HMC150 f/1.4 vs f/1.8 with Redrock M2e
 

I recently purchased a HMC150 and love it! I'm looking into getting a Redrock M2e, but am unsure about which lenses to get. I love the Zeiss kit, but way too expensive. I was looking at the Nikon lenses as well.

Question #1) With the HMC150 (specifically), will I "really" notice a difference bewtween the f/1.4 and f/1.8 lenses? I do shoot indoors a lot with the iris open (HMC150 open = f/1.6 I believe). I realize that I will be losing a 1/2 stop of light with the 35mm adapter due to the flip module.

Question #2) What I don't understand is if the HMC150 lens is f/1.6 fully open, then how can I gain anything with a f/1.4 lens in front of it? It still has to pass through the stock camera lens anyway (which can only take f/1.6), right?

Question #3) Does Redrock have "follow focus rings" for the Nikon lenses? I only saw Zeiss rings on their website (unless I missed it).

Thank you in advance!

Jason

The f/1.4 lenses are generally sharper and vignette less. Light loss wise, not a huge difference, but the quality in lenses is very different.

You're going to be losing more than 1/2 stop due to the fact that you'll have to zoom way in to the ground glass. In practice, you'll be losing about 3-4 stops than if you shot default HMC.

You're not "gaining" anything, it's more of trying to minimize light loss. However you DO gain depth of field control with the iris, your biggest reason for getting an adapter. f/1.4 is very shallow (inches) if you want those type of shots.

Yes, their size A gear I believe.

I get the impression that maybe you don't understand what depth of field is, and how factors such as aperture/iris and focal length affect it. Understanding this will provide an answer to your question.

I am in the same boat so if you could explain it ("what depth of field is, and how factors such as aperture/iris and focal length affect it"), that would be great.

Thanks,

simon