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Lens choices for BMCC MFT


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I recently aquired a BMCC, which lends a couple of questions.

 

Now, I see that it is common to use adapters with this camera. Which lenses are great choices for this camera? And are there fully manual zooms under $1000?

 

Also, is Metabones speedbooster with EF lenses a good option, or are the lenses just too big for the sensor?

 

Thanks.

Edited by Jan Tore Soerensen
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Greetings,

 

http://www.bmcuser.com/forum.php - This site has marginally useful information.

 

EF Lenses work just fine.

Pentax K-mount is another option

 

I use old Russian lenses without an issue.

 

The only major concern is vignetting at the very close focus ranges on lenses designed for REGULAR 16mm cameras.

 

I bought my 12-120 for $50 US.

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Greetings,

 

http://www.bmcuser.com/forum.php - This site has marginally useful information.

 

EF Lenses work just fine.

Pentax K-mount is another option

 

I use old Russian lenses without an issue.

 

The only major concern is vignetting at the very close focus ranges on lenses designed for REGULAR 16mm cameras.

 

I bought my 12-120 for $50 US.

Thank you for the input. I found a few Angenieux 12-120 now. That would be great with a Cameflex to m43 adapter.

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I use Rokinon cine primes for my digital cinema cameras and they work great. Some of the wider angle lenses aren't so hot, but anything north of 24mm is good. A lot of my friends use standard EF zooms on theirs, I just think they make the camera really big, something I'm not a fan of. I like the compactness of the primes. It only takes a second to change focal lengths unless you're doing run and gun.

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I use Rokinon cine primes for my digital cinema cameras and they work great. Some of the wider angle lenses aren't so hot, but anything north of 24mm is good. A lot of my friends use standard EF zooms on theirs, I just think they make the camera really big, something I'm not a fan of. I like the compactness of the primes. It only takes a second to change focal lengths unless you're doing run and gun.

Yeah, I have the 85mm t1.5 cine. Great lens, but it's very long on this sensor :)

 

I am looking into something wide at the moment. Under or around 10mm.

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If you want wide angle, just buy standard Canon still glass. If you look around, you can find speciality lenses for sure. I have a set of Optar primes for my 16mm film camera that I also use on my digital camera with an adaptor. They work great, but they're very expensive.

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I just bought a set of Nikon Series E. Well, if you're going to buy cheap glass, there's not much point in buying the expensive cheap glass!

 

Haven't shot anything in anger yet, but based on subjective noodling around they seem to match moderately well, being all of the same era as regards coatings. Scuttlebutt has it that the 28 is mediocre and I agree. Other potential problems include the fact that there is nothing between 50 and 105, requiring a (slightly) more costly buy of the 85mm AIS Nikkor. There is also nothing shorter than that iffy 28, and the most available AIS 18mm is expensive (well, comparatively expensive) and slow at f/3.5.

 

Other than that, great. Focus goes "the wrong way" and there appear to be no third-party push-on gears for them, but the focus throw is good for a stills lens and while they were always considered the economy series and have plastic aperture rings, build quality is better than the modern Nikkor-branded stuff anyway.

 

There is one short and one long Series E zoom about which I know nothing other than that they are indeed fully manual. They may not be parfocal of course - my assumption would be that they aren't - and I'm not sure if it's twist of pull to zoom, so they may be entirely unsuitable for your intended application.

 

Cheap, though!

 

If you want to push the boat out a bit more, you could get a set of the hardier AIS series, though they were produced for a while so it's as well to spend some time reading into the dates, serial numbers, and types of coating so as to get the best possible match.

 

As to a proper ENG-type manual lens, it's tricky. The sensor, as you're doubtless aware, is sub-super35 in size and this may make a B4 ENG zoom a possibility, with or without optical conversion. The optical converters vary in quality and, depending on your level of pickiness, may not satisfy.

 

Speedbooster is nice, assuming you have the Micro 4/3 version. It would also obviate any concern regarding 28mm being wide enough.

 

P

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B4 stuff; designed for prism systems will be pretty awful unless you're stopped down somewhere around 5.6 or so.

 

The E Series zooms, are, if memory serves, pull to zoom in fact. I had the 46~80something awhile ago which I grabbed for a song; but the 2X of it wasn't really great, even for stills, so I gave it away to someone at some point.

 

As for gears; I use a set of the RedRock screw ons which have worked fine for awhile. Another option is zip-tie gears as such:

http://www.filmtools.com/wide-open-camera-half-inch-rails-1s.html

(though there are myriad designs of these now of varying prices)

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I like to keep things simple with mine and use setups like this:

The rails cost more then the camera body! LOL

 

That's a bit "excessive" to use such a nice piece of glass on a toy camera. As much as I love my pocket cameras, if I were going to spend that much on glass, I'd have a bigger camera. But that's just me. :D

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  • 2 weeks later...

Received the lens and adapter now. The image it produces is very nice, but it does vignette a lot under 50mm. No problem to crop in on the image, but I am thinking it would be wise to get a 10 or 12mm prime lens when I want to go really wide.

 

I like the fact that it is quite compact as well.

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Received the lens and adapter now. The image it produces is very nice, but it does vignette a lot under 50mm. No problem to crop in on the image, but I am thinking it would be wise to get a 10 or 12mm prime lens when I want to go really wide.

 

I like the fact that it is quite compact as well.

 

Which lens did you receive? None of my lenses vignette at infinity focus, and even then its not that bad.

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