Lens choices for Red

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An advantage of the Red Camera is the ability to choose from the wide variety of high quality cinema (and other) lenses out there. The best cinema lenses are hand made for a comparatively niche market from expensive materials and so cost a lot of money, but there are many solutions and options to still get a great image at a reasonable price. Choosing the best lens for the budget and situation is a vital part of the cinematographer's role. If you are wondering why they are requesting a particular lens and have not had to deal with this area before, this is a quick guide.

Generally Prime Lenses (lenses which have a fixed focal length and don't zoom) will have the least glass getting inbetween your subject and the sensor, and so result in the most pristine image. However, to change your image size, you have to physically remove each lens and replace it with a different one and have a good set of choices to choose from (18mm being wide angle, 50mm standard, 100mm telephoto. A standard 4 set would probably be 18mm, 35mm, 50mm, 75mm). This is standard practise in the film world, and the function of the camera assistant, but the time taken to carefully change lenses and reset follow focus units etc can limit the amount of shooting achievable in a day and limit your flexibility.

Zoom lenses allow for changing the focal length (and thus image size) without removing the lens and thus speedier filming, but with compromises to the image quality and significant increase in weight. With a stills lens zoom, when you change the focus the actual image size will change slightly (breathe). This is acceptable when you are taking a still but can be distracting or annoying for moving images where you change focus during the shot. The better cinema zoom lenses have more glass and mechanisms to compensate for this. But more glass can mean less light transmission (speed), more halation and multiple planes for any flaring. These artifacts can of course be desirable.

Generally if you have the time and the budget, prime lenses are preffered. If you require speedy focal length changes (especially for unpredictable shooting such as live events) and can live with the possible compromises in image, then a zoom could be more appropriate.

If you have no idea of what is involved in lenses and the differences between them you probably should be speaking to your DOP. But if you need to make some decisions before you have a DOP or operator on board, you need to have an idea of the parameters. So here is a brief guide to the usual options available so you can see what is best for your project and budget.

Don't forget, whatever your lens choice, you will still probably need lens accessories (Matte Box and Follow focus) that match those particular lenses.

Red Lens Choice Summary

Cooke S4 Primes

  • If you have a good budget and need the best we recommend Cooke S4s.These have the ease of operation that a modern cinematographer demands, with a sharp but still classically beautiful Cooke image. If you are trying to shoot on a budget however, you can achieve similar results with other options.

    • Zeiss Fast Primes

  • If you have a medium budget and need low light lenses we suggest Zeiss Superspeeds. The most recent of these are colloquially called the Mark IIIs and are recognisable by their vertical focus markings. The optics of previous Marks is the same, the only differences being the external housing, the focus markings and the degree of focus throw. So you could achieve the same sharp low light Zeiss look on earlier Superspeeds. Zeiss have made more recent lenses which are more expensive: Master Primes and Ultra Primes but we find that they can be too clinically sharp when used with a Red and focussing particularly critical as a result.

    • Nikon Full Frame Stills Primes

  • If you have a tight budget but need low light lenses and can put up with a bit of finickiness in operation we suggest using Nikon Stills lenses. The focus throw is smaller compared to cinema lenses (Tip: using a wireless follow-focus is a good way to regain the throw) and the mount is not as solid as PL but the sharp Nikon resolution at a great price can make up for that. And the 35mm, 50mm and 85mm are F1.4 so great for low-light situations. We have shown many peeople comparable shoots on the various lenses on a large screen and most struggle to detect the Nikons.

    • Lomo Anamorphic Primes

  • If you have a moderate budget and are looking for a particularly cinematic look, go cinemascope with Anamorphics. Panavision have built the best lenses for this, but are of course only available from them at a price. They require a specific Panavision mount on the Red which also involves additional cost and modification. A budget alternative are the Russian lenses built in the 1980s by the Lomo (Ekran) company. But get a good focus puller and a decent lighting package (most anamorphic lenses perform best above T5). You will get interesting bokeh and flares, particularly on the 35mm wide as well as some barrel-distorion. You do not use the full Red sensor width but still get great filmic pictures. Note that since Build 18 on the Red, anamorphic (desqueezed) monitoring is easy.

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    Red Compact Zoom 18mm to 50mm

    Red Zoom 18mm-50mm
  • If you have a tight budget, don’t need very low light and still need cine-style operation, we think the Red Compact Zoom is great at F5 and above.

    • Cooke Zooms

  • If you have a moderate budget and need the flexibility of a zoom, a Cooke zoom is a good choice and can match the look and feel of the Cooks primes to an extent. There are various models but the standard 20-100 covers most lengths you need at a good price. These are heavy lenses though so hand-held use would not be advisable.

    • Angenieux Primo Zooms

  • If you have a large budget and need the convenience of a zoom, this is the probably the best you can get. However their cost and rarity means they are never available at a discount and tend to be used only on large budget features and commercials and purely when required.

    • Angenieux HR Zooms

  • Predecessors of the Primos and still great lenses on Red and a bit more affordable Bookmark and Share

    Super 16 lenses

  • If you are only shooting 2K varispeed material, you could use Super 16mm lenses, such as a Zeiss zoom.
  • If you are shooting a mixture of 4K and 2K you may want to think of adding a Super 16 wide lens (such as a 9mm) to any other sets you have.

    • HD Video B4 mount lenses

  • For 2K modes you could also use a B4 adapter and an HD video lens
  • IMPORTANT: If you are not shooting Varispeed (slomo) then you want to be shooting 4K!! Trust me!

    • Other Lens options

    Peleng Fisheye

    This covers the 4K sensor area but is a seriously barrel-style fisheye wide-angle. At 4K it looks like a door viewer. At 2K it is similar to an 8mm and is less distorted.

    Classic Cooke lenses

    Before the S4 was the classic Series II and III Cooke Speed Panchro lenses on which some of the most famous motion pictures have been made. These have a certain special cinematic look, but are fiddlier to use than modern lens housings (there are versions rehoused by Century Optics but at a higher cost). They can also be warmer due to a colouration of the rare earth elements in the glass. They were designed for the Standard 35mm aperture so some vignetting can be seen in the corners of the 18mm when used at 4K Super 35 but this can be compensated for in the grade or kept for effect.

    Zeiss Standard Speeds

    These have the sharp Zeiss look that some love and some loathe, but are not as fast as Super Speeds and are cheaper as a result, but not often available.

    Canon Still Lenses

    We do not have a mount for these currently, but there is a mount that allows the electronics of Canon lenses to be controlled externally by a non-Canon camera. We think currently the Nikon still lenses are an easier option.

    Panavision Primo Lenses

    If you can hire them from Panavision, it is possible to get a PV mount for Red but at the time of writing may involve voiding the warrantee of the camera so we’d need to be very motivated to do it. Panavision do carry a lot of PL mount lenses (including the Joe Dunton X-tal anamorphics) which will fit straight onto the Red PL mount. We have tried over 30 of these at the Post Factory and they look great.

    There is no point in having sharp images when you've fuzzy ideas.

    - Jean-Luc Godard