New Samyang NEX Lenses

[Peter Rush]

Well I did my second wedding yesterday with the EA50 and the kit lens is way too slow - It was in Allerton Castle in North Yorkshire which is lovely but extremely dark with lots of dark oak panelling!

The result was f3.5 @ 30db gain! not ideal at all. I don't want to use a prime lens as I do have a few favourite zoom shots during a ceremony - hopefully one of these new lenses may do the trick

http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/sr5-s...ith-autofocus/

[Chris Quevedo]

hey peter,

why don't you want to use primes? while its cool that they are releasing zooms at Rokinon (samyang) soon, primes can zoom on the EA50, thats one of its biggest features. also just because they announced zooms, there is no guarantee that it will be a power zoom that works with the zoom rocker.

why not instead get a Canon Rokinon Cine 35mm f/1.4 with a speed booster? with the digital zoom that would give you roughly a 37mm-75mm zoom with constant aperture

[Peter Rush]

Hi Chris - I've read about quality issues with the digital zoom - is this something you've experienced? Sigma produce this canon mount 1.4 that might do the trick. I'm looking for something really just for the ceremony and maybe speeches

http://www.simplyelectronics.net/mai...etcurrency=gbp

[Chris Quevedo]

hi peter,

i don't actually own the camera, i am saving for it. but i've been reading LOTS and lots and lots anywhere i can find anything about it. i have heard people say theres a tiny bit of quality loss and then i've also heard that they see no quality loss. that tells me its subjective as not one person has brought forth a single shred of proof that the quality is variable.

but if someone is willing to test it, perhaps they could post here and we can know for sure. problem is when people do that typically they post a quick 3 second test. we need a real exhaustive video in mulitple lighting situations before we can know for sure how much quality, if any, is being lost.

[Shaun Roemich]

Originally Posted by Peter Rush

The result was f3.5 @ 30db gain! not ideal at all. I don't want to use a prime lens as I do have a few favourite zoom shots during a ceremony - hopefully one of these new lenses may do the trick

I just spent the last half hour going thorough an exhaustive list of lenses (36 pages!) on B&H's website to confirm my thoughts before I open my big mouth.

In their entire list of SLR lenses, there are a total of 449 lenses rated f2.8 or faster.

Of those 449, many are primes.

Out of that list, there are a total of TWO zoom lenses that are faster than f2.8.

They are both Olympus 4/3 mounts worth @2300 and $2500 respectively. f2.0

Frankly, f2.8 is as fast as a zoom lens goes, excepting a handful of dedicated ciné zooms.

And f2.8 is less than a stop faster than the f3.5 you are currently forced to shoot at.

So you would be able to use 24dB of gain instead of 30dB.

To quote Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott of the Starship Enterprise: "ya kin'nae change the laws of physics".

[Chris Quevedo]

i did that research once. you're right the last time i found a zoom faster than that was a single canon zoom that was a PL mount, not much use here. (not counting cine zooms. but who has $5000 for a lens?!) granted there are those that can afford that and if you can, that's awesome.

the zooms that seem to be best are Tamron's 24-70mm f/2.8 and Tokina's 16-28mm f/2.8. these are full frame lenses though so if you use a speed booster you can get more out of the lens and 1 stop faster light. (what is that, f/2?). if you really don't wanna get a prime, that may be your best bet, and it still won't be a power zoom :-/

there are other awesome zooms out there, but these seem to be quite awesome in themselves and highly respected for what they can achieve

[Shaun Roemich]

Originally Posted by Chris Quevedo

iso if you use a speed booster you can get more out of the lens and 1 stop faster light. (what is that, f/2?).

1 stop better light performance than f2.8 is in fact f2.0 but don't assume the other lens artifacts such as Depth of Field will follow. The language is getting particularly confusing and misleading... much like crop factor confusing folks about what it does to focal length (which is nothing - field of view changes, Depth of Field does not).

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Chris Quevedo

that tells me its subjective as not one person has brought forth a single shred of proof that the quality is variable.

Here you go, that was on the stocklens which isn't the sharpest but start looking from 00:23, just look at the trees in the distance or the edge of the roof how the detail is turned into mush.
The digital zoom does make the image softer and it will increase moire and aliasing, if that is present, significantly.

Sony nex ea50 moire and aliasing on Vimeo

[Chris Quevedo]

i stand corrected :-)
but for the record this is the first i've seen before this

[Noa Put]

I was planning to do a new short movie this week but decided to do more testing instead to know where the limitations of the camera are so I know when I put it in a paid production.

What I plan to test is how the digital zoom performs with Samyang primes, I also want to know what preset is best to blend in with my sony cx730 and what would be the best preset to match with my t2i and I want to check what effect decreasing the sharpness in camera and adding sharpness in post has on moire and aliasing (instead of increasing sharpness in camera).

This is important for me to know asap as beginning April it's starting to get quite busy and I need to know before that time. I will post the results here and on my blog.

[Chris Quevedo]

thanks noa,
also please keep sharing your vids like this it helps us newbie's make informed choices! :-D

[Dmitri Zigany]

I saw no mention of a Samyang zoom lens, only that they where releasing lenses with auto focus. But they would still be prime lenses, as I understood it, or did I miss something?

I wish they skipped the autofocus and added antishake to their cine lenses instead!

[Chris Quevedo]

yea, cine lenses don't need autofocus anyways.

[Joel Corral]

Originally Posted by Peter Rush

Hi Chris - I've read about quality issues with the digital zoom

Just as Noa's test; digital zoom = unacceptable use.

JC

[Chris Quevedo]

do you think if the digital zoom is that bad that perhaps its best to wait for an upgrade? what are the odds of a update being announced at NAB when this camera was technically only released about 3 to 4 months ago?