How about BMD partners with a lens manufacturer

So how about BMD partners with a lens manufacturer to produce a Cinema Camera line of lenses? They don't have a manufacture them, just partner with a company and encourage that company to producer a couple high quality lenses. They don't have to work with Canon or Sigma or Tokina... It could be Rokinon/Bower/Samyang(since its all the same). For film work I've always been a fan of prime lenses over zooms and switching to a BMCC that I got 2 weeks ago most of my lenses are now telephoto. I had sold my rokinon 14mm and was kicking myself because even though it had barrel distortion could not fit filters I could of started filming with it immediately. I saw that there was a new rokinon 16mm which fixed the issues of the 14mm and I purchased it immediately. I now have a good wide prime again.

So what would this partnership accomplish by way of lenses for the BMCC?
A 10mm 1.4 or 1.8 Lens = 23mm ultra wide
A 16mm 2 Lens = 36.8 Standard wide
A 22mm 1.4 Lens = 50.6 mm lens
A 35mm 1.4 Lens = 80.5


Now I know someone is going to say but rokinon makes a 24mm lens so why make a 22mm? Well just like rokinon made a 14mm lens... the goal is to have something better. The 35mm already exists and is really good so not much needs to get changed and so does the 16mm.

The 2 new lenses could be major improvements over the current closest counterparts. The 24mm rokinon is not short at all at 1.4 and the 8mm has barrel distortion and sharpness issues.

Why do you need another Samyang brand?
What would be different when its labeled "BMD"?

There is already a "magic" in SLRM ... and it's black, too.

I think his idea was meant for EF lenses where there are only 2-3 choices for the wide end.

Would be nice to see new M4/3 or C Mount cine lens at a decent cost. I hope Kowa will produce good glass next year with their revamping of their 1" industrial HD lenses.

I think his idea was meant for EF lenses where there are only 2-3 choices for the wide end.

Any new line of lenses from BMD or their partner intended for BMD or other cinema cameras would surely be ciné lenses and that would distinguish them from lens manufacturers who first design a stills lens and then make some modifications to repurpose the same glass for a cinema camera.

So if BMD wanted to get into that line of business, they would be up against some big players with decades of prior experience. It's been said before that building a ciné lens is very complex and time consuming. You probably wouldn't want to try unless you were confident you could deliver a less expensive lens than your competition. However saving expenses may mean some compromise to the lens quality. I think SLR Magic likely wanted to do this but realized it is such an ambitious task that they had better concentrate their limited resources on a more modest business plan. The beautiful lens set does currently exist but as we know, it can be cost prohibitive for most. The latest Primo V announcement from Panavision looks interesting but, of course, their lenses aren't for sale.

If I knew the solution to the dilemma, I wouldn't be sitting here in my living room adding a post to this forum. Not sure who will give it a go. Would be great if BMD worked with a partner or two on the project to help democratize beautiful ciné lenses that paired well with their future sensors, but if they made such an announcement in NAB 2014, we know it could be NAB 2020 before a six lens set was ready--and that's not a criticism at all, as I believe you would need years to get it right. I would think they would design the image circle of their lenses to cover the S35, APS-C or BMPC4K sensor size and hopefully they could also mount to the BMCC and BMPCC.

Rick Lang
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There is nothing really inherently expensive about cine lens design. many of them are often far simpler than their stills counterparts (for example, most are just fully manual with no servos or motors inside). The problem has always been the economy of scale and, as they are almost all hand made, that adds an expense.
Truthfully; just making a cine-style prime lens wouldn't be that difficult. The primary differences between cine and stills lens is the focus throw/focus breathing, measurement in T stop, and common front diameter. 2 of those cost next to nothing, another is a very small expense but would require proper design or just mechanical components, and the last one, focus breathing, is where costs would come in. However, we're so used to focus breathing anymore, you could get away with it. Hell I just used an Angie zoom which breathed like a 90 yr old 4 pack a day smoker-- but still costs thousands of dollars to buy used.
That said, I ABSOLUTELY do NOT think BMD should make lenses. If anything, it would be a hell of a lot better/easier to pressure someone like Nikon to make an "e" series cine lens, or a company like Rokinon to make a better version of their own lenses (or SLR magic ect) because all of these are still substantially cheaper than the "lower end" alternatives, like a Compact Prime (which in and of itself is absurdly cheap by cine lens and zeiss lens standards)

I'm waiting on Canon, Nikon, Samyang to join Kowa in making M43 cine lenses for S16.

I am not talking about another Samyang brand... im talking about Samyang or some other lens maker making a line of lenses that is in connection with BMD. So its nothing ran by bmd... its just a bmd approved lens. I was reading an interview Grant Petty did about working in a post house and not being able to afford to use buy equipment or even rent it. So i said Samyang just because they've made pretty good low cost lenses.

I don't think BMD should make lenses... thats needless... just partner with the BMD of lens makers.

Very nice

What you are describing is a Ziess CP2 Cinema lens, already available for around $3K. Goos value, great "world class" optics and standard mounts available.

Yea i was thinking lower cost lenses...