s35 ENG/EFP lens?

[JD Holloway]

Anybody displaying an ENG styled PL mount lens for consideration?

I'd be interested in a motorized rocker-zoom, doubler styled lens that covered s35 for certain productions.

This would require a complete overhaul of current designs but might be interesting in some scenarios. Breathing would be considerable, no doubt. MTF's at extremes of zoom and iris would be unimpressive as well, yet this could be a flexible option for some shooting styles.

We get away with murder with Cinealta's and ENG zooms all the time shooting Discovery shows. I think this would be a way to overscan, with all the advantages, before a 1080 master. (or hell, how about a Redray).

Gibby, feel free to chime in here!

 

[Steve Gibby]

Gibby chiming in:

This relates to my previous postings on a RED User thread last month about the need and market for a 3-Way Utility Zoom - cine, EFP, stills. There is a sizable market for such a lens, and IMO it is just a matter of time before they're produced. The lens could then be easily converted for cine use by removing the servo zoom unit, and attaching a follow focus to the gears. Traditional cine lens users may not necessarily use the lens, even in stripped down cine mode, but the large numbers of EFP shooters, and those who regularly shoot both EFP style and cine style, with small mobile crews, would probably adopt it quickly.

Fujinon announced PL mount S35 zooms at NAB - but there was no announcement of a powered servo zoom unit for the lens - plus, as expected, they are expensive lenses.

With flexible, broad utility hybrid cameras like RED One, and Epic/Scarlet to come, its about time for someone to produce affordable, flexible, broad utility zoom lenses that maximize the utility range of the cameras.

 

[JD Holloway]

That's what I'm feeling as well. And Fujinon would be an obvious manufacture.
I think we're looking for a 16-180mm f2.2-3.2(ish) lens with a built in motor zoom and doubler.

 

[Mitch Gross]

I think you'd be pretty disappointed. Video zooms only have to cover a 2/3" sensor, which is why they are physically about the same size as a Super-16 format zoom (similar sized imager). For the RED sensor the zoom has to be much, much larger and would not be particularly handholdable even with a servo. The servo would have to be more powerful to move the larger lens elements around as well. The new Fujinon zooms are quite large and decidedly heavy. Not ENG territory at all.

 

[JD Holloway]

I hear what your saying Mitch. For sure the lenses will be larger, but the motors wont. Electrics are better/smaller these days. Overall the size will definitely be bulkier and heavier. But the new Fujinon zoom is likely leaps and bounds better optically than it's EFP siblings (guessing). They are less ambitious as well, concentrating on quality (18-85 T2) at one stop.
Imagine slapping a wormdrive motor on a Nikon 18-200.

 

[JD Holloway]

Whoops found this thread.
Much as been said already.


http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=28049&highlight=tokina

 

[Steve Gibby]

Whoops found this thread.
Much as been said already.


http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=28049&highlight=tokina

That's the thread I referred to in my earlier post. I posted my opinions on it extensively, so no need to re-write them here. I disagree that a S35mm zoom, lets say 8:1 zoom has to be giant and heavy. Such a lens will be 35mm stills technology re-housed, based off a lens that doesn't breathe too much, has a constant aperture, and holds focus through out a zoom.

You mentioned the Nikon 18-200, an 11:1 zoom. I own one of those, and yes I've placed a micro force zoom unit on it. That particular lens has a sticky manual zoom ring, that has a bit more tension in the mid-range, thus the micro force did OK with it, but slowed down a bit in the mid-range. With more powerful zoom motors we were able to zoom the lens smoothly. Me and others have experimented with putting a Fujinon servo zoom, cannibalized from one of my EFP-ENG zooms, on various Nikon zooms, with snap on gears - with some good results - no slow down in zoom motion. The Fujinon servo zoom unit is powered off the 12v/RS232 bus on the side of RED One, using a cable made by RED. The 18-200 holds focus quite well throughout a zoom. The obvious downside is it isn't a constant 2.8 aperture. There are other 35mm stills zooms emerging with 8:1 or higher apertures, and constant 2.8 apertures - and they're not giant.

If guys like me are putting old Fujinon (or Canon) servo zoom units on those lenses, and getting smooth zoom action from them, then some 35mm stills lens maker will eventually capitalize on the big market for lightweight 35mm EFP zooms - lenses which are affordable, relatively lightweight, at least 8:1 ratio, and have constant aperture of at least 2.8.

Again, traditional cine shooters will probably not use such a lens, but the huge group of RED One, Epic, and Scarlet adopters who regularly shoot mobile, small crew hybrid EFP/cine genres, who are now using 35mm stills lenses on RED by choice, will quickly snap up a lens like I describe. If it is a 3-Way Utility Zoom, with a servo zoom unit that can be easily removed, then it could quickly be equipped with a follow focus for cine style work, and bare for 35mm stills work too.

I have great hope that the zooms of the new RED Electronic Lens line will be adaptable as 3-Way Zooms like I described. The DSMC cameras will be 3-Way capable (cine, EFP, 35mm stills), so I think those of us who're buying the DSMC cameras, and regularly work in all three of those disciplines, will snap up lenses that can be quickly used for all three disciplines.

In my opinion, 3-Way Zooms as described above are inevitable - its not a question of "If?", but rather questions of "How soon?", and "Who will be first to make them?".