Excuse my ignorance, but why do you, all, preferer Nikon lenses over Canon lenses for a Canon body?

For video purposes, we want as close to total manual as possible plus it is good glass..

I have had good luck with old Nikons on my Mini35 and really recommend the 35mm 1.4 nikkor- sharpest of my faster lenses. The 85mm 1.4 will give you even more dof and the 55mm 1.2 is nice if you can find one. It's a bit soft when wide open. Sigma made a 1.8 135mm which would make it the fastest 135mm you could get. I have one of those as well in nikon mount... it's a bit soft too but lets lots of light in.

The older Kogaku Nikkors are equally awesome as long as they don't suffer from discolored patches. an 85mm f1.8 will be great for motion. Fast can very equal out of focus unless you're locked down. and 1.4 is really fast... compound this when you try to rack or change focus on the fly with a still lens. That frankly sucks.

There are aperture rings on Nikon glass, except the G series. All Canon EF lenses do not have aperture rings.
The 5DII does not have Av in video mode. To set aperture precisely the easiest way is a lens with a aperture ring.

What are you guys using to mount your Nikon glass to the 5D?

Try this thread:

Nikon to EOS Adapter - Page 2 - The Digital Video Information Network

"Having gone through 3 different nikon-EOS adapter rings recently (of varying prices and claims) I have to say the fotodiox pro version is by far the best, more secure. The converters I purchased via eBay do work, but they are sloppy and have a lot of play in them.

Hope that helps

Brian
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Brian Valente
Redrock Microsystems "

Thanks for the info. Now that I know you can use Nikon glass, I might have to spend some more money. Dang it.

Gonna try the D90 a few more times, but might end up going 5D. The lens issue might make the switch a little less painful.

I really wanted to buy the D90, rather than spend the additional $1,700 for the 5D, but the picture quality issues with the D90 nixed it. Specifically, scenes with lots of fine detail, like granite, seem to be beyond the D90 encoder. Also, faces seem to get mottled colors, even in daylight.

It really depends on what your shooting though. I saw one D90 music video that included fast cuts, desaturation and added grain. The result was great! It gave low DOF, and none of the video limitations showed up at all.

But for slower cuts of beauty shots, the 5D rules. If that's important to your work, it's worth the money, assuming you can live with 30p and the exposure work arounds.

Mottled colors? Whatever that is sounds ugly. I haven't used the D90 enough to break it in the ways you've described.

I saw a great looking music video as well. Wonder if it's the same one. I've yet to shoot anything that turned out that well, but it's nice to know it's possible.

Here's the "mottled face" video:
D90 and HVX side-by-side test on Vimeo

Frankly, the HVX doesn't look a lot better in this regard. (I've rented one, and the results aren't inconsistent.) The D90 isn't terrible or anything, but I wanted better results.

HVX is looking dated. The Nikon doesn't have much detail, even for 720p. I wonder if he had an inexpensive lens on the camera in that test.

Once the d90 started moving I was kind of cringing... but when it's locked down it's beautiful.