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Andrew Reid
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So this is mainly a BIG thank you to Andy for all his help & advice - so good to have a resource like this.

 

On his recommendation I got a Tokina AT-X Pro 28-70mm f2.6-2.8 & it really is a v.nice lens - tried on my Canon & Pocket, I even wacked an Iscorama on it too.

Also, got a Meteor 5-1 17-68mm f1.9 (just for the Pocket as its a 16mm lens) & this also seems to be a very good zoom, but it has it quirks: it vignettes on the Pocket until you get to 25/32mm & its min. focus is 2m. However, when you put a diopter on it, not only does it get you closer (obviously), but for some reason you can go a lot wider as long as you are close to Infinity (which is no longer infinity due to the diopter) - this struck me as a strange quirk.

 

The Question: I am thinking about getting the EF speedbooster for the Pocket, but can you put adapters on it without any problems? I have M42, Canon EF & Nikon lenses - I've already got an RJ SB clone for M42, but could really do with the extra boost.

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both are very good lenes for different jobs

 

The Nikon is superb glass with a'pop' to the look it has , its NOT parfocal so use it as a vari prime

Great for narative filming as it has the 3 focal lengths I use alot 28mm for all the coverage , 70mm for all the closeups and 40mm for all the stuff inbetween

plus you can shoot all day at f2.8 and its sharp wide open

solid blacks and warm tinge colour to this lens

this lens is the closest you will get to a Carl Zeiss 28-80mm PL Cinema Lens

This lens has no focus breathing when you focus - a must for focus pulling on big movies - thats why it gets used on Major films like Bourne.

 

The Tokina has a great look to it its softer wide open at 2.6 and had s a sweet spot between 2.6 and f4 - mine is declicked so I can get inbetween settings

The tokina has a very cinematic look to it - I do like the slightly softer look at 2.8 on digital its has more paintery feel to it not as aspherical clynical sharp - think Classic Angenieux shot films of the 70's - this is for all intents an Angenieux lens - it has that look to it .

this lens has lower contrast and less cruched blacks than the Nikon

 

its almost parfocal so you can do those Paul Greengrass Barry Ackroyd crash zooms - if you want to

 

Both are very good - I use them all the time on speedboosters on micro 4/3 cameras

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I also have the Tokina 28-70 on Andy's recommendation. It gives a dreamy look as Andy describes, even when stopped down. I wouldn't use it for photography, but as a cinema lens it is superb. Parfocal too :) Except when mounted on the cheap Camdiox/RJ focal reducer. Not sure why that is.

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ps : the trick with both these lenses is to shoot in the sweet spot of f2.8 - f4 range ,

so light your set for f2.8 or if outside use stacked Tiffen Nd's to get your f2.8 exposure

it looks very filmic with enough depth of field actors can have faces in focus!! ......which is what we aim to do !

If you use these lenses at f8 - 16 with no Nd's you may as well use a kit lens - you will loose the look they have!!

 

I use them both on Lens Turbo speedboosters - so they are f2 and superb at night outside at that stop.

On set I still stop down to f2.8 when using the Lens Turbos (which are great - very sharp!)

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A little update on my current project, the Sigma 24-135 f/2.8-4.5. I gave it a "leverectomy" and opened it up to declick the aperture. After I removed the ball, I spent a few tense minutes trying to get the aperture ring to control the iris again. Fortunately, I got it working again. This was my first time opening up an AF lens and I was surprised to see that the mechanical functions on this lens are tensioned by tiny springs. I am not sure how common this is, but it seems like a likely failure point!

 

Adapting this to my 5D3, I had to loosen the locking strip on the adapter to accommodate the lens. Also, the lens is a little off-kilter once it's on the camera, angling about 30 degrees towards the non-dumb side. But this will vary by adapter. 
 
I only had the chance to do a quick test on my 5D. Looking through the optical viewfinder at a grid pattern in photo mode, I saw distortion at all focal lengths. It's really bad at 24mm, but considerably better at 28mm. I'm not sure if modern Pentax lenses rely on in-camera distortion correction, but it seems unlikely that this lens would since it is from a third party manufacturer and made for so many different mounts. As usual, shooting video in a 16:9 ratio crops out the worst of the distortion. I plan to compare this to the Canon 24-105mm f/4 and see how they stack up in terms of distortion.

 

The nine aperture blades seem to be rounded, which is really nice. And it's so nice to be able to push past a 100mm, all the way to 135mm. But I can't get too used to this, because there are plenty of things that I don't like: the lens has a short 50 degree focus throw, it is NOT parfocal, and there is a major exposure shift when I zoom the lens, even when I'm locked in at f/5.6 or higher. To make matters worse, I can be at the longer focal lengths (like 135mm) at f/5.6, and then turn the aperture ring back to 2.8 -- and get a boost in exposure. In short, you really never know what aperture you are working with, since the controls seem to be on an exponential scale. 

 

To sum it up, this lens does not look like it is shaping up to be is the solution that I hoped it would be. I'm going to test it against the Canon lens mentioned above, and then figure out what I am going to do next.

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thanks for posting this  test / review , shame abut the distortion ,

 

try the 24-105mm f4  canon 

 

You are shooting 5d3 .....Im using it on a speedbooster with micro 4/3 camera and it makes it a very nice f2.8 17-74mm... ish

constant apperture zoom and its very sharp too , its a very usable range this and fast too

 

 

another jem to try is the Carl Zeiss Contax N Mount 24-85mm f3.5-4.5

its very very sharp and great colours and Zeiss blacks nice contrast - Conurus to a Canon mount mod for it .

Its a serious bit of glass in this lens with Aspheric elements - almost PL mount Cinema glass quality !!

 

http://conurus.com/contax/lens-modification-service

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most likely - the f stops I was quoting above are for Super 35mm/ apsc size frame.

Full frame I find is way too narrow at f2.8 so I shoot around f5.6 ish and lower to get a a Super 35mm look on FF

There is always this problem with full frame as its such a narrow dof you get - it looks wrong in my book ...so I rarely ever shoot full frame unless I have to, my Canon is used only for stills .

 

If you buy American Cinematographer magazine every month you will get a goldmine of info on how to shoot cinematically - they tell you in great detail how they shoot these big movies we all watch.

 

There are the same focal lengths coming up in their articles for the last 40 years

the basic filmic rules of movie film cinematography have changed very little in this time.

Shooting styles change but how you aquire images has not

 

I was lucky enough to be standing on the side of the set today as Jude Law and Colin Firth shot the film Genius here in Manchester with DOP Ben Davis at the helm .

They shot Panavision Primo Anamorphics with a few E series and C Series lenses in their batch.

 

The focal lengths they had where 17.5mm 27mm 35mm 40mm 60mm 100mm 

those are just the ones I could see on the lens trolly - on an Arri Alexa

 

they are all classic movie making focal lengths (yes they are anamorphic so wider)

but these are the lengths you would think they would be using

 

what Im saying is if you follow these focal lengths you can't realiy go wrong in Super 35mm format.

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Hey Andy, does your lens turbo have play on either end? ie. it turns around ever so slightly (isn't quite snug).

 

Edit: I emailed Metabones last night about the issue and they said they're sending a replacement back mount. Hopefully it works out :)

 

Also I was looking around for a hood for my Tokina 28-70mm f2.6-2.8 and I saw a Flickr post saying that the same hood that's used on the Canon 24-105mm will work on this lens. So I've ordered one and will edit this post again with my results when i get it.

 

Edit: Yep, it works :) The attachment grooves arent the same, but it does fit on and wont fall off.

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Edit: I emailed Metabones last night about the issue and they said they're sending a replacement back mount. Hopefully it works out :)

 

Wow. Maybe I should try this. Did you buy it direct from Metabones? I bought mine (new) from a reseller on ebay (because it saved on postage and wait times). I can't say the mount play bothers me much though.

 

A tiny piece of paper between the camera and the SB should solve the problem too BTW.

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I'm a bit bemused and in the dark about how different lenses affect image colour (e.g. Zeiss glass being 'cool' etc). I'm sure I could look this stuff up online, but I'm lazy (as well as ignorant)  ;)

 

Anyone care to start me off or point me in the right direction? Is it just about coatings?

 

I think I like the colours from my Nikkor AIS prime collection, but TBH I'm not sure to what extent I'm seeing lens colour, daylight/ambient light quality, sensor quality, camera colour science, profile settings, etc etc. 

 

Do Nikkor lenses (the AIS ones in particular) have a particular "look" in terms of colour rendition, like Zeiss glass?

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Wow. Maybe I should try this. Did you buy it direct from Metabones? I bought mine (new) from a reseller on ebay (because it saved on postage and wait times). I can't say the mount play bothers me much though.

 

A tiny piece of paper between the camera and the SB should solve the problem too BTW.

bought it from an ebay seller for a bit less :)

The play definitely bothers me. On my tokina 28-70 the barrels are a little stiffer than most modern lenses, so rotating them makes the play quite evident. I don't want to put anything between the SB and the camera mount tbh. I've already had enough bad luck. Recently I paid £150 to get the shutter fixed on my GX7.

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Hey Andy, does your lens turbo have play on either end? ie. it turns around ever so slightly (isn't quite snug).

 

Edit: I emailed Metabones last night about the issue and they said they're sending a replacement back mount. Hopefully it works out :)

 

Also I was looking around for a hood for my Tokina 28-70mm f2.6-2.8 and I saw a Flickr post saying that the same hood that's used on the Canon 24-105mm will work on this lens. So I've ordered one and will edit this post again with my results when i get it.

Mines is quite snug doesnt move - I think its just tollerances in manufacture - they must vary a bit

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I'm a bit bemused and in the dark about how different lenses affect image colour (e.g. Zeiss glass being 'cool' etc). I'm sure I could look this stuff up online, but I'm lazy (as well as ignorant)  ;)

 

Anyone care to start me off or point me in the right direction? Is it just about coatings?

 

I think I like the colours from my Nikkor AIS prime collection, but TBH I'm not sure to what extent I'm seeing lens colour, daylight/ambient light quality, sensor quality, camera colour science, profile settings, etc etc. 

 

Do Nikkor lenses (the AIS ones in particular) have a particular "look" in terms of colour rendition, like Zeiss glass?

glass formulations have different colour renderings by different makers and different series of lenses by the same makers  the glass in my book  is the biggest factor in the 'look' of an image - thats why I have tried out lots and lots of lenses over the past 20 years to try different looks - it makes a huge differance to your image , cameras come and go every year - the right glass lasts beyond the life of a camera .

Modern new lenses have very strong blacks - saturation and zingy colours and are very very sharp as thats what people want an almost finished graded look in camera without doing anything in post - but as a cinematographer that not always what you want - so older lens can be better for getting different looks . less contrast and saturation , warmer or cooler colour tinges and more or less flare and aspheric sharpness or slightly softer vintage film look ....all are variables caused by the lens not the camera.  The more lenses you use the more looks you will discover for your work .

I do also collect 'sets' of lenses that have a similar look that I can use on jobs - so I have a low contrast set , an aspheric modern sharp set , a warm set , a flare tastic set , a modern zoom set , a vintage zoom set etc etc .....

 

Just look at a film rental company lens list and you will see loads of different looks available to hire to make your movie , Zeiss, Fujinon, Panavision, Angenieux, Cooke etcetc all different moive lenses with drasticly different looks - that all dictate the over all look of a movie.

 

here is a Panavision UK hire list : just look at the choise of lenses you have to make a movie -

the lens choise is huge! because this is such an important part of the style 'look' of a film

http://www.panavision.co.uk/pdf/catalogue/pvukcat2008.pdf

 

most people on here use DSLR lenses and there are great lenses out there that can give you great looks without breaking the bank!!

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Matt - check this out

Camtec are one of the biggest rental houses in Burbank California they did a test a few months ago showing the differences in some popular cinema lenses they rent out

 

its very good to see the colour , contrast, sharpness and flare diferances of some of these lenes

and this is just cinema glass , dslr glass is the same lots of choise

 

 

Andrew Reid has some Cooke Panchro's he reviewed a few months ago in this forum.

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RJ make a good canon fd to micro 4/3 speedbooster its sharp and good - get one off ebay  for your Canon 55mm - you then have 2 focal lengths you can use , 55mm and 39mm (ish )

 

its a good lens you might want to stop it down a bit so you get a more usable dof with it , it will be very fast on a speedbooster!!

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