Lenses

[mercer]

3 minutes ago, Geoff CB said:

Yeah A7rII video in Super 35. Love my voigtlanders, and it is pretty nice that they all cost ~$500

Yup, I saw a 58mm II, in mint condition, go for $299 the other week. I plan on building one more set of lenses in the Spring but I’m unsure which to go with... Contax Zeiss, Leica or those Voigtlanders. 

My other option is to go with an adapted PL to EF Mount lens, but I think my options are kinda limited on that front for FF.

[Rinad Amir]

anyone have experience with Olympus pro 25mm 1.2 ?

https://www.amazon.com/Olympus-M-Zuiko-Digital-25mm-Black/dp/B01LW4IFUI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1514044925&sr=8-2&keywords=25mm+1.2+olympus

am thinking to place an order on this badboy for GH5

[webrunner5]

I have never had one but I think I would rather have both Voigtlander f/0.95 25mm, I know MF, and a Panny 20mm f 1.7 for the same money for video..

But if you have the money, and if you need the AF, which is nice, go for it. It is a heavy ass lens but you know that already.

[Cinegain]

22 hours ago, Rinad Amir said:

anyone have experience with Olympus pro 25mm 1.2 ?

https://www.amazon.com/Olympus-M-Zuiko-Digital-25mm-Black/dp/B01LW4IFUI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1514044925&sr=8-2&keywords=25mm+1.2+olympus

am thinking to place an order on this badboy for GH5

@Brother /Albert Fast has one! Looks top notch! Just gotta be able to convince yourself that the price and lens itself isn't too hefty for ya...

If you're looking for more of a perspective/opinion/comparison. @jonpais Jon's got a couple of vids on this one too: https://www.youtube.com/user/paisjon/search?query=olympus , in one of which he makes a good point that the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC DN is a much cheaper alternative, that doesn't necessarily offer you much less quality (of course you do miss out on that build/MF de-clutch for example).

[Rinad Amir]

@Cinegain thanks so much ive seen this guys work its fab and yes i bit the bullet and placed an order on that badboy? So hopefully should be here after holidays 

 

[Cinegain]

Oooh, nice! And so the jolly goo' times get an extension!

[Rinad Amir]

14 hours ago, Cinegain said:

Oooh, nice! And so the jolly goo' times get an extension!

 Best present for me this year

[gethin]

long tele!

Looking at getting a long tele zoom to go in my stills kit, anyone here have experience of using them with vid?  I notice a few reviews mention chromatic abberation on the one I was looking at (tamron g2 150-600), not a problem with stills, but is with vid. (One of my favourite stills lens - sigma art 35 f1.4 has longitudinal aberration makes it not so nice for vid). 

[Cinegain]

Maybe mention the camera(s)/mount you're intending using it on?

[gethin]

nikon F and m43

[Cinegain]

The Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8D ED is a fine tele zoom (obviously it's not 600mm, yet, crop factor and ex-tele...). It's one of the 'Bourne' lenses. Believe they run around 700 bucks in top notch 2nd hand condition. Should be an older one, that instead of a zoom ring has a 'pump' type mechanism, that runs quite a bit cheaper. Pretty big 'n heavy though, definitely want to use a tripod or shoulder rig.

Tokina has the Cinema AT-X series. They have the 50-135mm T3 (yeah, 135 is not super Tele or anything, but still (same for the Sigma 50-100mm f/1.8)). This is actually their converted stills 50-135mm f/2.8 (APO) lens, which of course runs way cheaper than the cinema model (the latter being $3299 on B&H in EF mount). Yet it stopped production a long time ago and is a little rarer than most lenses to find.

Otherwise... native MFT? The Olympus 40-150mm f/2.8 with 1.4x teleconverter is still something on my own personal wishlist. It's pricey though. So is the Leica 100-400mm. Myself, I have the Lumix 100-300mm, which I have liked quite a bit for zoo type schtuff, e.g.:

Bence Máté, a Panasonic ambassador uses a lot of tele. He has a special gallery on the Panasonic website, where I think the 100-300mm images really stand out as well: https://www.panasonic.com/my/consumer/cameras-camcorders/lumix-g-mirrorless-dslm-cameras-learn/photo-gallery-by-photographers/lumix-gh4-special-gallery-bence-mate-ice-cold-wings.html .

Otherwise... don't really know. Most of the time I don't go beyond 85mm.

[gethin]

I have the nikon 70-200 which is peachy on both formats, but specifically want a long tele for the full frame stuff.  Using it on M43 is a bonus. Very rarely see people talking about such long lenses on M43 I know, but thought I'd just see if anyone had experience.  If I do end up getting it will report back.  Should let me do some frame-filling moon shots on m43

[Cinegain]

Well, then you might be better off with a prime? With such a tele zoom you're really giving up quite a bit of quality (and sensitivity), because there needs to be so much optical correction in the lens for the sake of convenience of having a zoom. Especially when that zoom bridges 450mm worth.

- Hum, just checked, they all run in the multi thousands... except for like silly cheapo reflex zooms or quality 300mm f/4s (but those still being well over a 1000 bucks). There are however on the 2nd market a lot of interesting little gems to be had for very little money, which are, well, a bit more vintage. Relatively on the modern side of that would e.g. be a Sigma AF 400mm f/5.6 APO Tele Macro (supposedly better than a Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 L), which you could even use with a 1.4x or 2.0x Sigma APO Teleconverter.

[gethin]

yep I've been "checking" for several years now.  I had the sigma 400 (not the apo macro, but I'm aware that's the one to get), but it got furry. I have a 300mm, 400 is not enough of a gain to go in my bag, and I'll get a 1.4x to go with any lens I get taking it to 800ish.   Anyhoo, thanks all for the suggestions, I've done my legwork, I know what I want to get I was just checking in to see if anyone had experience  of em. 

[jonpais]

Some random observations about Veydra, Fuji, Sigma and Olympus.

A comment by a viewer who'd watched my YT video, 'Why Aren't More People Talking About These Lenses?' was so spot-on that I just had to share it here.

These lenses will be that sort of thing where they will go unnoticed while the company is still in business. Then one day Veydra will close shop and all of a sudden their lenses will be hip with chic film makers. Everyone will be trying to find used ones and a Veydra lens will be like the Holy Grail...they will go for crazy amounts of money...

Also, while it makes little difference to me at the moment, since I'm not shooting Fuji, I found Lee Zavitz's review of the 80mm f/2.8 especially interesting, both regarding the resolution and focusing speed of the lens. For one, he says it must be the sharpest lens he's ever used in his life, which wasn't much of a surprise given the reviews I'd already read and watched. As far as the focusing speed goes however, in his tests, it appeared that the 50-140mm was even faster. Personally, I find AF-C unusable with my X-T2 and any lens regardless of speed, because I find the focus seems to jump from one spot to another rather than transitioning smoothly. And even though Lee had never shot with the 90mm f/2, he was pretty certain he'd prefer it to the 80mm f/2.8 for portraiture for at least two reasons: one being that he finds the 80mm is sharp to the point of being unflattering; the other reason being the highly unattractive swirly bokeh the 80mm produces at wider apertures.

Regarding Sigma, many viewers of not only my channel but every other one as well, were interested in how easy it is to focus the 16mm f/1.4 DC DN manually. I found it practically unusable, but that would go for practically every lens I own except for the Voigtlander 17.5mm and the Veydras. One angry viewer even asked how I could dare say the Sigma's manual focus wasn't good when several other reviewers were saying the exact opposite. I'm guessing these commenters had never used a mechanical lens in their life - anyone who's ever handled a Nokton or any cinema lens would realize immediately just how shitty FBW lenses are for manual focusing. And just how many of these self-professed YT experts have shot narrative work and tried pulling focus with one of these FBW miracles? Fewer than .001 percent I imagine. 

Lastly re: Olympus. The videos I've made about the couple of Zuiko lenses I own have probably been the most contentious of any I've shared on YouTube. One video in which I recommend the Olympus 75mm f/1.8 as the very best lens for the GH5 has received more hate than practically any review I've ever uploaded. But I should clarify that at the time I made the video, many were looking for a lens with more reach to supplement their Panasonic 12-35mm or Olympus 12-40mm zoom lenses. Anyhow, I've been working on a project now, shooting models using LED lights in the evening, and I started off by using the exceptional Leica Nocticron. But it just wasn't producing the results I was after, which is something resembling say, the Sony A7R II outfitted with an 85mm f/1.4 G Master. And I've found that the Olympus 75mm f/1.8 fits the bill nicely. It's crazy sharp, has beautiful bokeh, nice color, the whole bag of chips. 

As an aside, there still appear to be many who absolutely despise 4K and everything it stands for; hurrah for them: but when it comes to sharing screen grabs from individual frames of projects I'm working on, the extra resolution is impressive. Click on the image below three times to see what I'm talking about.

[Mat Mayer]

Interesting stuff Jon. I would like to see your top 5 M43 lenses in order, or best of '17. Curious to see how all my M43 Sigma's stack up (probably mainly because I haven't had enough time with the Sigma 16 yet with it being Xmas.) Ignore the idots who feel the need to shit on other's equipment because it doesn't fit in with their blinkered view of what M43 should be. And the 4Kaphobes (not idiots).

Festive greetings 

[jonpais]

@Mat Mayer I can't really compile a best-of list, but my two favorite lenses at the moment are the Sigma 16mm and the Olympus 75mm. The frame grab below was shot with the Olympus. 

[Mat Mayer]

Thanks Jon.

I have been enjoying the 16 for casual photos but it is a bit big, so your vouch bodes well for saving it for video. It is certainly an improvement over my PL15mm, I just haven't been sure about the weight difference yet. I rock the Sigma 60mm f2.8 and am so happy with it that I dont think I need the better 75mm. Took a stupid amount of photos with the 60 today, as always. It gets great scores on DXO and has good DOF, plus it feels as good to me as the 1.4 Sigmas. At 3m away the f2.8 DOF is 20mm so it seems like the 75mm at f1.8 would usually be too thin DOF (for me).

[Mattias Burling]

Yey, just scored a very cheap Canon 35mm f1.8 LTM (Leica M39 screw mount).

Will give it a go on Leica M8, Fuji X-T20 and Sony A7. Maybe the Panasonic GM1 as well if I can find the adapter.

That is all for now.

[gethin]

I'm a huge fan of the sigma art 35mm f1.4, but its longitudinal chromatic aberration make focus pulls nasty. Any recommendations for 35mm FF or S35 lenses with similar rendering that dont suffer from that or fringing?