Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)
The lens itself has been shown on RED bodies at the last few trade shows.
At NAB they had both a camera mounted lens and one that was being passed around for weight comparisons.
I have both played around with it and placed an order for it back in April.
Its definitely a Optimo series lens. Built incredibly and based mostly on their
28 - 76 lens. You can tell they used alot of the same elements both mechanical and optical from this lens. The differences i was told was that the front element is of a slightly different quality and that there was use of a "different" design for the rear element group.
The lens itself will not clear on anything with a rotating shutter because of clearance issues. It was clearly designed for DigitalCinema cameras.
This was done for 2 big reasons,
1. Keep costs down with the rear element design.
2. Protect their line of and (price) of their film Optimo series which cost x2.
The range itself is right in the middle of what i would use, i would only go out with it with a set of wider lenses. But man this thing is beautiful, its extremely light weight for a zoom & compact. Very reminiscent of a 16mm 10-100 zoom but with more girth....if that makes sense. I could see myself using this for alot of hand held work with out too much strain.
What little time i had to play with it,there was very little apparent breathing and the movement feels very smooth.
The marks are similar to the 28-76 but not exactly the same on the close end. They seemed slightly more cramped but not by much. Honestly i feel most AC's would be happy working with this lens it does feel like and look like an Optimo.
Like i stated earlier i have placed an order for one and can see it fit right in, to the style of production i do. Its range is not like the announced RED 18-85 which is priced the same, but it is easily half its size and weight.
Its not an easy decision to purchase a lens that you know will simply not work with reflex cameras, or maybe any future radical PL mounted camers because of FFD, but its hard to beat the price, but don't know if it will retain any form of resale value.
One point of comfort is that i was told they are releasing a SERIES of Optimo DP lenses, including something based off of the 15-40 (personal fav).
