what would you do??

[Paul Schneider]

I have a scarlet sitting in my study collecting dust. No lens. I have $5000. The choice is...

Buy a single 50mm canon cine prime or zeiss cp2 super speed or...

Buy a canon 70-200 II zoom, mattebox, focus wheel to complete the rig.

Goal: narrative film/documentary. Goal: beauty.

Can't rent. Nice idea buy impractical for me. Next $5000 in 5-6 months.

clinical diagnosis: I an obsessive compulsive perfetionist.

Your treatment plan is ?

Buy a Canon L 24-70 and a Canon L 70-200 2.8 IS
With any money you have left over put it to the Tokina 11-16

You will be able to shoot nearly anything you want. Half my reel was shot with the first two lenses. The other half of my reel was shot with master primes, cooke s4's or similar lenses costing many hundreds of thousands more...and no one can tell the difference.

If you are a single operator and will be doing all the focusing and operation yourself on projects there is no point in getting a single focal length lens.
Get the zooms, skip the follow focus and the matte box...they arent mission critical. Having a complete focal range of sharp glass is how you tell your stories.

 

[Nick Pasquariello]

I would strongly disagree... Why do you think a set of SuperSpeeds are still $35,000? Those lenses are over a quarter of a century old! Can't think of many photography lenses outside of some legendary ones, rare ones or Leica's that can boast huge prices after 25+ years.

I understand what you are saying, as yes there surely is a small drop in value from being 'new' and being 'used'. But after that, the price will linger decently high (while making you money) for a long time. If you bought a set of Cooke S4's in 2000, I bet you could sell it for 85% of it's price today.

Of course the better the lens the better it holds price, but I would not gather CP.2's if maintained and serviced annually or bi-annually, would fail to hold their already bargain value. Plus, did I mention they make you money? Unlike a car.

Hope I wasn't too aggressive, but lenses are possibly the most stable investment in this crazy industry. That and perhaps a decent fluid head, MB and FF. Those never go bad if you buy them properly the first time.

Again, you're right on all accounts. But also again, the OP is not a guy working day in and day out shooting on Red or similar. He's a hobbyist working on his own projects. He's not looking to rent gear our or work with it to make a living.

Will CP.2's maintain their value in 10, 20, 30 years? Absolutely. But if you buy a brand new CP.2 and then decide that you don't like it and sell it immediately, then you have lost money. The advice I offer to the OP is not the advice I would offer to most people reading these forums.

 

[Mark K.]

You can get a set of the Sony PL Primes that shipped with the F3 for under $5k. That gives you 35mm, 50mm and 85mm T/2.0 cine lenses with nice optics, proper focus and iris gears and good focus markings (albeit without the metal construction of more expensive lenses).

I'm only selling mine because I already have a full set of CP.2s: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?87441

Shoot me a PM if you're interested.

 

[Jiri Vrozina]

If you are after " beauty " shots , just buy Zeiss ZE Primes...SECOND HAND.
They will give you better images then Canon L zooms. They also have long throw focus and built like a tank, yet small.
They are Full Frame too.
Zeiss 35mm f2.0
Zeiss 50mm f2.0 Macro
Zeiss 85mm f1.4
and then invest in New Zeiss 15mm f2.8. This should all cost about $6,000

 

[Werner Jauch]

Daniel, FWIW I am also a physician with limited time. I initially used older (Non-AF) Nikkor primes 24mm f2.8, 35mm f2.8, 50mm f1.4 and 105mm f2.5. I lent my Scarlet to a friend for a competition shoot, I think he shot the entire short using just a Canon EF-S 17-55mm zoom. Based on his resul,t I bought the same lens, (just over $1000 new) and on my last project I used it for 80% of the shots. The film that my friend shot is called Waiting Room and can be seen at www.actionfilmchallenge.com , scroll down to Waiting Room (site does require an email address for registration but they don't spam you). It doesn't look to me like the lens limited his shots in any way. To cover more options I'd suggest adding a Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 Canon mount (about $600), one fast lens e.g Canon 50mm f1.4 (about $400) or Rokinon/samyang 35mm f1.4 (about $500), and one longer lens 135mm or 100mm (canon makes a 100mm 2.8 Macro, non IS version for about $500). I'd also get a 0.9 and 1.8 ND filter (77mm diamater to fit the 17-55mm lens) and cheap eBay step down rings to fit other lens sizes.

 

[Clayton Burkhart]

Buy a Canon L 24-70 and a Canon L 70-200 2.8 IS
With any money you have left over put it to the Tokina 11-16

You will be able to shoot nearly anything you want. Half my reel was shot with the first two lenses. The other half of my reel was shot with master primes, cooke s4's or similar lenses costing many hundreds of thousands more...and no one can tell the difference.


If you are a single operator and will be doing all the focusing and operation yourself on projects there is no point in getting a single focal length lens.
Get the zooms, skip the follow focus and the matte box...they arent mission critical. Having a complete focal range of sharp glass is how you tell your stories.

I would get a follow focus with hard stops even so. Those Canon zooms continue turning beyond their focal limits.

 

[Nick Morrison]

Agreed with others. A set of cinevised still primes will get you far.

Canon FD, Nikkors, Contax Zeiss, Leica Rs, take your pick...

 

[Daniel Meador]

Thanks to everyone! I will sift through all the responses and let you know which direction I go. My next question is going to be where do you find the BEST online instruction for understanding REDCINE X and DaVinci for those of us unable to travel for REDUCATION.

Off topic.....I live in a very unique area, my backyard is where 100s of major motion pictures have been filmed and it calls me everyday to start filming.