The ultimate Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera lens - Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 with Speed Booster

[KarimNassar]

thank you for this video Andrew, downloaded the original file.

 

The carousel shots look great. 

And the lens and speedbooster combo is absolutely fantastic, very interesting article.

 

Now there a couple odd things with the footage to me, quality varies a lot.

First carousel shots look great.

 

But what is the deal with the wobly distortion of the tower?

The shot is almost steady, should not be a rolling shutter issue?

Did twixtor do this?

 

And the pratergarden sign shot looks very bad, very videoish mushy on the leaves, and there seems to be some red noise bleed from the red letters on the white panel.

 

And the night shot of the tree branches with the lights, again very odd wobly/shaky/blury issue.

Again from twixtor?

 

thanks

[mdebono]

The images look stunning to say the least!

 

Andrew, is there any loupe for the BMPCC in the pipelines that you're awaiting? That would definitely help for handheld shooting especially during the day.

[Andrew Reid]

The images look stunning to say the least!

 

Andrew, is there any loupe for the BMPCC in the pipelines that you're awaiting? That would definitely help for handheld shooting especially during the day.

 

Thanks! There's a loupe coming from Kinotehnik for the Pocket. I have their HDMI EVF and loupe. Very well thought out design and good performance. I'm using it on my 5D Mark III rig for raw shooting.

 

http://www.kinotehnik.com/products/electronic-viewfinder/overview

 

Hopefully I will be able to get the BMPCC loupe to try out as well!

[Andrew Reid]

But what is the deal with the wobly distortion of the tower?

The shot is almost steady, should not be a rolling shutter issue?

Did twixtor do this?

 

And the pratergarden sign shot looks very bad, very videoish mushy on the leaves, and there seems to be some red noise bleed from the red letters on the white panel.

 

And the night shot of the tree branches with the lights, again very odd wobly/shaky/blury issue.

Again from twixtor?

 

thanks

 

The wobble is from Warp Stabiliser. Twixtor causes a morphing effect.

 

The night time tripod mounted shots give you an idea of what the camera looks like with no post trickery.

[KarimNassar]

The wobble is from Warp Stabiliser. Twixtor causes a morphing effect.

 

The night time tripod mounted shots give you an idea of what the camera looks like with no post trickery.

 

I assumed so, good.

 

I am going to wait for raw footage and see how good it is.

 

But with the speedbooster, its form factor and its price, this might be a very cool camera.

[jgharding]

Ghost In The Shell is ace!

 

This is a great combo for this camera, and to top it off it's modern and can be bought now, you don't have to scour eBay for odd rare little lenses!

[Jiří Špác]

Does anyone know, if this nikon Sigma lens + Metabones would be usable on GH2? Would I have to crop it or would the image cover the whole sensor?

[Andrew Reid]

Ghost In The Shell is ace!

 

Amazing 90's fashion sense as well. Superdry should do a Ghost In The Shell themed collection of high collared bright orange jackets. Oh they already do!

 

Japan is such an amazing place, why are they so uncreative when it comes to cameras?

[Andrew Reid]

Does anyone know, if this nikon Sigma lens + Metabones would be usable on GH2? Would I have to crop it or would the image cover the whole sensor?

 

I tried it and the image at 18mm is somewhat outside the comfort zone of the APS-C image circle the lens was designed for. Quite murky corners. Either that or something funky is going on with the adapter.

 

Nice and wide though!

[Arthur Bullock Jr.]

Andrew is this a powered lens? Can it be used on the passive mft BMCC with the Nikon Metabones Speedbooster?

[Policar]

My experiences differ. While the 18-35mm is optically excellent, I consider the 15-40mm Optimo to be dramatically better. Better edge performance, less CA, a much nicer look with better bokeh (somewhat similar to the S4s) and MUCH less distortion. And it's parfocal. Just my experience, though. If you don't care about a lens being parfocal or distortion toward wide angle, the Sigma is nice.

[Andrew Reid]

Andrew is this a powered lens? Can it be used on the passive mft BMCC with the Nikon Metabones Speedbooster?

 

It works on a passive mount yeah. I used the Nikon Speed Booster here, a passive adapter on an active MFT mount = passive :)

[Andrew Reid]

My experiences differ. While the 18-35mm is optically excellent, I consider the 15-40mm Optimo to be dramatically better. Better edge performance, less CA, a much nicer look with better bokeh (somewhat similar to the S4s) and MUCH less distortion. And it's parfocal. Just my experience, though. If you don't care about a lens being parfocal or distortion toward wide angle, the Sigma is nice.

 

Glad to hear that, because the Optimo is $50k!

 

Got any samples from your test? Bring it on :)

[Sean Cunningham]

Sigma is parfocal based on reports online, at the blackmagic forums and elsewhere.

[dbp]

This may be a dumb question but do you have to use the speedbooster as a speedbooster? Can you also use it as a regular old mount? IE: Can I use the lens as an 18-35 f1.8 on a GH2 / BMPCC ?

[mdebono]

This may be a dumb question but do you have to use the speedbooster as a speedbooster? Can you also use it as a regular old mount? IE: Can I use the lens as an 18-35 f1.8 on a GH2 / BMPCC ?

 

The glass is what makes the speedbooster what it is, so the answer is no. If you just need to convert mounts, get a regular converter (Nikon to M43) which would also be much cheaper.

[dahlfors]

That lens really is impressive. Already f/1.8 for a zoom is impressive, the sharpness and bokeh makes it just the more impressive. Amazing performance at that price level.

[Policar]

Glad to hear that, because the Optimo is $50k!

 

Got any samples from your test? Bring it on :)

 

I only A/Bed the Optimo and the 17-55mm Canon, then the 17-55mm and the 18-35mm. So I don't have a direct comparison (or clearance to post the footage), but I know all three lenses pretty well and have shot with all three of course.

 

In my opinion, the Optimo is just about the best thing going. It has a look halfway between Cooke and Zeiss, but closer to Cooke, it's very small with great mechanics, and it has no breathing or visible distortion, even at wide angle. Wide open overexposed scenes exhibit a lot of CA in lesser lenses (the Sigma has it toward the corners, not the center the Canon all over), but the Optimo is entirely well-controlled. It has very unpolluted colors and nice bokeh... really similar to the S4. Edge to edge sharpness and coverage are excellent with minimal fall off. Probably covers APS-H. Of course the build quality is worlds away

 

That said, if you don't mind the distortion, the Sigma is a great performer. Maybe I just used the Optimo under different circumstances from you when you used it.

[Dustin Young]

Hi Andrew Im sure youve been asked before but is there any Vignette for the 18-35mm lens on the slightly less crop factor for the GH3? Ive once again been delayed on my pana leica 1.2 42.5mm so the possible time frame for a full electronic metabones + sigma combo feels likely again for me.

[Paulio]

Spectacular image quality.