Red Primes Suggestions box

[Evin Grant]

I'm opening this thread to try and give Jim, Jarred and Co. some pre-release feedback before NAB in the hopes that the Red primes will be there in a prototype fashion and we can get some of the FUD out of the way ahead of time.

First off the facts:
Price: $19,975
Fl range: 15 T2.8, 24,35,50 & 85mm T1.9

What I'd like to see...
Fit and finish similar to the Red 300mm
Witness marks (Much more important on high speed cinema primes)
Dual sided distance markings
95mm universal fronts
Internal focusing with no barrel extension
A 15/16/18mm that was also T1.9

Personally, I would rather pay $25,000 for this set and have it meet all these requirements than $20,000 and have it be missing any of these crucial
features.

I'll include a poll that will help gauge the Reduser sentiment.
What do you all think?

 

[Shawn Booth]

I agree except for FL's.

I'd much rather have: 100mm, 75mm, 55mm, 40mm, 27mm.

But everyone has their own prefs.

 

[Gabriel Beaudry]

I would also like, at some point, to have the option to buy the lenses one at a time.

 

[G.A. Kokes]

I am interested too, but will wait until there are some unbiased reviews.

Cheers,
G

 

[Evin Grant]

I am interested too, but will wait until there are some unbiased reviews.

Cheers,
G

After shooting quite a few different types of glass on a Red I'm less worried about the optics. Not to say I don't care but I suspect that they will be very good optically. The 18-50 and 300mm Red lenses have shown us that Red can make a sharp lens. The 300mm in particular give me a lot of confidence in both ergos and glass, but the last 10% is always the hardest, I'm just trying to see how much we can push.

 

[Matt Uhry]

There are two big problems for me with the proposed specs of the Red Primes.

It's way too big a gap between 15mm and 25mm. They need to add a 18mm or skew the whole set wider.

The 15mm being a f2.8 is lame. If you think about lighting a large night exterior your wide lenses need to be faster than f2.8.

Matt Uhry
www.mattuhry.com

 

[Chris Gearhart]

I've been very happy with the 18-50 and the 300mm especially.

I'd love for all the primes to be 1.9, however. That'd be worth a few extra g's.

 

[Evin Grant]

There are two big problems for me with the proposed specs of the Red Primes.

It's way too big a gap between 15mm and 25mm. They need to add a 18mm or skew the whole set wider.

The 15mm being a f2.8 is lame. If you think about lighting a large night exterior your wide lenses need to be faster than f2.8.

Matt Uhry
www.mattuhry.com

I hope that can be accomplished by this thread, Matt.

 

[M Olsen]

Either drop the 15 in favor of an 18mm or add a 20mm. Common maximum aperture is an absolute.

 

[roryhinds]

we fought for T Stop only to not realise that Witness Markers where not on the cards.

Thats the deal breaker for me, like having a ruler with just numbers and no lines, crazy I say... RED have gone mad.

 

[Evin Grant]

I understand your frustration Rory, but honestly the 18-50 is a different beast. It's the Mid-Pro (my phrase) zoom that does a lot for a little but I don't think anyone really expects a $6,500 lens to have hand calibrated witness marks. More to the point the overall mechanics of the zoom make it nearly impossible to do this because the tolerances involved are not tight enough, but that does not make the lens bad. I've shot with a few and have been fairly impressed at it's optical performance. It possible to focus accurately by eye and by distance when stopped down.
The primes are a different story though, they need to have some bench time. They will often be used WFO and pulled at that stop as well. Paul Duclos is $95 an hour. I'm not sure how long it would take him to add witness marks to a lens but I could do it with chart tape, a tape measure and focus chart at about 1-2 hours per lens. Even adding an hour for engraving that's only $1500 for the set. The 300mm definitely has tight enough tolerances to be marked in this way so i would hope the Red primes would be too, and thus include Witness marks.

 

[I Bloom]

It's fairly normal for wide and long lenses to have higher minimum apertures. This is really just physics.

I would like to see an 18mm added to the set, in addition to some longer focal lengths. Buy the set of five for 25000, then add on wides and longs. If it's up to the specs Evin has outlined, I'd buy it.

IBloom

 

[Adrian T.]

95mm universal fronts

I think they already stated that they will be 110 mm.
I don't care as long as they will have witness marks.

 

[Ketch Rossi]

I personally just like Prime lenses, so as I know for fact that the RED 300mm Prime is a fantastic lens, even much more so when considering its price, very low for a PL mount lens.


I'm all on to pay the extra money and go to $25k and even $30k for their set of Primes, the higher the quality and the more the features the better, if people are selling very, very old Zeiss sets for the same money I think that people should be willing to pay at list as much for RED brand new technological Primes.


Ciao,

KETCH ROSSI

 

[Matthew Rogers]

I'm not sure how long it would take him to add witness marks to a lens but I could do it with chart tape, a tape measure and focus chart at about 1-2 hours per lens. Even adding an hour for engraving that's only $1500 for the set. The 300mm definitely has tight enough tolerances to be marked in this way so i would hope the Red primes would be too, and thus include Witness marks.

Do you think if you engraved witness marks on the 18-50 that after a year of use they would still be accurate? Or do you think the lens might slip on it's focusing?

Matthew

 

[Brent J. Craig]

As mentioned, 15 to 24 is a huge jump. The Cooke 21 is a lens that is used a lot on my jobs!

 

[laguun]

Do you think if you engraved witness marks on the 18-50 that after a year of use they would still be accurate? Or do you think the lens might slip on it's focusing?

Matthew

zoom lenses should be recalibrated as precaution - we do it every 12 months.
Even the quite expensive and robust angenieux do usually vary ~0.025-0.5mm focal lenght compared to their markings at the end of the scale after 12 months of almost daily use. However, these are 10x or 26x zooms, not 3x as the red.

p.s.
we have one lens we meanwhile nicknamed diamond, its the angenieux 7.8-208F2. every single time it goes back to the factory to have its checkup, and, dont ask me why, its scale remained -exact- even after 5 years checks in a row, not a single time we had to realign it.

 

[Matthew Rogers]

So basically you would suggest against engraving because in a year the marks might be off and then it would be hard to re-engrave them? I'm starting to think a little white camera tape with marks might be the best idea!

Matthew

 

[Evin Grant]

Mac, I'm not sure witness marks would ever be accurate on the 18-50, pretty much anywhere in the range of the distance number may be accurate depending on the play of the lens. Every one I've seen has been slightly different. Honestly, eye focus from T2.8-T5.6 and scale focus from T5.6 on.
You'll do fine.

 

[Shawn Nelson]

I would like to see the prime lenses sold individually. I can't afford the whole set at this point, but I would love the chance to at least pick up one at a time as money becomes available.