Is this the new servo lens for FS700?

[Alister Chapman]

It will be available as a separate item in the new year.

Having used one, I do quite like it. It's almost par focal, not perfect but close. The zoom speed is quite slow but it is convenient to use.

[Tom Gresham]

Thanks, Alister.

I plan to grab one as soon as they are available. Didn't get the Sony lens with the FS700, and can see that we really need the autofocus and IS.

[Charles Papert]

I just did a handheld shoot with the silver lens and have to say that it was the most confounding experience I've had in years. Everything from the placement of the rings (focus closer to the body than zoom), the direction of rotation on zoom, the drive-by-wire response, the location of the iris control on the body (always took a while for fingers to find it, and it was slow-responding)...this was a run and gun shoot and everything was weighed against us with this lens. The ramping aperture was another nightmare. I continue to fail to see who these lenses will benefit--last year I attempted a narrative piece with the similar lens for the F3 and was constantly confounded by having to light each set to a high stop to avoid running out of exposure when zoomed in, the look was more like a 2/3" camera due to that stop. I assumed at the time that this lens would be better served by a broadcast style of shooting, but after having suffered through that, I now wonder--who does this kind of lens serve? Please weigh in.

(below: me showing my feelings about this setup on set!)

[Olof Ekbergh]

Charles I agree with you a variable iris lens is bad for most ENG style work.

I use Canons 24-70 f2.8 as my primary lens on the 700. I think of it as a variable prime. I also usually carry a 70-200 f2.8 and a 17-40 f4 as well. I also sometimes bring a 100-400 Canon with a 2x for ridiculously long shots (wildlife) and a 8mm f3.5 as extreme wide. This gives me a huge range

This may sound like a PITA switching lenses all the time but it really is not that bad. And you gain the large imager look. I enjoy shooting with all these lenses, though it takes a big kit case, in my case it all fits in a pelican.

Just think about how big and expensive a 18-360 f 2.8 would be. This would be equivalent to a 2/3 20X ENG lens.

That said for compact R&G I still opt for an EX3.

Everything is a compromise. I do have the kit lens but rarely use it. I have found it useful for auto focus in certain situations, it really does that well. But I never used auto focus on any other lens ever, so this is new to me. So far it has impressed me on how it will stay focused on person walking towards the camera even when passing behind an object like a parasol. The IS is also very good. I would rather have it be a constant f4 than variable, but that is probably asking too much for a cheap smallish lens.

[Bill Kerrigan]

Charles, I recognize that 'Silver Lens Look' on your face.
I see my rig is similar to yours… except I've added a follow focus on the right rail, which I find helps when I'm in a hurry.

When I'm not using the SmallHD EVF, I also mount a $50 follow focus stick on the left rail… geared to the zoom ring. It works amazingly well.
I'll post a photo in a few days.

Olof… I'd love to compare your 24-70 f2.8 Canon to my 24-70 f2.8 Zeiss.
I know, I keep promising to drop in… I have a shoot in New York soon, maybe on the way down.

Bill Kerrigan
Montreal
http://fs700user.com

[Olof Ekbergh]

Originally Posted by Bill Kerrigan

Olof… I'd love to compare your 24-70 f2.8 Canon to my 24-70 f2.8 Zeiss.
I know, I keep promising to drop in… I have a shoot in New York soon, maybe on the way down.

Bill Kerrigan
Montreal
http://fs700user.com

Bill, the Zeiss looks really nice, I would love to see it and compare.

Do drop by on the way if you have the time.

[Christopher Young]

Originally Posted by Alister Chapman

It will be available as a separate item in the new year.
Having used one, I do quite like it. It's almost par focal, not perfect but close. The zoom speed is quite slow but it is convenient to use.

Hi Alister and all.

FWIW. Today I spent about 30 minutes trying to get the E PZ 18-200 F3.5-6.3 OSS SELP18200, the servo lens that comes with the Sony NEX-EA50UH camcorder to work on an FS700.

No matter what I tried the camera just would not 'see' the lens at all. Physically it fits, that's it. No servo zoom, no auto focus, no auto iris... nothing! NADA! On the FS700 screen in the bottom left where you would see the current aperture indicated it just displayed an F---. An F followed by dashes. Didn't make any difference whether the camera was in auto mode or manual.

I ran through most of the camera setting permutations I could think of at the time and still no response from the lens. Put the lens back on the EA50 and it springs back to life. Well when I say 'springs' back to life I use that term rather loosely because the zoom is close to glacially slow. Even the fastest of the three pre-selectable speeds is very leisurely to say the least. I guess it has to be to give the auto focus time to keep up with it being a varifocal lens. Whether the camera, lens or both need some kind of firmware upgrade to communicate with one another who knows. Maybe Sony will release a version of this SELP 18200 that specifically talks to the FS700. Or maybe a different servo lens. Who can guess with Sony!

There again, I may have missed something in the settings but I don't think so. At least it was worth a try.
Back to the ELP 18200 and the primes!

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney.

[Chris Medico]

I expect there to be a firmware update for the camera itself before that lens works.

[Alister Chapman]

What Chris said. The FS700 will require a firmware update to talk to the power zoom. It will come,just don't know when.

[Juan A. Diaz]

Just for laughs, and out of pure curiosity, I threw the SELP1650 (16-50mm power zoom) from the new NEX6 mirrorless camera on the FS700...

The SELP1650 has an interesting / odd characteristic on the NEX6 /5r. In stills mode, the zoom lever racks the zoom back and forth very quickly, but when the NEX6 is in video mode, the zoom lever moves the lens through it's rather short range somewhat more slowly - almost slow enough for video work, but not quite. The lever is not pressure sensitive - the speed is the speed, you either like it or you don't (I don't), and there is no speed adjustment either on the lens, or in the NEX6 menu settings.

Anyway, the SELP1650 mounted on the FS700 does report back it's aperture, and the FS700 is happy to work with it in either manual or auto mode. Auto-focus is about the same as with the FS700 kit lens. Active mode stabilization is *not* functional, but regular mode is (the Sony store specs claim that it does have "OSS - Active", but this is not my finding). And finally, the zoom speed on the FS700 is the same as the zoom speed for stills on the NEX6 - way too fast. It apparently does not recognize that it is attached to a video camera operating in video mode.

It's not a lens you'd want to use on the FS700, but mostly I was curious to see if the FS700 zoom rocker did anything with this lens.

It does not.

However, since the NEX6 does not have any way to trigger zoom from the body, it's hard to say if this lens is actually supposed to "power zoom" and at the moment the FS700's rocker is just "vestigial" as Mr. Young discovered in the case of the SELP18200 (3 posts above), or if the lens is just so cheap that Sony couldn't be bothered hooking up the E-mount contacts to the zoom motor...

[Allan Barnwell]

Wow. We were going to test this tomorrow, Thursday. We shot a couple videos with the NEX-EA50 and have more coming soon:

Omega Broadcast Group - YouTube

[Al Yeung]

Originally Posted by Juan A. Diaz

Just for laughs, and out of pure curiosity, I threw the SELP1650 (16-50mm power zoom) from the new NEX6 mirrorless camera on the FS700...

The SELP1650 has an interesting / odd characteristic on the NEX6 /5r. In stills mode, the zoom lever racks the zoom back and forth very quickly, but when the NEX6 is in video mode, the zoom lever moves the lens through it's rather short range somewhat more slowly - almost slow enough for video work, but not quite. The lever is not pressure sensitive - the speed is the speed, you either like it or you don't (I don't), and there is no speed adjustment either on the lens, or in the NEX6 menu settings.

Anyway, the SELP1650 mounted on the FS700 does report back it's aperture, and the FS700 is happy to work with it in either manual or auto mode. Auto-focus is about the same as with the FS700 kit lens. Active mode stabilization is *not* functional, but regular mode is (the Sony store specs claim that it does have "OSS - Active", but this is not my finding). And finally, the zoom speed on the FS700 is the same as the zoom speed for stills on the NEX6 - way too fast. It apparently does not recognize that it is attached to a video camera operating in video mode.

It's not a lens you'd want to use on the FS700, but mostly I was curious to see if the FS700 zoom rocker did anything with this lens.

It does not.

However, since the NEX6 does not have any way to trigger zoom from the body, it's hard to say if this lens is actually supposed to "power zoom" and at the moment the FS700's rocker is just "vestigial" as Mr. Young discovered in the case of the SELP18200 (3 posts above), or if the lens is just so cheap that Sony couldn't be bothered hooking up the E-mount contacts to the zoom motor...

The nex6 also autocorrects the very very severe barrel distortion at the wide end and the fs700 does not.

[Al Yeung]

Originally Posted by Bill Kerrigan

Charles, I recognize that 'Silver Lens Look' on your face.
I see my rig is similar to yours… except I've added a follow focus on the right rail, which I find helps when I'm in a hurry.

When I'm not using the SmallHD EVF, I also mount a $50 follow focus stick on the left rail… geared to the zoom ring. It works amazingly well.
I'll post a photo in a few days.

Olof… I'd love to compare your 24-70 f2.8 Canon to my 24-70 f2.8 Zeiss.
I know, I keep promising to drop in… I have a shoot in New York soon, maybe on the way down.

Bill Kerrigan
Montreal
http://fs700user.com

You guys are pros with helpers and rigs. The silver lens is good for oneman convenience and inconspicuity. The active stabilization is very useful if you cant mount camera on shoulder, and no other lens stabilization ever approaches its effectiveness. As for vari aperture i just kept it at 6.3 if i cant deal. Focus by wire you get used to.

Indoors ans lowlight the silver lens cant keep up, but then i just use the f1.8 emount primes. Small and light and again inconspicuous.

Precisely because the fs cams are so awkward to handle in reactive shooting, the auto focus i find very valuable. Relieves the finger contortion.

The pushauto aperture pinky button on the fs700 handle proved to me beyond doubt that sony really wants to f with you... Who the hell needs the wellplaced still photo button and why isnt the aperture there? or pushauto focus. Give you a needed functionality but make it just barely useable.

[Allan Barnwell]

We put the new servo zoom lens on the FS700 and the camera rocker does NOT control zoom. The slider on the lens itself works fine though for zooming. If you have seen the lens has a low, medium and high switch and then a switch for "manual" or "servo".

[Juan A. Diaz]

Originally Posted by Al Yeung

The nex6 also autocorrects the very very severe barrel distortion at the wide end and the fs700 does not.

Yes, I'm fully aware that the NEX6 has a built in auto-correct for both distortion, and vignetting. However, my post was already quite long, and I strongly doubt that anyone here actually cares about that, which was why I didn't mention it.

What I was most curious about was whether the FS700 would recognize the lens as part of the E-mount family (it did), and whether the FS700 zoom rocker had any effect (it didn't).

But since you bring it up, the SELP1650 vignettes horribly on the FS700 at "16mm"... but it's "16mm" is actually noticeably wider than the SEL16F28's 16mm (the E-mount 16mm f2.8), so one must presume that the SELP1650 is actually more like 14mm or 14.5mm at it's widest, and the NEX6 makes it a "16mm" lens via an electronic crop to control the vignetting.

As I clearly stated... not a lens you'd want to use on the FS700, just a fun experiment.