Which EF Cine Lens on a budget

Just wondering if I could ask for suggestions regarding lens focal length for UM4.6K.
I have the EF version coming and I have 3 x Canon L lenses 16-32, 24-70 & 70-200, but I would like to invest in my first Cine lens and hoping for advice.
I'd like to create that beautiful bokeh on interviews. Is it worth investing on one lens that could get me started that would also do some b Roll.
Not sure with prime lenses what the 4.6K will do with the focal lengths of my canon lenses and which prime would be best.
looking at something like Rokinon Xeen 35mm, 50mm T1.5, Rokinon Xeen 85mm?
Matte Box suggestions as well if you have an opinion.

Hi,
Although I'm not the greatest authority here might I suggest if your number one reason to buy a cine lens is for bokeh you might just buy a stills prime lens like a 50mm Nikkor prime?
You'll still have some money left over for maybe a nice macro lens for detail shots.
Cine lenses have many benefits including focus throw, declicked aperture ring, t-stops, etc...
If these things are not essential right now those other lenses might be more valuable to you.
I'm sure someone else will know much more than I.
Best of luck.

I'm not sure what you mean by EF Cine lens. EF is a stills camera mount, not a cine mount. PL is probably the most ubiquitous 'cine' mount and will be found on a majority of cine lenses. The Xeens you mentioned are all PL mount - though you can get an adaptor (with extra support) and use them on an EF camera.

There's not a lot of cine lenses made for EF mount. You can, however, get stills lenses with an EF mount and add components to make them more useful in a 'cine-like' way such as adding a focus gear, or rehousing in a cine body with consistent front diameters. To go this route it does help to start with a manual lens (focus, iris & zoom) to begin with, such as Contax, Leica and Nikon to name a few, and adapt them for EF.

There aren't many lens makers that add EF mounts to their cine lenses, but one worth mentioning is Rokinon. Tokina have a range of EF cine lenses that are very good, and of course there's others with interchangeable mounts like Zeiss CP.2 & Schneider Xenon, but there are very expensive, so it depends on your budget.

But to be honest, you actually have a very good set of lenses to begin with and they are all very decent performers - for stills lenses. You have covered a huge range of focal lengths from 16-200mm. If anything, you may want to get something a bit wider, but that all depends on what you are shooting.

Personally, I have just ditched all my Canon lenses for a set of vintage Zeiss Contax C/Y. They aren't 'cine lenses' but once de-licked and Leitax EF mounts are attached, they are actually much more useful on a cine camera that my Canon L series. And the low contrast optics look superb on a modern digital sensor, and they aren't too expensive. It's worth checking them out. If I was to recommend one of them, it would be the superb Zeiss Contax 50mm f1.4 - they start at about AU$250. Add a Leitax mount AU$80 and de-click about AU$40.

The Xeens you mentioned are all PL mount - though you can get an adaptor (with extra support) and use them on an EF camera.

The Xeen lenses are available in 5 different mounts (PL, EF, F, E and MFT).

I've used the Xeens recently. They were pretty good I'd say. I question though the optics in comparison to the cheapo Rokinon Cine DS versions, which I've also used, and are also pretty good. I wonder if the glass, coatings, etc are the same. The only difference being the rehousing, which certainly adds to convenience in some cases but may not give you any better of an image. For that reason as well as wondering about Rokinon's place and longevity, I'm certainly weary of investing in Xeens.

You've got all your bases covered as far as focal lengths go. I own a similar lens set up. When a client/project calls for primes, I rent them.

Also, the cine ds versions are really inexpensive. You can dabble in acouple and check out whether you like the look of the Rokinon. That and/or rent the Xeens 1st.

The Xeens you mentioned are all PL mount - though you can get an adaptor (with extra support) and use them on an EF camera.

The Xeen lenses are available in 5 different mounts (PL, EF, F, E and MFT).

Thanks Hussain, I didn't realise they also came with different mounts.


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Keith, Tristan, Mike, thanks for the comments. I'll keep looking, much appreciated.
I'be be been thinking about a canon L 50mm & 100mm macro as addition to my 3 x L zooms.

Apparently the 100mm macro is arguably Canon's sharpest lens.


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I own a set of 5 rokinon lenses, 16,24,35,50 & 85. They're sharp as a tack at T2, 1.5 is super soft and unusable in my opinion. Still a killer deal delivering decent quality at dirt cheap prices.

I just picked up a Xeen 24mm open box from eBay for $1500. At that price I think it's well worth the difference to the normal Cine lenses. The Xeen's render more natural skin tones (the Rokinon Cine's were a tad cold). The focus throw is just amazing.

I'll echo Eric's response about the Rokinons. Although I recently dropped a chunk of change into a set of three Schneider Xenon FFs, I still use my Roks regularly and am still surprised at their image quality. They are not laboratory, precision sharp, but they are clean/sharp and just as Eric mentioned don't go much lower than T-2.0 and they stay sharp. For less than the price of one Xenon I've got a set of 4: 16mm, 24mm, 50mm, and 85mm.

Here's a comparison I did before I bought the Xenons and I've used the Rokinon 50mm as a reference:

http://daveperry.net/zeiss-cp-2-super-s ... -xenon-ff/

Thanks everyone, great reading, and more homework. Dave, thanks for the interesting comparison.