Which lens for AF100?

[Noah Kadner]

Best lenses and lowest prices are opposite- but you knew that… Do you want zooms or primes? Because to be honest- buying this camera and then getting cheap zoom lenses is kinda pointless. You’d be much better served by getting a nice fixed lens zoom camera- like an HVX200 or an EX1. It will be much better suited to event videography and you won’t need a bag of lenses just to cover the meat and potatoes a scene. Then you can supplement with a DSLR- such as a GH2 for those luscious shallow depth of field shots with a couple of choice prime lenses.

Noah

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[Jon Gianelli]

Zoom would be good. Is there any reasonably priced good zoom lenses I could use (even in the $3,000 range)?

[Matthew Romanis]

We purchased the Olympus Zukio 14mm-35mm F2 lens with the Olympus doubler as an everyday utilty lens.
We are looking for suitable f1.7 – 0.9 primes in the 20-25mm, 30-35mm, 50mm, 85mm range to offer more of what the camera is capable of.
Any of these cheaper photographic zoom lenses do have restrictions such as aperture shift when zooming, noise from the aperture shift, no servo.
I use a varying combination of fader ND, filter wheels, and ISO setting to always keep the lens at F2.
When working with this camera, everything is slower. It takes longer to set a shot and shoot it than it does with a standard video style camera, so if you believe you can work with the operational differences this camera brings, then go for it.
But remember, one lens alone will never be enough or suitable for this camera.
Matthew.

[Uli Plank]

Cine primes will be far beyond your budget, but you can still get pretty good photographic primes from the non-automatic era on Ebay. I use Minolta MC/MD Rokkors on our AF101 with simple adapters and a focus ring with the right pitch to attach a cine FF, plus a matte box and a set of NDs.

Only problem: there are no fast primes with enough of a wide angle among those. Get the 20mm/1.7 from Panasonic or the Voigtlander 25/0.95 if it fit’s your budget in the end.

Plus, there’s nothing like the 7-14mm from Panasonic for very wide angle (if needed), but it’s not fast. BTW, all those photographic zooms can not really be considered video zooms, they should be regarded as ‘variable primes’ with all the negative sides Noah mentioned.

Director of the Institute of Media Research (IMF) at Braunschweig University of Arts

[Jon Gianelli]

What about something older, like https://cgi.ebay.com/Zeiss-Vario-16-10-100mm-T2-Zoom-Lens-B-Mount-Used-/360369321534?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item53e7af763e#ht_505wt_905

Is there NO suitable zoom lens that somewhat fast that is under around $5,000?

[Guy Mcloughlin]

The zoom lenses with the best reputation for the AF-100 are:

Olympus 14-35 f/2.0 ( expensive but fast )
Tokina ATX Pro 28-70mm F2.6-2.8 Nikon Mount ( Angenieux design, find used on eBay )
Nikkor ED 17-55mm f/2.8G IF DX ( very sharp, even wide open )

The two Nikon mount lenses will need an adapter to mount on the AF-100, and you may want an adapter that can control the aperture. Adaptimax, MTF Services, Novoflex, and Voightlander make great lens adapters.

As for prime lenses, I would recommend:

Samyang 14mm f/2.8 ( fast, low cost, manual focussing, often sold under other names )
Voightlander 25mm f/0.95 ( expensive, but fast with great manual focusing )
Nikon 35mm f/1.4 AI-S ( still being made, fast with great manual focusing )
Samyang 35mm f/1.4 ( fast, low cost, manual focussing, often sold under other names )
Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AI-S ( find used on eBay, fast with great manual focusing )
Nikon 50mm f/1.2 AI-S ( still being made, fast with great manual focusing )
Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 ZF2 Nikon Mount ( expensive, but fast with great manual focusing )
Nikon 85mm f/1.4 AI-S ( find used on eBay, fast with great manual focusing )
Zeiss 85mm f/1.4 ZF2 Nikon Mount ( expensive, but fast with great manual focusing )
Samyang 85mm f/1.4 ( fast, low cost, manual focussing, often sold under other names )

There is a rumor that Olympus will announce a new 12mm f/2.0 wide-angle at the end of this month, which will be a great addition to a AF-100 kit, if this rumor is true. I am hoping it is.

…For myself, I own the Voightlander 25mm, Zeiss 50mm, Zeiss 85mm, and the Lumix 14-45mm zoom and 45-200mm zoom ( theses zooms are very slow, but sharp with good image-stabilization )

[Guy Mcloughlin]

The Zeiss Vario 16 10-100mm T2 won’t cover the AF-100 sensor, it’s made for 16mm cameras not 35mm. ( AF-100 needs 35mm cine lenses )

There are no low cost cine lenses for the AF-100, so most people are using DSLR lenses like the ones I listed previously. Keep in mind that most of these DSLR lenses are NOT parfocal, so you have to treat them like “variable prime” lenses because they will NOT keep focus as you zoom.

If you are willing to spend the money, you can by DSLR lenses that have been “cine-fied” like the lenses sold by Duclos.

Duclos Cine-Mod Lenses

…But this also means buying a good PL mount adapter for the AF-100 like the HotRod PL Tuner Kit.

Hot Rod PL Tuner Kit (for AF100 series)

[Guy Mcloughlin]

…I made a mistake, you can buy “cine-fied” lenses from Duclos with the Nikon mount, so you will just need a good Nikon to Micro 4/3 adapter for these lenses.

[Uli Plank]

And those are cheap, try Rainbowimaging in N.Y.– I got mine there and they are OK.

Director of the Institute of Media Research (IMF) at Braunschweig University of Arts

[Uli Plank]

I’m not that impressed by the older Nikon lenses on a AF100. I compared a Nikkor 50mm 1.4 with a Minolta Rokkor PG 50mm 1.4 and the latter had far more contrast wide open. Seems that the Rokkor had a better coating for the rear lens at the time.

But YMMV

Director of the Institute of Media Research (IMF) at Braunschweig University of Arts