Does Nikon make prime lens sets? I have been purchasing used nikon lenses here and there to use with the mini however they have variations /colors shifts etc. Any ideas where I could purchase a good set of nikon primes?

Hi,

I think the best route for you is to shop around camera shops. A lot of them in my experience will actually rent lenses to you to test before you buy them.

I have even managed to get a great discount from a shop for Nikons by talking to the owner of the shop and telling him about my needs for the lenses and my ability to promote the use of Nikon lenses and send a lot of business his way. It worked great.

Ebay is also an option but optics on line, has never been a favorite of mine. I'd rather look at the lens, test it, before buying it.

Another Idea is to put up notices around campuses/film schools/photgraphy courses, letting people know what you are looking for and give your contact info. You'd be surprises. I was.

Steven Deneault
Cinematographer
Vancouver, British Columbia

As far as i've understood since Nikon lenses are still photo lenses they are not matched for color (neither are canon lenses or other still lenses).
So there will always be a color shift between different primes.

I have another question... does anybody know where I can get follow focus gear rings for nikon lenses?

JD

We own a set of nikon primes, which we added gears to so they'd be compatible w/ follow focus systems. The results are great for the budget. You have to deal w/ different f-stops, and they aren't precicely color matched, but they still look nice and they pack some bang for your buck.

Otherwise, you'll want to move up to Zeiss, which can be expensive.

The color temp variation is easy to work around: just re WB after lens change (is less expensive/time consuming than doing in post)

I ran into the gearing question on my canon lenses, and after much surfing, discovered that the scuba diver guys use gears on still lenses to control them in underwater housings. There are several manufacturers offering gears for many lenses, and they are priced for scuba divers, not for production :)
I went with Ikelite. The pitch fits my Arri FF perfectly.

I ran into the gearing question on my canon lenses, and after much surfing, discovered that the scuba diver guys use gears on still lenses to control them in underwater housings. There are several manufacturers offering gears for many lenses, and they are priced for scuba divers, not for production :)
I went with Ikelite. The pitch fits my Arri FF perfectly.

thanks for the tip... I'm going to check that out...
could you point me to where I should look on the web?

JD

that Ikelite could do the trick! I just ordered one... not sure if it's the right thing but for $8 including shipping? schweet. (I'm sure I ordered the wrong thing)

that Ikelite could do the trick! I just ordered one... not sure if it's the right thing but for $8 including shipping? schweet. (I'm sure I ordered the wrong thing)


I ordered my gear from B&H. It was a little to small for the focus ring on my lens, so I split it and fastened it with a strip of carefully cut and trimmed bicycle intertube, that I colored black with a sharpie. It works great and believe it or not, looks just like part of the lens, no kidding. Nobody would ever guess.

got a pic of that?

Jason, that's a great tip about scuba lens-gearing.

I confess I'm baffled as to why stills lenses would exhibit visible changes in color-cast. Aren't stills photographers just as concerned about this as videographers and cinematographers? How great can the color-shift be, between stills lenses, esp. at the high end of stills-lens makers?

If the color shift between stills lenses were that obvious, it seems it would have become an issue in the stills world before now. Or was it---& was it fixed by the OEMs---and am I just ignorant of advances in the technology?

If it has been addressed by the stills-lens OEMs, why are we concerned about it now?

Here is a pic of the Sigma 24-70 2.8 w/Ikelite "universal" gear and super high tech bicycle innertube attachment system. Some engineering credit must go to my father, who is detached enough from production to advance the innertube proposal with a strait face.

http://www.jasonbrunner.com/lenspic.html

My stab at the color shift issue would be this.

Stills from different focal length lenses are not usually rapid fired against one another so a difference is not as readily discernable.

On the low end, the user is probably not going to notice, not going to hold two shots up together in the same light and say" this one looks a bit warmer than this one"

On the high end, a professional photographer or the graphic artist he works with, color corrects every shot anyway, regardless of if they match exactly. If they dont, and they're supposed to , than they make it so.

That being said, my Sigmas match perfectly, purchased at the same time, same generation, and model line of lenses. I suspect some of the issue may be lenses collected ad hoc, from different lines and years, as all manufactures change thier coatings etc, as technology advances. So a lens from 1983 may or may not have the exact optical properties of the exact same lens manufactured a couple of years later.

When Ziess manufactures a set of cine primes, they are all cut from one big magnificent piece of glass, ensuring that they match perfectly. That is why you rarely see the odd Super Speed floating around for sale, but rather sets covering the range. Its also why damage to glass of one lens of a set is such a big deal, as it is considered to compromise the rest of the set. Still lenses are not generally sold as "sets" so they use a different, probably more economical production method.

If I were going to assemble a Nikon Still "Prime Set" i would probably get as many of each focal length as I could afford, keeping in the same vintage and model line, compare them for matching, and then resell the odd outs. Probably time consuming, and ties up some cash for a bit, but probably also the best bet for a low budg "set" of primes.

Hmmmm. I'll buy that as an explanation. Especially when I consider that glass ages.

Jason, I emailed you off-list about Ikelite.

I have another question... does anybody know where I can get follow focus gear rings for nikon lenses?

I have also seen (but can't personally vouch for) http://www.jbkcine.com/ JBK cinema that apparently sells SLR follow focus rings for around $70.

I don't know much beyond that, but at least it's a place to look

Here is a pic of the Sigma 24-70 2.8 w/Ikelite "universal" gear and super high tech bicycle innertube attachment system. Some engineering credit must go to my father, who is detached enough from production to advance the innertube proposal with a strait face.
That sounds very intriguing! What do you use to interface with the plastic gear? Did you build your own follow-focus system?

that i have to try!

theres a website that i saw on here ... and ive been trying to find the link again... of a company that refurbishes and sells prime kits of canon fd and nikon lenses.. all geared up with cinelens-sized sized mounts on the front.. anyone know what the link is?

http://rplens.com/index.htm

They seem to be quite high. Not worth what they charge IMO. The main problem of using still lenses for cinematography, which is the breathing and color matching is still not corrected. You may as well get one of the many focus rings available on the market like Redrock etc and have some 80mm black nylon rings machined for the front if you need step up to cine diameter. That will end up being way cheaper and do the same thing for you.

The new Zeiss ZF series for Nikon (http://www.zeiss.com/c12567a8003b58b9/Contents-Frame/8e8ae439a3fd6101c125711b005a77c4) are color matched in fact.
Not to mention the ultimate sharpness of those, something like 250lp/mm and more.

Cheers,
T

I don't think they rebuilt the Zeiss series, juts normal Nikons.
The new Zeiss may be color matched (is there any actual data on their website confirming that or the 250 lp/mm?) but how is the breathing? Also still have the short focus path typical of still lenses.

About color matching From Zeiss ZF site: Special attention is paid to guarantee absolute color matching throughout the whole range of lenses resulting in state-of-the-art image quality.
Interestingly enough I don`t find the original page on Zeiss site that featured that 250lp/mm (@ f2) sharpness test but you can find the statement here (http://www.photodo.com/topic_96.html).

Manual focus still lenses have quite long focus path actually and when used with mod 0.8 cine FF units and RedRock`s cine gears for SLR lenses it should be no broblem.

Unfortunately the breathing remains.

BTW, every lens specialist can modify aperture ring for free movement but that will void the warranty.

Cheers,
T

check here for your follow focus gears for those lenses

http://www.cinevate.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=41