a blog by Matthew Duclos
Nikon’s upcoming NIKKOR Z 28-135mm f/4 PZ (Power Zoom) lens is aimed squarely at the filmmaking community, marking another step in the company’s ongoing efforts to cater to video professionals. While Nikon has long been a key player in the world of photography, this lens represents their latest attempt to break into the cinema lens market. However, a closer look reveals a mix of promise and potential areas for improvement.
Continue reading “Nikon Announces New 24-135mm f/4… Cine Lens?”
Yet another bombshell has landed in the NAB 2016 battleground. This time, it’s Canon who has struck with a brand new product in a whole new segment, perhaps only tapped otherwise by Sony – The 18-80mm T4.4 Compact Servo Zoom Lens which features a truly hybrid stills/motion design approach with some interesting cross-breed features. Continue reading “Canon’s New 18-80mm T4.4 Compact Servo Zoom”
Zeiss has had a busy few weeks with the announcement of the new autofocus Batis primes as well as the Milvus line of lenses that replace the outgoing “Classic” ZF.2 and ZE primes with a more modern, ergonomic housing including two brand new optical designs in the Milvus 50mm f/1.4 and Milvus 85mm f/1.4. Then, only a few weeks later Zeiss announced their 21mm f/2.8 Loxia lens designed specifically for Sony FE mount cameras. A wide-angle Otus lens had been rumored for almost a year and we’re finally able to talk about the newest member of the venerable Otus line of primes. Continue reading “Zeiss 28mm Otus Officially Announced”
One would assume that these full frame (FF) prime lenses are intended for still photographers, but there are a lot of features that will appeal to cinematographers just just as much as still photogs. I recently had the opportunity to review an early set of the Schneider Cine-Xenar III primes which I consider to be proper, classic cinema primes. Read the whole post here. At the moment the mid-range cine lens options include the likes of the Zeiss CP.2, Canon CN-E Primes, and a few others not worth mentioning. A bit of background on this class of lenses; the CP.2s are based on their lower-priced cousins, the ZF.2 photo primes. The CN-Es are also based on their lower-priced cousins, the L Series photo primes.
Continue reading “Schneider To Offer Mid-Range Xenon FF Primes (Updated)”
I’ve been using a D300 since it first came out. I made the decision to stick with DX format lenses and workflow a long time ago and the D300 was the best DX Nikon body at the time. Similar to Apple with the iPhone 3G, Nikon added an “s” to the end of their product name and I didn’t think twice.
Obviously the biggest upgrade in the new D300s is the capability to shoot 720p video at 24p. A lot of people are making a big deal about the added feature, but I’m really not drinking the cool aid. The video feature is a novelty. In fact I’m considering returning the darn camera. Not strictly because of the finicky video, but also because Aperture doesn’t support RAW processing for the D300s which I find very odd considering the processor is almost identical to that of the D300 which is supported. I can easily over come the latter issue by simply using Lightroom instead. So now I have the choice of keeping my D300s and selling my old D300 or dumping both and getting a D700 😉
Round Two