New Red Pro Primes?

[Daniel Christensen]

I'll be honest with you guys. No set of lenses has ever appealed to me quite as much as the RPP's. I know they're heavy, and the marks are weird, but they're inexpensive, they're matched t-stop (CP.2's I'm looking at you), as far as I know they're not rehoused stills glass, and they're pretty much made for Red cameras. My question is, why did they quit making them? They seemed popular enough, if only among RED shooters. Were they too hard to make? Did they think the company should focus more on the camera, and let someone else deal with what to put in front of it?

My real question is then, is RED planning new lenses? Something to sort of pair up with Dragon? Seeing as how there aren't a lot of mid-range options for lenses to cover Dragon, it would make total sense. But maybe I'm too hopeful about maybe being able to buy every piece of camera equipment I would ever need from one company.

What do you guys think?

 

[Mark Toia]

There was a slimmer of hope there for a while of a bright SUPER LENS kit being built with there own RED mount....
But a little birdy (that use to work for RED) told me that it's all over an done with.... Only because there are so many cheap lens options out there already.

I to was also hoping RED would make some tiny 1.2 super speeds... bit like Ziess MKIII's but better.

 

[Aaron McLane]

We just did a test with the new Sony glass and were very impressed.....considering the whole set cost about half of one Leica prime they are pretty amazing.

 

[Phil Holland]

They were and are a tremendous value, especially at T1.8. I've always been a big fan of their sort of tactical discreet looks too.

Maybe one day, but Mark's right. The lens market has exploded into a different world and there are a lot of options out there with more to come.

A set of T1.4 or T1.5 Dragon safe primes would be special though.

 

[David (dudi) Namir]

Making the lenses was part of the marketing strategy. When you first come with one camera, Red One at that time, you need to offer more of items to get attention and volume to be globally noticed. Also Arri in the 60's made the same with Zeiss.
The lenses were totally made by some, my guess, Japanese manufacturer, Minolta I suspect and Red were not making much money from them but mostly attention.
This manufacturer, probably, knows how to make stills lenses but PL cine lens is a different story. That is why these lenses came out heavy with not enough focus marks.
The lenses are great I have a set but it is mostly on the shelf so if anyone wants a heavy bulky but optically great set of Like new 18mm 25mm 35mm 50mm 85mm 100mm T1.8 lenses, is welcome to contact me via my gmail preferable.

Note: I will not go crazy with the price and I will sell them for what I do think is the right price.

 

[Uli Plank]

I second the Sony set, have a look at my review here:
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showth...inexpensive-quot-PL-primes-from-Sony-!/page10

They are a pretty good replacement (we own the RPPs, so I could compare directly).

 

[Troy Bakewell]

Sure would love to know if the Sony's cover Dragon.

 

[Tom C. Hall]

They are much to heavy for what they are worth and a bit of a nightmare to service.

 

[Daniel Christensen]

As saturated as the budget cine lens market is, I still if Red could conjure up a set of made-for-Dragon primes, they would sell like hot cakes.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

As saturated as the budget cine lens market is, I still if Red could conjure up a set of made-for-Dragon primes, they would sell like hot cakes.

Considering the only one of the RPP's that doesn't fully cover is the 18, it wouldn't be such a stretch for them. The 18 was never a big seller anyway, I think by the time it rolled out a lot of people lost interest in the set. Many people don't like the rainbow flares of the 18 either. I don't mind them and there are other lenses on the market that do the same sort of flare, but what bothers me about it is it's the only RPP in the set that flares in this way.

All things considered, they're a great set of lenses. I was one of the first people to take delivery of the RPPs and I still have them and keep them in superb condition. The 50, 85 and 100 are absolutely superb lenses. The 18, 25 and 35 are oversized, heavy, built around a different internal design and just overall not as nice. The image from them is nice though and it matches the rest of the set, except for the flares on the 18. Anyway, I'm in no hurry to sell mine off just yet. I'm actually seeing the average selling price start to go up a bit. $18~$20K is reasonable for the set of 6 with a case, depending on condition. This is a steal when it comes to cine glass. Biggest down-side is they are not too easy to service, best to send them to RED. I fear that there may some day be no parts left to service them. That would be my only reason for selling them while still in their prime.

 

[Gunleik Groven]

Optically they are cool and the Masters have the Rainbow as well...

But they are heavy.

I think SuperSpeeds are my all time favorite lenses.

Somethings like them, but with sharper wides (16/18 /25) would have been really nice.

Speed
Weight
Character

 

[Will Keir]

Yeah me too. It's good, at least, to know it's out of the way and to look somewhere else for your glass.

There was a slimmer of hope there for a while of a bright SUPER LENS kit being built with there own RED mount....
But a little birdy (that use to work for RED) told me that it's all over an done with.... Only because there are so many cheap lens options out there already.

I to was also hoping RED would make some tiny 1.2 super speeds... bit like Ziess MKIII's but better.