Let me start by saying I like the kit lens, just wish it was faster. I have a nikor 50mm 1.4 that is sweet and a Tokina 11-16 zoom 2.8 that I have been using for a while on my 7d. I just got the Meta Bones adapter so now I can put the Tokina and all my Canon glass on the VG30. The lenses that I really like so far are;

E PZ 18-200mm F3.5-6.3
Nikor 05mm 1.4
Tokina 11-16 2.8

What lens do you like on the VG 30?

Rokinon 35mm/1.4 - sharp as heck and looks nice in front of the camera.

I also use the Tamron 17-50mm 2.8 quite a bit as well. Not as fast or sharp, but still can produce some nice images.

The only actual NEX glass I own is the 16mm. It's nicely wide and super light, so I usually use it for stedicam type shots.

On that Rokion is it an E-Mount or Canon?

I should start by specifying this is for E-mount cameras as I don't have a VG30, I have a VG20 and FS100.

Lenses I use:
E mount kit lens 18-200 F3.5-6.3.
FD mount 50mm F1.4
FD mount 35mm F2.0
FD mount 28mm F2.5
FD mount 28-90mm f2.8-3.5
Tamron 17-50 F2.8 (canon mount)
Sigma 50-150 F2.8 (canon mount)
Tamron 28-105 F2.8 (canon mount)
Sigma 10-20 F4-5.6 (Sony A mount)

I have 2 cameras so on many shoots I will choose 2 different lenses for the shoot.
For a performance on stage I may use the 50-150 on a camera and the 17-50 on
the other. That way I have a wide shot and a close up. For an interview I may choose
a FD prime for ultra shallow depth of field on one camera and something like the 28-105
on the other so I can change focal lengths between questions. Then cut together the video
in post.

If I am using one camera in a variety of situations I bring either the kit lens or the
28-105. If I can bring 3 lenses I'd bring a super wide (10-20 or 11-16 if you had that
instead), a fast medium prime (50 F1.4 or a 35 F1.4 if you had that instead) and then a zoom
for all around work. All the lenses have their purpose, just depends on what you are
shooting.

On that Rokion is it an E-Mount or Canon?

Canon. The only native Sony lens I own is the 16mm. Simply put, I think the resale value is higher with the Canon glass. That said, it looks like the NEX mount is going to stick around.

I only shoot narrative or commercials, so I don't need automatic anything in a lens.

I also use quite a few FD lens (all zooms). They have their foibles, but you can't beat the price. I wish either Canon or Rokinonj would issue a fully manual zoom lens - I dislike having to use the camera to set the F-stop, even when I'm using a Canon. So much easier using manual glass.

I was never that keen on the kit 18-200 lens so I listed it at .99c on ebay and it sold for $750. You cannot use cheap zoom lenses with a matte box as most want to extend themselves beyond the lens body like an Alien esophagus and break your glass filters but I do love my cute little SEL16-50 motor zoom on the VG20. (perfect lens for a VG30 too with a zoom rocker!) Although it is very 'Handycam' for holiday snaps, I use it mostly with a matte box on rails and a follow focus control. The 16-50 features a zoom slider on the lens barrel but if you set your NEX camera to 'auto focus', the lens focus ring (which is geared to my follow focus wheel) then becomes a true 'proportional' zoom control so it is great for close quarters, hand held shooting.

For just about everything else, I use Carl Zeiss Contax 35mm manual primes on a fluid tripod. They are big heavy, beautifully made lenses which you can use wide open without fear of corner fade or any softness and of course, they all offer the classic Zeiss 'look'. Some have up to 270 degrees of focus ring rotation (correct direction too) so they are perfect for follow focus work. I also have a couple of $35 Helios F2.0 M42 lenses (early Zeiss 'clones') which I like for macro work with extension barrels.

This is my current Zeiss lineup:

* 50mm f1.7
* 85mm f2.8
* 135mm f2.8
* 180mm f2.8
* 300mm f4.0
* Mutar II 2x Extender (this coupled with the 300mm and VG20 is around 900mm FF equiv - virtually an f5.6 'telescope'!)

I currently use a 'dumb' C/Y>NEX adapter but have a Metabones C/Y 'Speedbooster' on order.

This is really good information guys, thanks. I am really looking at the Rokinon 35mm/1.4 and the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM. I think the Rokinon will be great under controlled situations like interviews or shooting commercials where I have time to setup. The Canon looks like a good run and gun lense. Does anyone think that if I have the Canon I would not need the Rokinon? Still reading reviews and doing research.

The 17-55 would vignette if you ever want to go to a FF camera. Also, while the 17-55 range is decent as a walk around lenses, I often want more zoom, at least something that goes up to 100mm.

One other thing - the Roki is much sharper then the Canon lens you mentioned, and of course much faster.

Thanks, John that gives me something to think about. So.. In a zoom what would you recommend?

Well the funny thing is that if you want to get full control and IS, there's only 3 ways to go - either the stock Sony NEX zoom, a Canon/Nikon with a so-called "smart" adapter, or older manual glass with a "dumb" adapter.

Now Canon zooms - particularly the 24-70 2.8 L and the 24-108 4.0 L - are well respected lens, but you won't be able to control the iris or get auto anything unless getting one of the smart adapters. That said, the newest adapters, like the Metabones Mark III, does get you all those goodies.

Unfortunately, it cost $400:
Sony NEX System : Canon EF Lens to Sony NEX Smart Adapter (Mark III) (http://www.metabones.com/sony/buy-eos-nex-adapter)

Which is a small price to pay if you're already heavily invested in Canon glass. Otherwise, I'm not sure. But if you want a fast zoom lens that has all the modern bells and whistles, you'll have to get some sort of adapter, either for Nikon, Alpha (Minolta), or Canon.

Of course, it all depends on exactly what you're using the camera/lens for. I shoot nothing but narrative films and commercials, so I can (usually) take a little time to properly light/set up a shot. That's why all my zoom lenses are Canon FDs - super cheap, built like tanks, with decent image quality. I bought a 28-200mm 3.5-5.3 FD from KEH not long ago for $70 and the thing's nearly flawless.

But if you're an events/doc shooter, you'll likely want IS, auto focus, and a faster lens then that. A 2.8 constant ap FD lens is hard to find - and fairly expensive.

SO, I guess my answer depends on what kind of shooting you do, whether or not you want to commit to one brand of lens (which you more or less have to do if you're on any kind of a budget), and whether or not you can hold out until the next gen of NEX glass comes out (which is hopefully soon). For me, I'm willing to invest in fully manually FF capable primes like the 35mm Rokinon because I know I be able to use them on basically any camera in existence (other then Nikon). I invest in the FD glass because it's an incredible value, and the dumb adapters are so cheap.

Thanks, John I just got my MetaBones adapter so the canon 24 - 70 is looking good. It will be interesting to see what next gen NEX glass will be. I shoot a lot of commercials and business profiles so that Rokinon looks good for that but every now and then I shoot martial arts so a good zoom with auto focus comes in handy for that. Have you used a Canon 24-70?

Only briefly, not enough to judge it one way or another (other then build quality was nice).

I would really like to use my Nikon glass on my vg30. I have a few FX lenses, both prime and zoom. Will I need a "smart adaptor" to be able to control aperture? Any recomendations?

I use a VG10, VG20 an NEX5r and an NEX5n. Glass in the kit bag is currently:

Sony E-mount 16mm with wide angle adaptor and fish eye adaptor
Sony E-mount 50mm f1.8
Sony E-mount 18-200 kit lens x2
Sony E-mount18-55 kit lens
Sony E-Mount Macro lens
Sigma 30mm f2.8 E-mount lens
SLR Magic 35mm f1,7 and adaptor
Holga fixed f8 toy lens.
Pentax M42 adaptor with Helios 28mm, 44mm, 58mm and 135mm primes.

Henry, how do you like the wide angle adaptor?

Hi John,

I keep the wide angle adaptor in the kit bag all the time and find it very useful. Fits securely to the front of the lens and dosen't seem to have any impact on the image other than making it much wider and a little bit of perspective distortion in the corners. Will try and do a few comparative shots and put them up here later.

Henry

Well the funny thing is that if you want to get full control and IS, there's only 3 ways to go - either the stock Sony NEX zoom, a Canon/Nikon with a so-called "smart" adapter, or older manual glass with a "dumb" adapter.

Now Canon zooms - particularly the 24-70 2.8 L and the 24-108 4.0 L - are well respected lens, but you won't be able to control the iris or get auto anything unless getting one of the smart adapters. That said, the newest adapters, like the Metabones Mark III, does get you all those goodies.

Unfortunately, it cost $400:
Sony NEX System : Canon EF Lens to Sony NEX Smart Adapter (Mark III) (http://www.metabones.com/sony/buy-eos-nex-adapter)

Which is a small price to pay if you're already heavily invested in Canon glass. Otherwise, I'm not sure. But if you want a fast zoom lens that has all the modern bells and whistles, you'll have to get some sort of adapter, either for Nikon, Alpha (Minolta), or Canon.

Of course, it all depends on exactly what you're using the camera/lens for. I shoot nothing but narrative films and commercials, so I can (usually) take a little time to properly light/set up a shot. That's why all my zoom lenses are Canon FDs - super cheap, built like tanks, with decent image quality. I bought a 28-200mm 3.5-5.3 FD from KEH not long ago for $70 and the thing's nearly flawless.

But if you're an events/doc shooter, you'll likely want IS, auto focus, and a faster lens then that. A 2.8 constant ap FD lens is hard to find - and fairly expensive.

SO, I guess my answer depends on what kind of shooting you do, whether or not you want to commit to one brand of lens (which you more or less have to do if you're on any kind of a budget), and whether or not you can hold out until the next gen of NEX glass comes out (which is hopefully soon). For me, I'm willing to invest in fully manually FF capable primes like the 35mm Rokinon because I know I be able to use them on basically any camera in existence (other then Nikon). I invest in the FD glass because it's an incredible value, and the dumb adapters are so cheap.

I own a few Canon FD glass as they have been compared to the L series in terms of quality! Although I haven't conducted a scientific comparison between them I am very happy with my FD glass.

I own a Zoom lens with F3.5 constant aperture and have my camera set up to not exceed above 2500iso (this is the limit with acceptable grain on the EA50).

But I so wish I could drop the aperture by 1 f stop.

Any gadget out there to do this on the FD mount like metabones?

Or do you know of any good zooms under £500 with a constant aperture? other than the 35-105mm i've got.

You can find Canon FD "L" class lenses if you look hard enough. Never had a chance to use them, but they are supposed to be very good (esp for the price).

Hey guys, seeking some assistance with purchasing perhaps some new lenses for a VG-20E. Currently, I'm turning good results with the kit lens in photo mode and some what average footage in film mode. I am an amateur with a prosumer budget. My forte is still life and I greatly benefit using Expanded Focus with the kit lens. I've discovered that I like sharp but soft dirty images. Is the Zeiss the lens for me?

I really like the classic Zeiss 'Contax' full frame lenses and I now have a large collection of these valuable primes. Try the 50mm F1.7 as a starter and put it with a C/Y to NEX 'Speedbooster' for F1.2 at the sensor. It will transform your pictures from the Vg20.

Contax Zeiss is very good and relatively affordable.

Leica R is also very good but more expensive. I've used both extensively and prefer the latter now.

If you have a decent budget, you can get the f/2 Leica R set--35, 50, 90, which should cover a lot of ground. There are 300-500 grams, just about the right weight IMO. Contax has the advantage of 28 f/2 and 135 f/2, but for the intermittent FL's you have to choose between light f/2.8's and heavy f/1.4's. The Leica R line most sorely lacks a fast true wide angle.

IQ-wise it's a matter of taste and style. Both sets are great. Contax is more neutral, more faithful, with more cutting OOF transition; Leica is more beautifying, more romantic, with more gentle OOF transition that gives a fuller sense of spcae. One feels like looking at, the other looking through. Color-wise especially they are superior to most other brands, which may resolve as well but lack a certain subtle refinement that's hard to describe. As mechanical objects I prefer Leica R's. The mount is more robust and less liable to develop play than most other vintage mounts I've tried, including Contax and FD (which actually has a somewhat irritating mount system that requires an aperture lever to catch, not ideal for quick switching.).

FDs: I've used 24L, 50L, 85L. The former I found had very drab colors and didn't match either Contax or Leica. The 50 had insane ghosting when pointed at bright light sources, but it and 85 were very competent optically. But I didn't see any particular reason to prefer them over Contax and Leica equivalents since they're not cheap either.

Thank you both for taking the time to reply, I do appreciate that time is valuable. Al Yeung, great post, perfect description of your chosen lenses and explained why and as a result I like the sound of the Leica R glass. I like that dreamy depth with a sharp grunge finish.

The learning curve is quite steep and I'm currently trying to get my head around all the terminology. One particular area relating to lenses is Focal length multipliers and field of view. The VG-20 supports a APS-C 23.5 x 15.6 cropped image sensor, question what is the VG-20's multiplication factor? Would I not be better placed with lenses specifically designed for the VG-20's cropped sensor?

Crop factor on the VG20 is 1.5x.

I rather like Sony's E-mount lenses for cropped sensors--very good value, and the 35/1.8 and 50/1.8 come with optical stabilization for steadier footage. And of course sometimes autofocus and autoaperture are very useful. The Zeiss ones (12, 24, 32, and the 55 FE etc.) are more refined but lack OSS. I think for many people the native E-mount lenses are actually excellent options, as long as you can accept the lack of mechanical focusing and aperture control.

If you end up getting some of the aforementioned manual lenses, all intended for 35mm film, you can either adapt them directly to the VG20, which will result in a 1.5 x crop in the field of view (because the smaller sensor is recording only the central part of the image).

Or you can get a Metabones Speedbooster, which goes between the lens and the sensor and basically shrinks the 35mm full frame image down to fit the smaller cropped sensor. That way the lenses will look roughly equivalent to what they do on a full frame sensor. Because the light is now concentrated into a smaller area, the brightness of the lens will increase by one stop. So when the lens itself is at f/2.8, the lens + speed booster combination will be at f/2, and so on. So in a sense, you won't be "wasting" the full frame coverage on a cropped sensor anymore.

There're many reviews of Speedboosters online. I found them very useful; they introduce some softness in the corners, but for video this is irrelevant. The biggest downside for me was that they introduced some barrel distortion.

Metabones recently came out with new "Ultra" versions of the Speedboosters that are supposed to have improved image quality, particularly less distortion, but I haven't tried them.

Incidentally, a full frame 35/2.8, 50/2/1.4, and 85/2.8 set (as is available and affordable in Contax and Leica R and virtually all brands) plus a Speedbooster will give you the field of view and brightness equivalent to a 24/2, 35/1.4/1.0, and 55/2, virtually identical to the native Zeiss f/1.8 set.