Recommend a good zoom for the RED

Mark Allen · September 19, 2006

The RED camera comes out long before the RED zoom. I am wondering if I could get some recommendations on lenses which could be purchased (probably used not necessarily) that would work well in the mean time (or indefinitely). I'm looking for specific make and models I could look up. Thanks.

Max Jacoby · September 19, 2006

What's your budget?

There are many good zooms out there, but the best are incredibly expensive. That is why everyone rents, that way you get top gear.

jan von krogh · September 19, 2006

The RED camera comes out long before the RED zoom. I am wondering if I could get some recommendations on lenses which could be purchased (probably used not necessarily) that would work well in the mean time (or indefinitely). I'm looking for specific make and models I could look up. Thanks.

depending on what you are looking at:

35mm

angenieux 25-250. get sure to get a recent version (the f3.2 minimum) . >~1980.

cooke cinetal 25-250. get sure to get a recent version. >~1980

both should be ~10-20.000k. older models 2-8k.

i do own the angenieux, and we and many rental customers are very happy with it.

also, you might be better off with used, "bad" 35mm zooms (hey, for kubrick they were good enough :) ) and some elder fixed focus lenses, or how marketing educated everyone to call them: "primes".

s16

hard to give recommandations, as prices are still dropping month by month and therefore... bad biz.

2/3 and 16, here comes the interesting part.

we do have 16 and 2/3 glass in the house here, but weren´t able to find out as of yet, if 16 (non s16) glass covers 2/3 on RED. If so, i would strongly (very strongly) recommend the angenieux 9.5.57 f1.6 zoom. this one can be obtained ~2000-3000$. used 2/3 hd glass will be quite a bit more expensive, will have a lesser f stop and offer a less cinematic handling. Again here on 16 mm, i own the angenieux 9.5 (and several other 2/3 hd) but would be very happy but am not certain if the 16mm glass is enough to cover the 2/3 capture area.

things to watch out for:

- you´ll want arri PL mount. standard-arri isnt arri PL. this is valid for 16 and 35mm

- any used lens has to be checked for scratches (front and rear), fungus as well for "softness" in being handled. this is (sorry, english is my 3hrd language) the "play" or "tolerance" if you use any of the parameters. if they don´t react at once, the lens might be worn out.

- hate to say so, as i own a rental & production company: usually its better to buy non-rental gear, as it has been certainly less used.

- if you intend to buy at on-line auctions, make sure the seller is 100.1% trustworthy - there are hacked accounts, "leaving-the-industy-guys" and other shady rolemodels of rather less thrustworty figures out there "en masse".

last thing: depending on the situation (do you want to shoot or rather intend to rent out) and your location:

take marketing and brand-awareness into consideration.

An inferior angenieux will bring you better biz in paris, same is valid for a lesser cooke over the angenieux in london. basicly the same phenomena as with cabs. german cab-drivers swears on the mercedes/bmw (arri), french ones love their renault/citroen (angenieux), americans here andd there love their NYCC, other ones their chevy and some british the london taxi (cooke/hobbes) and anyhow some use the more economic Toyotas. That would be canon and fujinon, in the metaphore, but their star didn´t certainly shine back then in the 35mm era.

btw - today, all of these quarreling tribes have good reasons for their _feelings_, logic and facts are not the dominant ones of these :)

sincerly yours...

Edited September 19, 2006 by jan von krogh

Emanuel A Guedes · September 20, 2006

An affordable one is the Elite lightweight (2lb) 25-80mm T3.2 zoom: $17,000.

Other offer is the ARRI/Zeiss Lightweight (4.4lb) LWZ-1 15.5-45mm T2.6 zoom: $30,000?

Edited September 20, 2006 by Mr. Emanuel A. Guedes

Mark Allen · September 20, 2006

What's your budget?
There are many good zooms out there, but the best are incredibly expensive. That is why everyone rents, that way you get top gear.

Good point... I was looking for something in the under 10k price range ideally or less. Basically something I could use (assuming the camera ships yadda yadda) - with the camera at a moments notice. If I ended up needing to use something much better on a bigger shoot, I could rent, so this would be the back up lense.

My thinking was that a zoom would be a good choice (on the scale of affordability). Am I right to think this? Perhaps I'm totally wrong... would buying a set of primes (like 28, 50, 75, 120) be less expensive? Any recommendations on those if so. It only occurs to me now that this might be the case.

Most of my stuff finishes HD and not Film.

Thanks Jan and Emanuel for the initial recommendations, will research all of that.