Blackmagic Forum

I shoot very run-and-gun travel documentaries. About a year ago I found the Olympus 12-100 f/4 which I absolutely love for its focal range, light weight, stabilization, and constant aperture.

Unfortunately it’s MFT only, which means I’m limited to my aging Pocket 4K. Does anyone know of a similar lens for S35 sensors / EF mount so I can one day upgrade my camera?

I would even consider switching to a C70 if I could find something similar for RF mount.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/ ... servo.html

Unfortunately physics dictates that lenses need to get, larger, heavier and more expensive as you increase sensor size. B4 and MFT's major advantage is long zoom ranges, stick with the Pocket 4k if that's what you need, or shoot with B4 lens's with the Ursa broadcast G2.

Based on a Super 35 sensor like the UM4.6K family, it would roughly be a zoom 17mm at the wide end and 142mm at the telephoto end. I’m not aware of a single zoom with that range but if the wide angle starts at 18mm or 20mm, there would be more candidates such as the $10,000 parfocal Fujinon XK Cabrio 20-120mm:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1322733-REG

or the $24,400 Fujinon ZK Cabrio 19-90mm:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/895225-REG

FYI 135 ‘full frame’ it would be the combination of the 24x70mm and the 70x200mm.

The costs of moving to larger sensors are so much higher than using the mirrorless format.

Yeah I'm happy with the P4K for now, but I do get jealous of the high-bright screen and other features getting added to the 6K models. And the lack of updates makes me wonder if it's not going to get discontinued eventually.

The Canon lens looks great, but alas about $20,000 out of my budget! The Fujis also look great but don't really fit into the lightweight "run and gun" category. Physics indeed.

Thanks guys.

Understand! I went through this investigation recently and settled on the budget Fujinon 20-120mm to pair with my Tokina 11-20mm. Of course I can’t actually purchase it for another year at the earliest due to other financial priorities.

Maybe it’s wrong to say, but for anyone starting out from zero in terms of quality lenses, I’d recommend those two for Super 35.

Ultimately good cinema zooms for S35 get higher in price. Especially when they need to cover such a large range. Even the best manufactures will opt for certain range coverage at the more reasonable prices. Example Angenieux 16-42 T2.8 and 30-80 T2.8.

For a great budget option these days the DZOFilm Pictor covers the 14-125 range in three lenses: 14-30, 20-55, and 50-125. All at T2.8 constant wide aperture. And the bundle is only $8K!

Otherwise you're gonna expect to pay more. Even the zooms with that desired 20-120 range would be over $10K in price. The most affordable 25-100mm T2.9 lens you'll find is that Venus Optics Laowa OOOM lens at just over $5K. After you start hitting the lenses that are over 10K in price.

I should be clear that it doesn't need to be a cinema zoom. My current 12-100 is a stills lens, which is good enough (and in fact often better as it lets me get away with filming in more situations).

Good point, this lens is the equivalent photo lens, very similar zoom ratio.

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canon- ... 5p6-is-c16

The major downside vs your f4 is the loss of a stop and a half over the range.

Might it be worth investing in a new camera that's more ergonomically suited for documentary and run n' gun work?

Check out the Canon XF605. Professional camcorders are in a place now where you don't have to make such tremendous trade offs in image quality to enjoy the ease of use/quality of life that previously came with cameras in this form factor.

Chris Cronin wrote:Might it be worth investing in a new camera that's more ergonomically suited for documentary and run n' gun work?

An interesting idea, though I'm loathe to give up what little depth of field I have on the MFT-sized sensor. Also would lose that "pretending to be a photographer" thing that lets you get away with so very much.

Mike Potton wrote:https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canon- ... 5p6-is-c16

Besides the slow aperture, I've found those "kit lenses" to be poor quality in more ways than one.

Really I just need a new version of the P4K. Come on, BMD!

Chris Cronin wrote:Might it be worth investing in a new camera that's more ergonomically suited for documentary and run n' gun work?

Check out the Canon XF605. Professional camcorders are in a place now where you don't have to make such tremendous trade offs in image quality to enjoy the ease of use/quality of life that previously came with cameras in this form factor.

I think for less money (minus lens) an Ursa Broadcast G2 would be a much better proposition, with a better picture quality/workflow. I used to shoot on those kind of fixed lens camcorders and would never go back to them. And nothing can beat B4 lenses for sheer flexibility. Though they can be expensive on my Broadcast G2 I currently use an old SD B4 lens, which cost 300 quid from Ebay, which is incredibly good and sharp, it is servo zoom, has macro and the range is 8-128mm, which is like around (very approx.) 20-320mm in Super 35mm terms, with the doubler that makes 40-640mm and that is just a standard zoom in B4 land!

This is the main reason I am torn between the 4K B4 lens (same 8-128 range) and Pictor zooms (Super 35 full sensor) on it. You give up an awful lot of flexibility, 20-125mm across two lenses is only about 6.5x and no macro, no servo. Whilst the full size Ursa body is a much bigger proposition, there is nothing like a shoulder mount cam for documentary work. And though a 2/3" effective type sensor has greater DOF than even an MFT 4K, you can appreciate with such a zoom range, it is not hard to throw a background out, if that matters a lot to you - though of course you still have the option to use a PL/EF mount and S35 otherwise.

Thanks Steve, I'll definitely consider it!