ALEXA MINI /Sigma 18-35&50-100mm f1.8 EF mount lens

[Ryoma Kohari]

Hello, I'm going to shoot for low budget commercial with Alexa mini.

Because of the budget issue, I might have to use my own Sigma EF zooms 18-35 and 50-100.

I've never tried EF lenses with alexa. I'm worrying about I'll have less sharpness and low resolution looks.

I'll go with 16:9 censor 3.2K mostly, sometimes 2K 200fps.

 

I was thinking Sigma cine zooms are better choice but director wants to get anamorphic looks.

My own EF sigmas has vid atlantic anamorphic modification filter which looks nice, so I want to

use these even if it is fake anamorphic.

 

http://www.vid-atlantic.com/products/cinemorph-mod

 

Anyone have tried ALEXA with EF lenses? Could you give some reviews and advice?

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

 

[Albion Hockney]

I think often people assume photo lenses are lower quality optically because they are cheaper then cinema lenses. Those new Sigma lenses are probably much sharper then a lot of the vintage spherical and anamorphic lenses people choose to use.

 

It also of course depends what stop you shoot at. at F 4/5.6 it would probably be hard to tell the sigma lenses apart from master primes for almost all viewers.

 

 

I'd say sharper is certainly not always better at all - but if you want a sharp image you shouldn't have a problem getting one with those sigmas, especially stopped down a bit.

Edited March 10, 2017 by Albion Hockney

[Dom Jaeger]

Yes I don't think you'll have problems with sharpness in terms of the lens MTF, but of course accurate focus pulling with stills lenses is much harder.

 

Make sure the rental house (or owner) has an EF mount for the Mini, since it's not standard.

 

Personally I think that 'anamorphic' filter looks like crap - it just crops the bokeh at the rear of the lens so you get semi circles at the edges and rectangles in the centre, at the cost of a stop - but maybe it fools some people.

[Ryoma Kohari]

Thanks Albion,

 

I think Sigma cine lenses are much shaper.

I should go with less than F2.2 or 2.5 with my photo lenses, because there is an anamorphic element on rear glass. It will appearing some vignette on the edge of the frame up to f2.8.

 

 

 

I don't wanna have like master primes sharpness and agree with sharp image is not always right answer.

Somehow I try to get Sigma cine lens and compare both photo and cine sigmas.

 

Probably Sigma cine is right for this time, it will almost handheld with electric cart, following running people.

I need more stabilized focus gear for my AC.

 

Thanks again.

[Ryoma Kohari]

Thanks Dom,

 

The rental house has an EF mounted Mini. ( They told me it is for the Drone shoot.)

I got Sigma cine zooms today. I will compare those on prep day at the rental house.

 

Yeah, anamorphic filter is totally toy tool, but sometimes I use them for my DSLR when I feel do something on the lens like make a flare with torch light.

 

Maybe I use cine zooms for this time for my AC do his proper job!

[Robin R Probyn]

Hi Ryoma

 

I,ve had a play around with the new Cine 50-100 Zoom .. on a RED Dragon.. but it looked great on a 17 inch monitor.. T2.. and seems well made.. seemed 180 degree focus travel.. so you can do it yourself and ok for AC,s.. they may prefer more.. the bokeh was really nice.. . and very compact size wise.. and cheap !