On Their Way?

[Guy Cochran]

Originally Posted by Jim Giberti

Not to be a snob, but you want to be shooting the nice Nikon primes with those adapters. The 70-210 is way too slow to give you the DOF that is the idea of the adapter/Nikon thing. And it's no where near the IQ of the primes which are also very cheap and look absolutely amazing on the 5D2 at 1080p. I'm just setting up a full set of primes with adapters on each. I shot with the 105mm 2.5 last night and it looks better than the Mini35 on either the JVC or Canon HD cameras.

Again, the 70-210 is a good lens but it won't get you the "film" look that this camera will deliver.

Are you kidding? This lens at the 210mm macro end can toss the background completely out of focus. Awesome for a lot of what we do - product videography. You can see the 70-210mm used in all the rack focuses and on all the close-ups in the video at the bottom of this page Canon 5D at DVcreators.net Watch the close up shot of the box. Look at the letters as it racks.

The other two FD lenses I picked up are primes - an 85mm F1.8 and a 24mm F2.8 at around $125 ea. The 85mm is a bit "milky" so that one may be going back. I believe that a Nikon adapter would be the better way to go as the aperture is unfortunately locking wide open on all my FD lenses when using this HAMA EOS adapter. So I do not recommend getting this particular adapter.

[Jim Giberti]

Originally Posted by Guy Cochran

Are you kidding? This lens at the 210mm macro end can toss the background completely out of focus. Awesome for a lot of what we do - product videography. You can see the 70-210mm used in all the rack focuses and on all the close-ups in the video at the bottom of this page Canon 5D at DVcreators.net Watch the close up shot of the box. Look at the letters as it racks..

Not kidding at all, I'm just throwing out my experience shooting SD and HD with Nikon primes. We shot some of the first commercial work with them and kind of pioneered the whole Nikon prime for filmmaking thing with the first version P&S Mini 35. We did all our first shooting with Zeiss Super Speed cine primes as the benchmark.

I've owned and produced with almost all the Nikon glass, and have had the 70-210 and shot it for tests and it simply doesn't do what any of the quality (but affordable) primes will deliver...that's just a fact.

Put a 50mm 1.2 or the 105mm 2.5 on their and shoot the same scene and you'll see the difference immediately. Again, it's a nice lens, but it was designed as a small, affordable consumer zoom and by definition simply doesn't have the IQ, contrast and color rendition of the AIS and AI primes, plus the speed, number and curvature of blades are what deliver really quality bokeh and there are a few lenses that will give you that - "that" being what all our experience showed comparable to a $15-20k cine prime.

Those lenses include but are not limited to:


24mm 2.0, 50mm 1.2, 85mm 1.4 (holy grail of portrait/one-shot lenses), 105mm 2.5


Other great ones are 20mm 2.8, 28mm 2.0, 50mm 1.4,

From a "if I could only carry three lenses to make movies" standpoint:

Either the 20mm 2.8 or 24mm 2.0 on the wide end.

The 50mm 1.2

Either the 85mm 1.4 or 105mm 2.5

One thing about the 105mm: Even though it's a stop and a half slower than the 85mm it deserves the reputation of one of the best lenses ever made by anyone. It has everything - exquisite contrast and color rendition, gorgeous bokeh and it's a 52mm thread vs a 77mm on the 85mm. It's as well made and sort of the 85mm 1.4 "lite"