footagehead wrote:@macfawlty
That's great thanks for reporting on those Roks. I agree, with such a severe crop factor, you lose some of the sought after qualities of these 35mm lenses. Fast and Wide to make up for it, is essential. Thus why on the GH3 and MFT, Voigtlander and SLRMagic came out with some great lenses optimized for that sensor size. I feel like the same thing needs to happen here with EF, but that's a long shot. The MFT mount will be more suitable for this sensor size.
I agree, finding lenses that look great on the EF BMCC wide open is almost impossible. I thought for a while mine needed the flange adjustment but apparently its ok. I'm realising that the BMCC is going to show any short comings of whatever you throw in front of it. Its unforgiving in that way.
Some lenses and filters that do well on a DSLR are not a match for this sensor.
My thoughts so far with what I have:
Canon 17-55mm, a pretty good all round lens that only starts to shows its shortcomings wide and at distance. Whether or not this affects the quality for close ups and medium shots... I don't know
Canon 10-22mm, Is soft from 10-12mm starts to improve from then on, can't stop down yet but it can only improve.
Canon L 70-200mm f4 IS - This lens looks very good because of its length and ability to show some nice bokeh. Haven't tried it with IS, only on a tripod, very hard to hold or touch the tripod without getting micro shakes. Worth it though... nice colour and image.
Canon EF 85mm f1.8 - This is my only prime lens and its ok, not as nice as the 17-55 or 70-200 and its not a useful length given the crop factor.
Tokina 11-16mm, this lens is a crap shoot and threw me into a tail spin thinking I had a flange issue but I definitely have a bad infinity focus problem with it. Tried adjusting the screws but its marginally better and nowhere near the canons... (ie wide open)
There's not much mention about Nikons or Leica's having the same issue. I'm not referring to the flange issue because these lenses are manual focus but more to do with softness at the wide end (if you can get there).
Lots of folk say the LCW fader or any fader ND is not a good option and this holds true on any of the above lenses I've tried it with. It definitely makes the lens softer wide open and probably at other distances.
(I'm waiting on a set of Tiffen ND's and will know the differences then)
I'm at a point where I don't know what to get for this camera. Some people are happy with some of their still lenses, some people are happy with the Roks, some are praising the Zeiss. I'm jealous of guys with a nice set of Leica's and guys with access to cine primes don't have this dilemma.
From what I can gather so far in order of quality and usefulness on the EF BMCC my list would go as follows. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts and if you agree.
1. Cine primes
2. Zeiss/Leica's/Nikons with Duclos mod. (primes)
3. Zeiss/Leica's/Nikons (primes)
3. Canon L/Nikons (primes and some zoom) I'd put the 17-55 EF-S in here.
4. Rokinon (cine) (prime)
5. Canon EF & S/Sigma's/(Tokina if you can find a good one) (primes)
The MFT mount might have some better choices not only for going wide but quality wise as well. I haven't seen any proof that this is the case yet as not many have this mount.
Hey, I'm not complaining I'm just in a dilemma as I try and move forward with this camera. Its clear to me I need some good primes but seeing as I've apparently plonked $4k down on some iffy stuff so far I want to be sure for my next spend.
any help or advice or criticism welcome I'm here to learn.