Weapon Lenses

[ignition]

Tx Marcus; all sentiments I kind of suspected but we've never shot with CN-E so it's great to get some actual feedback. Curious on your angling towards the CZ 28-80.. it seems heavy and relatively slow (T2.9?) lens. What particularly draws you to it? Appreciate zoom convenience in run and gun/doco/tv/etc work, but would you champion this for narrative work? That's a $20k investment right there; love you to share your perspective..

 

[ignition]

BTW love to hear from anyone who's shot with the Xenons... price/performance seems hard to beat on paper. But cinematic use/examples/feedback seems so thin?

 

[Brian Merlen]

I really want to rock retro anamorphic glass on 8k, coverage be damned

 

[Marcus Friedlander]

Tx Marcus; all sentiments I kind of suspected but we've never shot with CN-E so it's great to get some actual feedback. Curious on your angling towards the CZ 28-80.. it seems heavy and relatively slow (T2.9?) lens. What particularly draws you to it? Appreciate zoom convenience in run and gun/doco/tv/etc work, but would you champion this for narrative work? That's a $20k investment right there; love you to share your perspective..

No problem Darren. Happy to help.

As far as choosing the 28-80, like most other decisions, it comes down to looking at the complete package. In my opinion, and for my particular set of needs, the 28-80 ticks off pretty much every box except one and I have a plan to alleviate that problem.

1. I am a huge fan of the sharp, contrasty, Zeiss look. Also, especially since it is only one zoom, I can test and buy any number of screw on diffusion filters to "break" the look when I need to.

2. Also, ablecine did a test that showed that the CZ line falls between the Master Prime and Ultra Prime lines. (https://vimeo.com/77713291) I haven't gotten to test one out yet myself, but if that is true, then I would absolutely champion these for narrative work.

3. The Zeiss look is expensive unless you want to rent the CP.2's which a compromise set IMO, so it was really nice to see something closer to ultra/master range but still in a reasonable price range.

4. I also know that whatever I buy would absolutely have to cover 6KFF and ideally 8KFF as well in case I upgrade down the line. The CZ line covers 6k easily but the jury is still out on if it will have perfect 8KFF coverage or not. Jarred and Phil have both stated that it will, but I was at the Zeiss booth at cine-gear and they were not nearly as confident. The best I got was, "it probably will."

5. The zoom vs prime argument for me is easy. Most of the work I do is either commercial, music videos, or doc work. So for those types of shoots, a zoom is almost essential. For the narrative shoots the I do get to do, specific lens set choice is important to me, which means I'm usually going to rent anyways, so again, not really an issue. Plus, if I ever need speed for a project, I can save money buy renting only a select few Zeiss primes to save me in Low light scenarios and shoot the rest on my zoom.

6. As far as the T2.9, yes that is a bit slow. However, with the money that I'm saving by not buying a fast and expensive prime kit, I can invest in a complimentary G&E package for myself instead. So, not only will I have a really solid lens, but I can also make sure that I always have the gear to properly shape the light I need to create the best images I possibly can. (I'm also not a fan of razor thin DOF so I don't care about shooting at T1.3)

7. Also, I do rent out my gear occasionally and, from a business perspective, its always nice to have the Zeiss brand on any glass you rent out.

8. Finally, Dragons are so light to begin with that I don't really mind the 5-10 pounds hanging off the front, especially when I have 5-10 pounds hanging off the back.