18-105 F4 lens, anyone?

[Nigel Davey]

Thanks Christopher, very enlightening. A few questions. Can you do a much faster zoom manually? I might be able to live with the sticky zoom (range is more important to me) as long as the lens is suited to outdoor run-and-gun?

Finally did you have or know of any reliability issues? I may have a look at the used market after more research.

[Christopher Young]

Sure yes you can do a manual zoom far faster than the servo. It has a bit of a disconnected feel but yes it works. Believe it or not I found the easiest way to crash/fast zoom them is to disengage the servo by its switch and them just grabbing the lens hood and pushing away from or towards you. Very quick and can be done with a surprising degree of smoothness. You are then zooming the lens like a 'single touch' still camera zoom although the focusing is on a separate ring. Also what works well with them is some kind of focus sling like we used on film cameras. I ended up with a couple of these and with the lens in manual zoom mode they worked very well. I use them with all my manual zoom lenses for both focus and zoom, luv 'em!

REVIEW: VARAVON Sling Follow Focus - YouTube

varavon sling focus assist | eBay

various other focus/zoom assist levers

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw...lever&_sacat=0

Where I used these lenses fairly frequently was on corporate gigs like seminars where you had a fair throw to reach a speaker on stage at a podium. Also used them on some stage shows. In those sorts of situations they were very useful. One trick with them if you have enough light is to set your iris manually at f/6.3 at the wide end and from there on in as you zoom there is no exposure ramping, It forces the lens to perform as a constant aperture lens.

Here is a story. A cameraman I know was working on the Tour de France said when shooting from the back of SUV he found this lens to be the best to use. I seem to remember his prime camera was an F5 and his backup an FS700. The 700 with the SELP was the one that nailed it for him. He said the face recognition and the steady shot are what really made his shoot far easier because one he had locked his focus onto a rider it stayed there and was far smoother that the reality of the road surface.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

[Dmitri Zigany]

Originally Posted by Nigel Davey

Of course he mght be referring to the non-PZ version. Can anyone shed some light on this?

I'm pretty sure it's the non PZ version he's referring to...

[Nigel Davey]

Thanks. After quite a bit of research over the weekend I went ahead and purchased a second hand SELP18200. To be honest it's the first time I've purchased used glass, so I hope it works out ok. Should arrive tomorrow.

Now the problem is this morning I've received the new Sony 55-210mm ordered from OneStop Digital, having ordered it before finally deciding to go for the 18-200mm. From all the reviews the 55-210 is a great lens for the price, but in the end it just doesn't offer me the 18mm end of the range for run and gun/cope with the unexpected filming scenarios.

[Nigel Davey]

To try and put this thread back on track a little, I do intend to keep my 18-105mm even if I end up using the 18-200mm more. I know from time to time there will be indoor scenarios where I'll want that f4 at the tight end as well as constant exposure across a zoom.

But like Bruce I wish there was a better all round solution.