Canon wiggled their way into the professional cinema lens market with a few zooms and a trio of primes. Shortly after their initial line-up they added a wide and telephoto prime option to cap the end of their prime lens family. The line-up included a 14mm, 24mm, 50mm, 85mm, and 135mm. Not a bad set of primes, but the gap left between the 24mm and 50mm was painfully obvious. This week Canon has announced the development of a 35mm CN-E prime lens to add to their offering.
This is a focal length that everyone has been asking for from the beginning of the CN-E generation. Now with a six lens family of primes, Canon can really consider this a complete set. The 35mm will fall in line with the other primes in terms of size and shape. No word from Canon on the speed of the 35mm quite yet but I’ll be sure to check the engravings on the lens itself while its on display at NAB. In my opinion, the new 35mm would have to stay consistent with the other primes in the set at T1.3 or at least T1.5. Unfortunately I’m guessing that it will be a T1.5, borrowing optics from its 35mm f/1.4 Canon L still photo cousin. At T1.5, it would still be a respectable speed and fill in nicely with the rest of the CN-E primes. I’ve been pretty pleased with the image quality of the Canon CN-E primes so far. The only issues I have with them now that the set is actually a true set, is the fact that they only come in a Canon EF mount and the speed of the 14mm is a tad slow for my taste. At Duclos Lenses, we’ll see if we can’t fix one of those issues. š
So, if you buy a 300/500 with PL mount, you can’t use their own primes? Or, you can buy the camera in EF and be screwed for longer lenses and zooms? Seems like that’s just selling CP.2’s, instead.
I agree to an extent. I do wish Canon offered the primes in PL as well as EF like they do with their zooms. At the same time, I think there are plenty of higher end options (and lower end) for PL mount primes.
Still a huge gap at the wide end; 14mm T3.1 vs. 24mm T1.5 is ridiculous. Makes it look very like a bunch of rehoused stills glass. Needs an 18mm T1.5 to be taken seriously as full, fast set of cine primes. IMHO š
Have fun at NAB, I can’t make it this year š
A fast 18mm would be nice. And a slow 14mm does make it look like rehoused stills glass. But that’s exactly what they are… Rehoused stills glass. I highly doubt we’ll be seeing a fast 18mm. Not at the price bracket the CN-Es are tailored to.
They are FULL FRAME primes. 14mm T3.1 is fast in full frame world. It is like T2.1 is S35 world. It is nonsense to say 14mm T3.1 is slow in full frame for $5,000.
I want to see the speed of your “Cinema Glass” from Schneider-XENON on their new full frame 14 and 18mm. I am sure it will not be T2.1 for $4-5,000.
Full-Frame is great but honestly that’s really only relevant for ONE camera on the market which is the 5D. I’m sure RED and other camera manufacturers will continue to push the size of cinematic sensors, but for now I’d prefer a faster, smaller format prime lens. While Canon’s 14mm at T3.1 is perfectly reasonable especially considering it’s Full-Frame, a T1.3 14mm Master Prime is even better. It’s all about balance. I don’t expect everyone to go out and mortgage their house simply to afford a single Master Prime. Therefor, balance. If Full-Frame coverage is a key feature for you, then the overall speed of your prime lens set is the downside.
Full Frame is the future. More shallow DOP, more resolution,more sensitivity,more organic look….
No point comparing 4/3,s35 or Full Frame speed of lenses.
Full frame sensor with T3.1 lens is the same as S35 with T2.1 š
Full Frame is where we are heading next 5 years.
That is why Zeiss, Canon and now Schneider are making great Full Frame affordable glass. …and not to forget Zeiss full frame zooms.
Now next thing is: Full Frame ANAMORPHIC .
On personal note, i just wish there was some Mid Range Full Frame Cinema Pafocal Zoom 24-70 under $10,000.