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nikons vs old angenieux zooms?

Adam Clark

Adam Clark

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hello all-
my red delivery date is slowly approaching and i am working out my lens options.

i am looking at some old angenieux zooms vs using nikons. i like the flexibility/price of the nikons but often keeping coming back to idea that i should just get a pl mount lens - but my price range of course limits my options to the older angenieux 25-250. i have seen some good tests of it - but am looking for opinions. does the angenieux even cover super 35?

thanks in advance.
 
4K on the RED One is standard 35, not Super. Only if the 4.5K area ever gets activated will it be Super-35 width.
 
The lenses are totally different, but you can buy a lot more Nikons than Angenieux, and there are some keen deals on the Ang lenses every so often...
 
Hey Trick, my serial number is only 4 on from yours hows about that. Im going the Nikon route even though i have been a Canon man all my life (so far) and film for Canon.

I have been impressed by everything I have seen shot on the Nikons posted on here, sure i would like Master Primes but they aren't in my price range right now - but i know i am going to be happy with the results i am going to get from the various Nikons i'm buying right now.


Andrew.
 
hey entitiled! only 4 away... our reds will be practically twins! i have been a canon guy as well. when i first found out about red, i found the birger thread and that seemed to be the solution, but that seems to be perpetually delayed and i think i am more down with the manual iris anyway. i hoped an fd solution would come out that did not void the warranty - but no dice. and i too have been really impressed with the nikon stuff i've seen. it is really great to hear other opinions on this.

thank you so much. cheers.
 
Good about the Angenieux would be that (if it is collimated) you can do proper focus pulling and that you don't need to change lenses. It's relatively long and the weight is still under control compared to modern zooms. If stopped down it is sharp and if you add some contrast in post it is hard to tell the difference with a modern zoom. Bad about it is that when you shoot wide open you get a certain 'old' look that you might not like for every project. It is still sharp but with a lot of vignetting, ghosting, halos and so on. Hand-held is going to be very heavy or impossible and most importantly you loose about 1-3 stops compared to Nikon primes which is going to make shooting indoors more difficult or expensive. Oh and it breathes like hell: on one shoot the director commented that he didn't want a zoom in that shot and the DP replied that he was just trying to focus.

Good about the Nikons is that they are light and sharp and there is a lot of choice. You can do hand-held, you can shoot indoors, you can get a modern, neutral look. Biggest downside is that you can't do proper focus pulling because the lenses are not calibrated and the focus throw is too short. Also it is difficult to find a good and fast wide angle.

They are both very different solutions and what would suit you would depends very much on the projects you are doing. But for any serious production I think you would have to rent a set of PL primes.
 
Go with the Nikons.

The Angenieux is a vintage lens - innovative in it's day, now exhibiting to a degree pretty much every lens aberration know to man. At T3.9 it's useless for night work and all but the brightest of interiors. The look, even stopped way down is interesting for a '70's grindhouse kind of look but not something you would want to be saddled with day in and day out.

Matt Uhry
www.mattuhry.com
 
In my overall lens kits for RED One I own four cine lenses (1 zoom, 3 prime), and nine Nikon lenses of various focal lengths (3 zooms, 6 primes). I also have one Canon 35mm still zoom (150-600) with a PL mount conversion. When me or my crews need master primes, we rent them on a per-project basis.

The cliche Horses for courses applies. The footage from the Nikons and Canon has been excellent. Yes, there are some workarounds mechanically with them, but IMO the performance to cost ratio is excellent.

If you do union work or other large crew productions where cine lenses are expected/demanded, rent them on an as-needed basis. If you do indie packager work and or crew situations where you need to maximize technology and minimize expense, the Nikon lenses are an excellent way to go.

I'd go with the Nikons over old Angie any day - in fact as you can see from the above info, I have.
 
Hi,

Be aware that Laguun thinks the old Arg to be very good when used with a Red one.

I would add NO Comment.

Stephen
 
trick said:
i am looking at some old angenieux zooms vs using nikons. i like the flexibility/price of the nikons but often keeping coming back to idea that i should just get a pl mount lens - but my price range of course limits my options to the older angenieux 25-250. i have seen some good tests of it - but am looking for opinions. does the angenieux even cover super 35?

thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Hi Adam,

tough choice.

The best nikons have better image quality (in fact better than almost any cine prime as well), offer a good price/performance level but their ergonomics can be problematic and you will have to change mounts (or go with the ps IMS).

The classic angie 25-250 (we operate 3 of them) is great work/warhorse, but requires lots of light and breathes. You can operate it at F3.2/T3.9, but it will give you a vintage look, its sweet spot is T5.5-8, at that stop we intercut it with cineprimes without any issues.

Basically it comes down to if you are the "i cant work that way" or the "can do" type .

Prices for the classic Angie 25-250 have sadly raised quite a bit, but with some luck you can still find a well maintained one for quite low $$$$.

If you want to study the characteristics of the 25, have a look at Kubrick Barry Lyndon, large parts of the exterior battle sequence are shot on the 25.

Here are some quick one-light grabs from a shot 2 days ago, when we were shooting the venerable 1935 Douglas DC-3 for a 4K ride, now thats real vintage.




 
some more vintage planes and more elder glass use of that production while we are at it (cooke S2, angie 25 and old zeiss)



 
Hey Laguun. Those images are amazing. Im writing a WW2 feature at the moment to direct next year (hopefully) and was going to use vintage lenses for it, i might now go for an angenieux for that after seeing those - it at least gives me something to talk to the financiers about lol.

Andrew.
 
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