John, once again thanks for the super in-depth reply! Also appreciate the info about the other lenses, but yeah waaaay out of my budget unfortunately
but good to know for rentals!
Regarding the mechanical problems of the RED Zoom, are you talking about the 18-50 or the newer 17-50? I did some research online, and it seems the earlier 18-50 was indeed plagued by frequent mechanical problems, but I haven't found any reports except for yours that this is also true for the 17-50.
Will head over to a rental place tomorrow to try out if the 17-50 fits the WC kit.. Should we perhaps start a lens compatibility chart for the PL modification? The list on their website is really limited and their support repeatedly refused to say which lenses are not compatible, which I remember they did in the past.
While I couldn't find exact measurements of the 17-50, RED does list a chart of their Motion Mount cavity and lists the 17-50 as a compatible lens. Overlaying that image with the drawing on the WC website seems like it should be a tight fit. So anyway, will need to physically verify.