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Canon 15-150mm


dangertree

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Hi All,

 

So I'm here to ask a bit of a cheap-o question.

 

We are doing a low budget action film on the east coast in the spring, (I'm directing, not shooting.) We are using our Aaton LTR as the A cam, but I want to bring along the ACL for high(er) speed shots and as a b-camera.

 

I don't have a zoom for the camera, and would love to find a magic solution that would get us out of renting a zoom for the second camera (more or less allowing its use).

 

A couple of months ago I had a good talk with Les Bosher about suitable lenses, especially non-cine lenses that could be put to use. Les spoke very favourably about the Tamron adaptalls, (which he does a PL mount for), as well as the Canon 15-150 (TV) lens. Apparantly he had one and wound up putting a 'proper mount' on it, as it was a very sharp lens.

 

So, I'm not suggesting that TV lenses should rival cine lenses, but I am wondering if anyone has any experience with this lens. I just picked one up for _very_ little money, should have it next week. I will shoot tests, but I'm very curious if anyone has used this lens for S16 or 16mm work, and if so, what did you think?

 

If this works, it would be great news. I trust Les' thoughts on lens' (ever see the periscope lens he manufactures?), but I find it wild to believe that such a cheapo lens might be useable.(!) If it checks out, I'd love to put a PL mount on it.

 

The Aaton will be using Super Speeds and a 11-110 Zeiss. The Eclair would use the Speeds, and... the Canon?

 

FYI: I have a old Canon 12-120 fluorite 16mm zoom that'll cut with the Zeiss for regular 16, but it doesn't cover Super, which Les says the 15-150 will.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks,

 

Walt

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OK, I'm bumping myself back to the top, (this is sad!)

 

If I can rephrase the question.

 

Is there anything inherent about said lens, the Canon 15-150, that should make it less useful sharp/contrasty than say, the Angenieux 15-150? I assumed the Angenieux would be typical of most old Angenieux's (especially the wider range zooms, ie not the 9.5-57), but Paul at Visual Products tells me that the Angi is also very sharp and his clients use it with great effect. He told me that when they bench test it, the 15-150s compare with the Zeiss 10-100 in terms of resolution.

 

As I said, I'm wondering if there is a low cost S16 zoom that is at all worthwhile. I will need some longer zooms, so I'm pretty much looking at the Ang 15-150, but wondering if I may have lucked into something with the Canon (which cost me less than a decent dinner).

 

I'm quite skeptical as you can never get something for nothing, but between Les Bosher and Paul at VP telling me these lenses are good, I'm curious to say the least.

 

I know I'm spitting out a bunch of pretty whack stuff here, does anyone have any comments?

 

Anyone shot with either?

 

Thanks,

 

Walt

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I haven't used the 15-150, but I would be skeptical of it for many reasons. First of all it wasn't "designed" to cover Super 16, which would make me nervous about it. If I were you I would put my money into an Illumina of the 16mm focal length. It closely approximates the field of view of the human eye, and you can probably get it for around $1,000 if you look in the right places like Kiev Camera or Ebay. I'm not a big fan of conversion zooms, but you could get one for $2,500.00 from filmcamerakit.com. It's an 11.5-115 Zeiss T3.4. I think there is a Cooke conversion on Ebay right now. I think the best all-around zoom for Super-16, if you factor in price is the Canon 8-64 T2.4. Probably the lowest price you'll find is for the Cooke 10.4-52 for around $5,000.00. According to Cooke's website they shot "The Draughtsman's Contract" with it, but I heard someone say they used the 10-30 which is supposed to be very heavy. I think the best value per millimeter, plus it's new would be the Century-Fujinon 11.5-215 lens. But I don't have $10,000.00 for it. Here are some links you might find helpful:

 

http://www.cinematechnic.com/resources/opt...r_super-16.html

 

http://www.abelcine.com/Products/frames/Le...16lenslist.html

 

Good luck

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Hi Mike,

 

Thanks for the reply, to be clearer again, we will have a set of Zeiss primes, so the 16mm is taken care of (the primes will split between A and B cameras as required), I'm wanting a second (longer) zoom for B-Cam, for the 50mm+ end of things, or 50-150mm end of the 15-150.

 

I'd like to have the b-cam doing roving singles and cowboys while the A Camera shoots the masters. I also want to do some split screens with two cameras shooting the same coverage (tight and wide). This will be pretty low budget, so time saving will be key.

 

I love the 8-64, but am anticipating needing more telephoto than this, and would like an extra lens on set that goes past the 11-110. I'll know I'll probably end up renting a second zoom, but am curious about picking up a cheap zoom to keepers.

 

The fact that most of the script takes place at night isn't helping at all!

 

Thanks,

 

Walt

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Hi Walt,

Have you considered the Canon 300mm T2.8? Also here's a link to the Century-Fujinon lens that I really like:

 

http://www.centuryoptics.com/products/film...sories/zoom.htm

 

Good luck on your shoot. I'm going to get some footage transferred and am sending it off to CinePost in Atlanta where they have a wetgate. Best of all it's only $135.00 an hour with a half hour minimum. I'm going to have it squeezed for anamorphic, so when I play it on a regular TV it will letterbox it and when I play it on an HDTV it will unsqueeze the image and play full screen.

 

I like RGB Color Labs in California. It's only 10 cents a foot for processing there. So you can get like 400' processed and prepped for transfer for $50.00. They do good work.

 

Mike

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Hi,

The Canon 15-150 TV lens F2.8 was designed for the old 1inch video cameras, which were a 16mm diameter lens coverage (versus 14,5mm in super 16). No problem then with the coverage. This video lens were designed to work without prism (introduced later with the 2/3inch 3ccd cameras) so no problem with chromatic and other aberrations. I bought one for a few bucks and put it an Aaton mount... The results were excellent (specially at 15-100mm focals): very sharp and much better than all the old Angenieux that I have tested!!

All the best,

Lluís

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