Battle of the Basement Cine Lens

[billy]

I was about to pull the trigger on some Zeiss CP2 Ef mount cine lenses when a friend mentioned all the cheaper cine lenses that have been coming out lately. I really only need 3-4 lenses and will be using them on the Ursa Mini 4.6k camera that has a Super 35mm sensor. I will most likely be shooting in the F stop range of F2 to F8 and a mix of landscape and lifestyle. I was gonna get the 21mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm. I do not need an extreme wide and I know the 21mm will become a 35mm or whatever with the crop from Super 35.

I started looking at the Rokinon's, SLR Magic, Samyang, Bower, and the Chinese re-housed ZE lenses by Cinematic on Ebay. I read a bunch of reviews and have gotten nowhere. Does anybody have experience with any of these?

[sanjaynarayan]

i might be wrong but samyang/rokinon/bower are the same lenses...i used the
rokinon lenses set (declicked version) on a shoot and had no issues with sharpness,colour
etc...however the build quality is not upto zeiss standards understandably so for the price...

sanjaynarayan.com

[billy]

Does anyone have any experience with the chines Cinematics? Most specifically I am curious if the distance markings on lens are accurate. The downside seems to be that the focus throw is not 300 degrees like the real CP2's.

[Hywel]

For the price, the Samyang/Rokkinons are pretty damn good in my experience.

They aren't calibrated with reliable distance scales etc. and mechanically they aren't as robust.

But you can buy the whole set of their "videoised" lenses for the price of a single CP/2 and that's hard to ignore! Frankly even if you do buy a set of Zeiss, it's worth considering buying one less lens in that set in exchange for a complete range of focal lengths in the Samyangs.

If you can afford them, the Zeiss will doubtless last you for years and have the cool, crisp Zeiss look which lots of people love. Rent a set for a day or two and see what you think. Personally I think they're a bit clinical, I prefer the look I get with a thirty quid manual focus M42 mount Zenit 55! I'd buy Cooke if I had the cash (but I sooooo don't have the cash ).

  Cheers, Hywel
 

[UlfKrentz]

To give you an additional option, take a look at the Sony CineAlta Prime Set. They are on sale for a while now and are probably by far the best you can get in this price range, solid, a tad big and heavy though...

[billy]

To give you an additional option, take a look at the Sony CineAlta Prime Set. They are on sale for a while now and are probably by far the best you can get in this price range, solid, a tad big and heavy though...

Thanks, I like those and the price is right. But I want EF mount and it looks like only available in PL?

[UlfKrentz]

Thanks, I like those and the price is right. But I want EF mount and it looks like only available in PL?

OK, sorry. Yes these are PL only. With all those new improved EF mounts and cameras and all those new lenses being also available in EF this is developing to a serious market. Kinda looks like EF is the new PL ;-)
My advice would be don´t rush, take your time to test the lenses and see what works best for you. Usually the lenses will serve you for a long time and exploring their strengths and weakness should be key to a well made decision. Enjoy!

Cheers

Ulf