Low cost lenses for S16

[Gregg MacPherson]

I'm trying to get an idea of what the low cost lense options are for S16. I worked on a few of short films 20 years ago, mostly with my standard 16mm Eclair ACL with normally Angeniuex 12-120, sometimes a set of Arri Schneider primes or c mount primes. I may develop some new low budget projects and this would be S16, the main hurdle is the lense costs.

 

Are any of the older zooms sharp enough for S16? Do the old Arri Scneider primes cover S16?

 

I saw an Angenieux 9.5-57 advertised as a S16 lense, and, another case, as part of a S16 camera kit. No response yet from the vendors re my queery on whether the lense covers S16. Does anyone know that, whether the lense covers, or covers for a limited range the S16 frame? Also, how sharp are these lenses?

 

I have seen some industrial c mount lenses (1" format) that may be useable. For example Kowa make a set that have F1.4 and max resolution given as (centre, edge) 120, 80 line pairs/mm.

 

Is it meaningul to think of the maximum resolution of lenses when trying to assess the sharpness. If one had the max resolution (lp/mm) for various lenses could one make usefull comparisons?

 

Cheers

Gregg

[Saul Rodgar]

I have some of the machine vision 1" and 2/3" lenses that you talk about. They look every bit as sharp as the older technology Angie glass you mention, which I also own some examples of. I have not used a lens projector, but I have done 2K transfers with footage shot with both lens technologies and I cannot tell them apart. Very limited "critical testing" at best, I know, more along the lines of "real world" testing, but they have me sold.

 

These days I don't do a whole lot of "filming," mostly "videoing," but for a while I was looking forward to the 2/3" Scarlet to try my newer machine vision lenses and older lens technologies, to see how they compare on video, but the Scarlet is apparently nowhere near to be released yet, and at a higher price point than other cameras, so I may not get around to test as I would like, but I am really curious how the older Angie lenses look on the latest HD / RED pseudo RAW technologies.

[Gregg MacPherson]

I have some of the machine vision 1" and 2/3" lenses that you talk about. They look every bit as sharp as the older technology Angie glass you mention, which I also own some examples of. I have not used a lens projector, but I have done 2K transfers with footage shot with both lens technologies and I cannot tell them apart. Very limited "critical testing" at best, I know, more along the lines of "real world" testing, but they have me sold.

 

These days I don't do a whole lot of "filming," mostly "videoing," but for a while I was looking forward to the 2/3" Scarlet to try my newer machine vision lenses and older lens technologies, to see how they compare on video, but the Scarlet is apparently nowhere near to be released yet, and at a higher price point than other cameras, so I may not get around to test as I would like, but I am really curious how the older Angie lenses look on the latest HD / RED pseudo RAW technologies.

 

The 1" format industrial Kowa primes were about USD 300 to 400 each new, so I could just try it. I have seen advertised some cheap Schneider Xenon Arri S mount primes, also a Kowa S16 (CP) cheap compared to Zeiss but still too much to spend right now. I wish I knew enough and had enough info to really know the relative quality/cost of the lenses.

 

Cheers

Gregg

[Saul Rodgar]

The older Angie glass is sharp enough for S16, btw. I have a short 17-65mm f2.2 NOS latter gen zoom that covers S16 and it is very nice, sharp and good contrast. I sold a 15-150 f1.8 monster zoom that was also very good. I have used them in conjunction with other Angie zooms, a converted to S-16 10-100 Cooke zoom, some 35 mm (Canon, Sigma, Nikon) zooms and some Schneider and Pentax primes to excellent results.

 

There are excellent quality 1" c-mount primes made by companies besides Schneider and Kowa, like Pentax, Fujinonand and others that are very good and may be cheaper to buy than the Kowas and Schneiders . . . Just an idea.