New KX User from Canon Ecosystem

[Teknikk7]

I'll try and make this as concise as possible. First off, I'm glad to be here...Hello all! I started my video journey with the Canon T2i, then took a few years off to grow some e-commerce businesses. Circle back several years later and we are doing much more social media work now for one of the businesses. I recently picked up an R5C and an assortment of RF lenses which I will list below. Fast forward a couple months and we are filming more video content so we started to look at the C70 and upcoming C80 / C400. We are looking to make commercials for products, long and short form social content, documentaries, and some passion projects like a film one day.

The price drop of the KX allowed us to grab this camera and test it out while we wait for the newer Canon models. Hopefully the KX works for our application and we can stick with it for a bit.

Now that I'm digging into the Red ecosystem a bit, Im not seeing many users using RF lenses which was puzzling to me. Im guessing the sensor size is the issue or the auto focus type? I'll list a couple questions below and hopefully someone can help.

1) Are my assortment of RF lenses useless on the camera?
2) I am in the process of getting some custom cinema lenses made by BTF like the Helios 44, Jupiter, Vivitar etc in the RF mount. Should I now get them made in a different mount? EF, PL?
3) Is a speedbooster mandatory? Seems like everyone is using this. In which case I would most likely need EF mounts vs the RF I currently have?
4) If a speedbooster is required, which brand is preferred? Do any have built-in ND's?
5) What are people mainly doing to pull focus? Manual? Lidar?
6) Is anyone serious using autofocus on this camera?
7) Will my anamorphic lens function the same on the S35 sensor?
8) What cage works best using the 7" Red monitor? Im seeing a lot of cages that forgo the required monitor baseplate.

Camera Equipment
Canon 5D Mark IV
Canon R5C - 1
Canon R5C - 2
RED Komodo X

RF Lens
15-35mm 2.8
16mm 2.8
24mm 2.8
24-70mm 2.8
24-105mm 2.8
28-70mm 2.0
50mm 1.2
70-200mm 2.8
85mm DS 1.2
100mm Macro 2.8
100-500mm
200-800mm
Fisheye VR 5.2mm 2.8

Cinema Lens
Canon Cinema RF 20mm 1.5t
Canon Cinema RF 35mm 1.5t
Sirui Venus 35mm 2.9t Anamorphic
Sirui Venus 75mm 2.9t Anamorphic
Sirui Venus 50mm 2.9t Anamorphic
Sirui Venus 150mm 2.9t Anamorphic

EF Lens
50mm 1.2 EF
24mm 2.8 EF
70-200 2.8 EF

EF-RF Adapter
2X Telephoto Adapter

Thank you!

 

[M Harvey]

Welcome!

You have a lot of questions, I'll try a couple answers...

1) Are my assortment of RF lenses useless on the camera?-- No! Not if you like the look and how they perform. I suspect a lot of users are just invested in other glass.
2) I am in the process of getting some custom cinema lenses made by BTF like the Helios 44, Jupiter, Vivitar etc in the RF mount. Should I now get them made in a different mount? EF, PL?-- This is always a tricky question. EF and PL are more universal. I rent PL glass, but have mostly standardized on EF mount for mount conversions. The issue with RF is that I don't own any other cameras with that mount, and I suspect future Red cameras will move away from it since Nikon's acquisition was announced.
3) Is a speedbooster mandatory? Seems like everyone is using this. In which case I would most likely need EF mounts vs the RF I currently have?-- No, the speedbooster is not mandatory. They can be convenient in enabling a single lens to offer two angles of view, and also of course is gathering more light. They can also degrade optical performance. There are a lot of myths out there about "the full frame look" and whatever. I don't own one myself.
4) If a speedbooster is required, which brand is preferred? Do any have built-in ND's?- No, they don't have built-in NDs. They have a piece of glass where a filter would go.
5) What are people mainly doing to pull focus? Manual? Lidar?-- I suspect most people are doing this manually, as I am. I think some use of the autofocus system is common for EF/RF lens owners.
6) Is anyone serious using autofocus on this camera?
7) Will my anamorphic lens function the same on the S35 sensor?--Versus a full frame sensor? Yes, they'll function the same, but you'll see a smaller area of the glass. Many anamorphic lenses look a little cleaner on s35 than on larger sensors because many such lenses get more "funky" (to use the technical term) towards the edges.

 

[Teknikk7]

Thank you