prime lens, you have only inches to hit your critical focus, it looks awesome but it's very hard to hit consistently.

I kinda wish I had the mounts and lenses to try stills glass, I just seem to keep going forward down this PL road and find it's a good place to be for my narrative work. I rack focus often, which I hear can be troubling with still lenses.

The good news is you can always buy a set, use them, then sell if you don't like. Buy used, you'll probably be able to get your money back. My Super Speeds have raised their value in the past year and we've shot a feature, several test projects, a short and interviews. So if you are going to use your gear, it's a good buy, lenses hold value if you pick em right. COVERAGE is important.

Thanks for the detailed reply Will. I'm looking at the Xenons now as well with some interest, but probably won't pull the trigger on any set just yet until I research it a little more... I wish i could just try out all the lenses for a week and then make a decision, but that would cost me the price if a couple of nice primes.