Affordable Lenses for Sony F3

[Alejandro Martin]

Hi,
Could someone post brand/model of affordable PL lenses to be used on a PMW-F3 ?

I'm thinking in buy a F3L (without lenses), then start using some cheap lenses until the day my budget can buy some great Master Primes, ..

So i want to use this post to list affordable 35mm PL lenses, ..
Please post details and experience if you own ..

Affordable i mean from 500$ to less than 5000$

[Alister Chapman]

I fully expect companies like MTF, Mike Tappas or Adaptimax to have 'F" mount adapters for DSLR lenses available when the camera launches. There are some very nice DSLR lenses for not a huge amount of money.

[Brian Drysdale]

Red Primes must be amongst the lowest price PL mount lenses, also the Zeiss Compact Primes. Schneider have a set of Cine-Xenar lenses which look like they're in the lower price range for PL mount quoted at 15k Euro for 5 lenses from one source.

The Master Primes are in another scale entirely, best rent those unless you've got a large amount of high end work.

[Brian Drysdale]

With a number of lower priced cameras in the S35 ( more or less size) format, I'd imagine more lower price manual focus lenses will come onto the market to meet the demand. Either that or Birger type mounts to control electronic stills lenses.

The RED market has eaten up the second hand lenses and PL S35 lenses are no longer as cheap. You could check out UK film camera dealers/agents for good lenses, it's pretty cheap flying to London for a day on a budget airline to look at suitable lenses before you buy.

Visual products in the US also sell them. http://www.visualproducts.com/store0...&Cat=8&Cat2=15

I've just come across these people being recommended by someone.

http://www.rplens.com/

[Liam Hall]

For affordable PL mount primes you're currently looking at Zeiss CP2s and RED Pro Primes as already mentioned, but there's also Illumina, uniqoptics, IB/E and Schneider Cine-Xenar.

lumatechinc.com - Illumina lenses; Quality and Speed!

uniQoptics | Cinema Lenses, Hi-G lenses, mounts, adapters

Schneider Cine-Xenar 5 Lens Set :: Schneider Cine-Xenar Lenses :: Prime Lenses :: Film & Digital Cinema Lenses :: Lenses :: Lenses & Lens Accessories :: Equipment Sales :: Abel Cine Tech

WELCOME TO IB/E OPTICS

Of course, you can always get your favorite stills glass rehoused - essentially that's what the Zeiss CP2s are.

[Brian Drysdale]

If you're buying new, you mightn't need to physically go, but second hand it's best to check out the lenses, especially given the price of PL mount cine lenses.

There are other locations where you can buy lenses in Europe you can buy apart from London .

UK wise you could check with;

ICE Film Equipment
ICE Film - Film Equipment Sales and Rental - Arri, Aaton, Transvideo, 35mm, Super16, 3-Perf, 4-Perf
Optical Support
Optical Support Lens Centre
Movietech Camera Rentals
Movietech Camera Rentals Ltd.
Van Diemen
Vandiemen Broadcast - Optical Fibre Specialists to the Film and TV Industries
Cooke Optics
Cooke Optics Limited : Home

PL mount lenses have never been cheap, but the demand has increased (several thousand REDs out there), so that even very old film lenses are getting expensive,

The Digioptical looks rather like the RED zoom.
Uniopticals are at the upper end of your price range ($5750 - $6750 each)

Russian lenses are another possibility:

http://www.optica-elite.com/

Older Oct 18 mount lenses can be converted to PL.

[Nate Weaver]

Here is likely to be your most cost-effective option that lets you still carry the camera around:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/715071-REG/DigiOptical__18_50mm_50_150mm_T3.html
These are the lenses Red originally sold for $6500 and $8500. I bought both used, and spent $12K on mine. Now they can be had for almost half that.

They're rehoused Sigmas, but they are plenty sharp and work well when you want/need PL but need to stay small and relatively light.

[Andrew Stone]

Hi Nate,

Is the 18 to 50 rectilinear when going wide? If these are lenses that can stand up against the more inexpensive Zeiss lenses then this is a screaming deal.

[David Knaggs]

Thanks for the tip-off on those lenses, Nate.

It looks like a brilliant deal!

[Giuseppe Pugliese]

Anything on the American side of this discussion? I never heard of those JSC lenses but they seem quality made. Anything else like that around here in the USA?

[Alister Chapman]

The range of 35mm SLR lenses that can be used is far too extensive to list them all.

My current favourite all rounder is the Tokina 28 to 70 mm f2.6 ATX Pro Mk1 or Mk2. These lenses share the same optical design as the Angineux 28 to 70mm lens and are very good. They are highly sought after lenses (Must be the Mk1 or Mk2, not the ASV version) but you can pick them up for around 250 Euros. They are not all that fast at T3 but are good all round performers.

Other nice lenses are the Nikon 50mm f1.4D, the Zeiss ZF 85mm f1.4 and the Nikon 28mm f1.4 ASP.

Best mount to get is Nikon as these will have proper Iris control. Modern Canon lenses only have electronic iris.

Optically 35mm SLR lenses can be very good, but they don't have the witness marks found on decent PL glass and the focus scale tends to compress greatly as you get closer to infinity, so they are not as straight forward to use as PL's. They also don't tend to be as fast, a 35mm SLR f1.4 lens is often more like a T2 or T2.8 lens.

[William Koenig]

Hello,

Do you think Sony (or someone) will make a F3 to Alpha lens adapter for this camera?

Thanks.

[Andy Shipsides]

MTF services makes a variety of adapters. The F3 mount is similar to the EX3 mount, but has a small change which will require new adapters to be made. I think MTF will be able to make these adapters in no time, and will have Nikon, Canon FD, and others available. I know they make a different Alpha adapter, so they might make one for the F3.

Andy

[Mike Tapa]

Andy, William

The Nikon G and Canon FD adaptors are being made now and we have already taken many pre orders for shipping in January.

We have already been given permission from Sony UK to make an Alpha/Minolta to F3 adaptor (of course with an aperture control ring) and this will follow very soon after.


All the best

[Jason Bodnar]

Anyone have any experience with this lens? I know this has been used on the RED a lot but just wondered if anyone has hands on with it and how it performed... The price is nice and it has the Cook contacts for Lens Metadata may be a cheap PL zoom for the F3.

DigiOptical DO1850F 18-50mm T3 (f/2.8) PL Mount Zoom Lens


http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/665583-REG/DigiOptical_DO_18_50F_DO1850F_18_50mm_T3_PL.html