Best general usage Lens for c100?

[Andrew Maclaurin]

I´m looking into buying a C100 and here in Spain they come with a Canon 24-105 f4 L for 600 or so euros extra. My question is what´s the best lens to get for general usage, weddings, docs, events etc
I´ve seen the Canon 18-135 f3.5-5.6 stm is going for 380 euros new. Money is tight so would that do a job? What is manual focus like compared to the L series?
Are the any other options worth considering?
I already have a Tamron 17-50 f2.8 IS, a Sigma 30 1.4, Canon 50 1.8 so I´m really just looking for a lens that is a bit of a jack of all trades and something a bit longer than the Tamron.
Does anyone have any thoughts? Is it really worth forking out 600 odd euros for the Canon 24-105 f4 L as a main lens?
Cheers

[Brett Sherman]

18-135 is probably your best bet. It's focus by wire (meaning servo controlled). Which has it's positives and negatives. You can dial in the exact focus since the throw isn't too short. It does''t "feel" like a manual focus so takes some getting used to. It's not par focal but somehow compensates when you zoom in and out. It retains focus, but goes out of focus in between.

To me the 24-105mm is great for interviews, but not wide enough for run and gun shooting.

[Robert Turchick]

I think the 24-105 is about perfect as a general lens for the C100. It gets me wide enough to do full body green screen from 8' away and has enough zoom plus IS for all sorts of other stuff. I do put the Tokina 11-16 or Canon 18-55 STM on if I need wider but that's generally if I'm using on Steadicam.

[Chris Hurd]

I'm a big fan of the 24-105 as an all-purpose L-series zoom lens. However, the IS is a bit too noisy for video recording unless you get the mics away from the camera. The 18-135 STM is very good for the money, and super quiet with IS turned on, perfect if you have a mic mounted on the cam.

[Andrew Maclaurin]

Thanks for the replies.
I´ve had a look a my mate´s 24-105L and it´s a fine beast but if the 18-135 stm does the job as a video lens then I´ll probably go for that as 18 is quite a bit wider.
As I understand it, a f3.5- 5.6 lens on a C100 isn´t too slow as the camera handles higher ISOs pretty well. Coming from a 7D i was always scared to go above 1600 iso and even 1600 didn´t look too good.

[Andrew Maclaurin]

Another thing, I understand the C100 has a Push Auto Focus button to get a quick autofocus when in manual focus. Does it work with the 18-135?

[Brett Sherman]

Supposedly it has manual focus override when in automatic. So theoretically it should work when you have it in automatic. However, I had some trouble with a new lens I bought for our C100 package. It didn't seem to do manual override so I have to leave the lens in manual which means auto-focus won't work. I have another 18-135 with the C300 kit, so I plan to do a comparison test to see what's going on. Is there anyone else that can verify how it works on the C100.

Keeping the iris at 5.6 is no problem with the C100.

[Chris Hurd]

Which lens were you having trouble with, Brett?

[Andrew Maclaurin]

Brett,
I assume you are talking about the 18-135?
so it's kind of the opposite of the push auto focus?
you have it in auto but can override the autofocus by manually focussing?

[Brett Sherman]

Right, it's the 18-135mm. And that's how I was attempting to use it. Put it in auto-focus, use the focus ring to override it. But it wasn't doing it. The ring was just spinning doing nothing. Again, I have to do a little more investigation when I have time and both 18-135 lenses available for comparison.

I had previously only used it with the C300, so I had it in manual.

[Mark Dobson]

Brett,

Unfortunately once you switch the 18-135 STM lens from manual to auto on the lens barrel it disables the focus ring.

So to use autofocus with this lens you can either have the camera in Continuous Autofocus mode or one shot autofocus mode. Like you I've only used this lens in conjunction with the C300 and the autofocus capability for this camera was added with the latest firmware update. It does work, and silently, but is probably too slow for practical documentary usage.

But I generally have the lens in manual mode which also retains the lens par-focal capability.

The demos of imminent C100 Autofocus modification look really impressive and if I had this camera I would book it and pay for the upgrade. I'm hoping this modification will be made available to the C300.

[Brett Sherman]

Okay I think I get it now. This lens requires some sort of communication from the camera that it is in one-shot mode. And apparently the C100 doesn't do that. It seems like the Instant-AF could be considered a one-shot mode, so I'm not sure why it wouldn't work. But for now with the C100 it's either full automatic or full manual - no instant AF with MF override.

The 15-85mm seems to work the way I want it to - Auto mode with manual override.

[Nicholas de Kock]

The Canon 24-105MM F4 IS is a damn good lens and worth the extra money make no mistake. I have a lot of lenses & the 24-105 is one of my favourite after the Tokina 11-16MM. The build quality on this L lens is tough & the images hold more contrast. I also have the 17-55 F2.8 IS which I use often in tight rooms but the 24-105 just feels better & the images look more colourful in my opinion. F4 is a bit slow but mixed with the incredible low light on the C100 it's okay. These other non-L lenses get dust under the glass element it's highly annoying. My 24-105 rolled off a bar table at a wedding the other day, hit the floor & it's 100% fine not even a scratch I was shocked. Forget about auto focus, the film world doesn't work with auto & the C100 makes manual focus very easy, you always know when you are in focus.

You won't regret a 24-105 purchase & the resale value holds well, I can highly recommend it for event work, the 105 zoom range also gets you close to the action.