What kind of results can I expect from these lenses?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=cart_accessories&A=details&Q=&sku=208217&is=REG

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=cart_accessories&A=details&Q=&sku=208232&is=REG


I have very little experience with 35mm photography so any kind of description of what these lenses will give me will be appreciated.

I do have a little bit of a budget, so upgrade recommendations are welcome as well.

What I'll need to shoot most of the time will be talking head interviews, beauty shots of machinery from a tripod or dolly from about 10 feet away, and typical MS/CU shot-reverse-shot in close quarters.

Thanks!

I would avoid those lenses. Look for used Nikon AI lenses on ebay or in a local camera shop. If you are just starting out, an old Nikon AI 50mm f1.8 or f1.4 is a fantastic first lens. I have a f1.8 I picked up on ebay for around $40 and it is by far my favorite lens.

I wish you would give some reasons why they are to be avoided.

I ended up ordering the Letus Extreme with the Canon FD mount.

I'm going to order some prime lenses on Ebay, but for starting out I got the Phoenix zoom and a Vivatar wide/zoom.

I would also recommend against those lenses, for a few reasons.

First, one of the limitations of using a 35mm adapter with a vibrating (as opposed to spinning) ground glass is that shutter speeds above about 1/250, and apertures below about f/6, will tend to show the grain in the ground glass, often with (unpleasantly) dramatic artifacts. An example from my own catalogue of ruined shots *ahem!* tests:

I was shooting outdoors on a very bright day, with my Letus Extreme on an HV20. I hadn't read the manual (too excited, who has time?) so I had the camera set to auto-expose. The Pentax lens was stopped down to about f/6, and the shutter speed was around 1/500. The rolling shutter on the HV20, combined with the high shutter speed and small aperture, imaged the ground glass as a pronounced "waving" of the footage! It was almost as if I had applied some cheesy filter to simulate the waves of heat that rise off asphalt on a hot day.

So, shot ruined, lesson learned. My point is, you haven't left yourself a lot of latitude with those lenses, in terms of aperture. Even wide open, both the lenses you linked are starting to brush up against the limits of what you can safely shoot.

Second, and I'll put this gently, neither Vivitar nor Phoenix are known for making lenses of exceptional quality. You just spent $1200 on an adapter, I can't imagine why you wouldn't save up a few hundred more for some quality lenses.

The counter-point to that is, if you're happy with the images you're getting with those lenses, run with 'em. I've seen good footage come through crappy glass, and editing covers a multitude of evils. Don't let budget constraints hamper your making the most of a shoot.

Counter-counter-point: you did save up $1200. Don't start scrimping on lenses. Most shooters use primes for a reason: they're incredibly sharp, and cheap. Zoom lenses that are up to the standards of a pro shooter start at about $700, and go up from there. eBay those two you ordered, do your research, and buy some good primes. I guarantee you won't regret it.

For what it's worth, my advice is to grab your camera, Letus, and the lenses you settle on, and shoot some test footage. Set up a test chart, or just a still life, under controlled, variable lighting. Shoot it with a variety of shutter speeds and apertures, and when you pull the footage down you'll quickly find the limits of what you can safely shoot with your current configuration. Plus, you'll feel more confident when you're shooting out in the real world!

I hope this has been helpful, or at least not terribly confusing! Good luck!

I appreciate the response, Pbryant.

What would you say would be the best 'all purpose' prime lense? I'm thinking about getting a 50mm. I only shoot at 1/24 or 1/48.

Ha... That's the million dollar question, isn't it?

When I purchased my LEX, I ordered it with a Nikon lens mount, for a variety of reasons. Not least among these were 1) the consensus among cinematographers that Nikon lenses are well suited for our application, and 2) the bewildering variety of lenses available. There's just a stupid amount of vintage glass out there.

So unfortunately, I'm not going to be much help in your search for specific Canon glass.

That being said, I think many here could agree with a starter kit of:

wide - 24 or 28mm
standard - between 45 and 55mm, depending on taste
portrait - 85 or 105mm
short tele - 135 or so

The short telefocus lens isn't strictly necessary, as the other three will get you through just about any shooting day. Check out mir.com.my for technical information on lenses, and keh.com for secondhand, guaranteed glass. I love keh.

http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/canon/fdresources/fdlenses/index.htm

http://keh.com

Good luck!

Post edited by: pbryant, at: 2008/07/28 17:49

I shyed away from the Nikon mount on the LEX because it's described differently on almost every Letus site I go to. I've seen it listed as "Nikon AI" or "Nikon locking" or "Nikon improved locking" and being a relative newb in terms of different lens brands/mounts, I decided that Canon's "FD" brand seemed more universally recognized in product descriptions.

I'm not opposed to getting a 2nd mount, though, but I could use to be reassured that a Nikon "AI" is the same as a "locking"/"improved locking" lens when purchasing said glass.

Admins, please jump in and correct me if I'm wrong. I believe that the Letus Nikon mount will work with just about any 35mm lens Nikon has produced, from the early Non-AI Nikkor-S* up through the newest AF lenses.

I have, as I write this, a brand new AF 50mm 1.8D on my Extreme, and I've had many other, older, lenses on there as well.

This is a distinct advantage that Nikon has, that sometimes gets lost in the alphabet soup (F, Non-AI, AI'd, AI, AI-s, AF-s, etc). Like all manufacturers of lenses, Nikon has changed their mounts over the years. Unlike Canon however, the changes Nikon made were largely to accommodate advances in metering and autofocusing technologies, and not to the bayonet mount itself. You can therefore pick up (just about) any SLR lens Nikon ever made, and snap it onto (just about) any Nikon 35mm film body you can find, no problem. For instance, that same AF 50mm works great on the F3, a manual-focus film body almost 30 years old!

My advice then is to buy the nicest, fastest (aperture) lenses you can afford, confident that whether they're designated AI, AI-s, or AF, they'll work great with the LEX.

There are (of course) a few caveats, especially with new professional zooms (in case you ever have an extra $1500 burning a hole in your pocket):

Avoid "G" lenses. Like:

http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/lineup/lens/af/zoom/af-s_zoom24-70mmf_28g/index.htm

The "G" after the aperture rating indicates that the aperture can only be changed via controls on the camera body, and not via a ring on the lens. It's a stupid feature, and makes the lenses useless for what we do. I've heard of people sticking toothpicks into the slot behind the aperture prong to force it to stay at a given aperture, but that's just silly. I'm not about to risk explaining to the guy at the camera shop why there are splinters in my thousand-dollar lens.

By extension, avoid DX lenses. These are designed for Nikon's prosumer DSLRs, which have a smaller sensor. Like the G lenses they'll mount up fine, but the image they project won't cover the ground glass inside the Letus. It'll look something like:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/10mm-fisheye/images/examples/10-fisheye-on-fx-IMG_4287.jpg

That's a photograph taken with a fisheye lens designed for a DX-factor camera, on the full-frame D3.

That's about all I can think of right now... Hit me back if you have any questions on specific Nikon lenses, and I'll do what I can to help.

Post edited by: pbryant, at: 2008/07/29 18:17