Nikon 50-300 4.5 ai

[Johanan Pandone]

Anyone have experience with this lens? The zoom range appeals to me. I don't expect it to be parfocal but if I focused at the long end and zoomed back out to 50mm then zoomed in while recording would it hold the focus that I set at the long end? Is this a useful tool for a full frame kit?

[Eric Eader]

Johanon,

Back when I was a Marine Corps Motion Picture camaraman, I lusted after this lens!  I had occasion to film bombing runs at a range on Camp Pendleton with a CP-16 and a 10 to 150 Angenieux lens.  Since it wouldn't be healthy to be in the valley they were bombing, I filmed from afar and higher up looking down on the action. Man, I wanted closer shots but 150mm couldn't cut it, and the expense was too great for our unit's small budget allowance.  (Cinema Products was close by, and were very encouraging to this young Marine), but taxpayers escaped satisfying my desires.

Post Marine Corps, found me buying a used one for stills photography. I found it worked best from a tripod.

The lens is bulky and it is full frame. The aperture is not constant for the long end.

 With less than full frame (24x36mm), there will be substantial flare. The length and bulk will require lens support.

Motorizing zoom and attaching follow focus will be a small problem: availability of gears; and, remember, focusing on Nikon lenses goes the opposite way to normal stills and cinema lenses.

Sometimes focus will drift with certain variable zoom conditions... sometimes you're lucky, sometimes you're not.

An aiS version should be as good as it gets performance wise,  but, on say 16mm formats, inherent magnification may enhance deficiencies of focusing and steadiness (solidity of mounting).

If you can get one cheaply, find an adapter for your camera,  and build lens support,  for certain types of shots (longer end variable prime), it can work.

One other thing comes to mind, at the end:  with it being a stills lens,  zooming smoothly, especially manually, may be spotty.  (gearing and lube design difference).

Others with more experience can state the pros and cons and what cine lens would be a better choice.

Back in the day Alan Gordon Enterprises had a Tamaha 50-500mm cine zoom lens (35mm format), they were hot to place with our El Toro unit,  but that expense was several orders of magnitude costlier!!  Today may be different.

Hope this helps,

Eric

 

[Johanan Pandone]

3 hours ago, Eric Eader said:

 

Back when I was a Marine Corps Motion Picture camaraman, I lusted after this lens! 

 

 

Eric,

Thank you for your service! It's disheartening to hear that you weren't afforded a proper budget that would allow you to perform your duty from a safe distance. I'm glad you eventually obtained this lens and used it to make art! 

Lens support? I imagine a lens this long would be supporting the camera! I remember going through a phase where everything was overbuilt because camera bodies got smaller and people thought everything needed to be mounted on rails with a mattebox way too big for the format and as many accessories as possible to make up for the wimpy looking camera body, but now I won't even put a camera in a cage unless I need to rig it from above. This lens would be a special use case, and I think a base plate attached to the collar with a DSLR body hanging from the rear would do fine, as long as the fore/aft is balanced on the head of the tripod.

As far as motorizing the zoom ring, you make a very good point that the focal length might not increase linearly in proportion to the rotation of the zoom ring. I think I'd start with a lever (a stick of some sort, protruding from a rubber focus gear) attached to the zoom ring and try to pull it off by hand. This would be a special tool specifically for a long zoom effect, since there are far better and more practical lenses to use for the focal lengths it provides. I think I'll take your advice and pick one up cheap to play around with. maybe it will work perfect for my purposes, if not I'm sure I can turn it around for close to what I'm willing to pay for one. I've seen several used ones available for less than 200$ the trick is finding one without fungus and basalm seperation. 

I really appreciate your input and I enjoyed hearing your story behind this lens

 

Thanks

 ~Jon

[Steve Switaj]

Apparently, this lens was big with the stop-motion crowd in the 90's

I worked on Coraline, and we received a lot of equipment from Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach, and the package included several of these lenses in the older 2-ring style.

Apparently the older-school animation setups found them useful for their relatively close focus at telephoto lengths, which played well when compressing forced-perspective sets while still giving the animators some working room. 

By the time Coraline came around we didn't really use them any more. We were working in 3D, which eliminated forced perspective setups, and by that point we had too much camera motion that would have the game away anyhow.

IIRC not a great lens wide open, but it cleaned up pretty well as you stopped it down.