Compact Primes V.2

I wish Santa would have brought me a set of these for Christmas.

Why do I think these are so nifty?  
1.  The front diameter is the same 114mm size on the standard set
2.  The focus and gear positions are the same
3.  14 blade iris for truely round bokah/circles of confusion
4.  You can change the mount for PL to EF to 4/3 to etc.
5.  They cover a full sized 24mm x 36mm sensor
6.  They have a long focus rotation.  


Oh,  and they are sharp, fast and relatively cheap.  And did we mention they're made by Zeiss?


Why is it so important they have the same front diameter and the focus and gear positions are constant?  Because you don't have to change the mattbox and follow focus every time you switch lenses.  This takes more time than the actual swapping of the lenses and that's a lot of time saved over a production day.


I also mention the long focus rotation.  If you're operating and pulling focus you want a short focus rotation.  On a video lens I can go from 3' to infinity without have to turn the focus ring  half way round.

But for a 1st AC this short rotation is a major pain in the butt.  Short rotation focus pulls are tiny and hard to hit exactly.  The CP.2 lenses rotate a full 300 degrees and it's much easier for a first to set and hit focus marks.


On the other hand, it's almost impossible for an operator to pull focus from 3' to 30' feet.


There are a couple of other small bummers.  Check this out:


http://www.freshdv.com/2010/10/mmm-zeiss-primes.html


They bring up an interesting point about the 18mm:  It vignettes on the 5D.  What they don't mention is the 18mm is slower than the rest of the set, too.  


I don't think the 18mm is considered part of the "standard" set, which are listed as the 21mm-100mm lenses (not including the close focus lenses).

What makes the "CP.2's" better than the original Compact Primes?  The first version of these lenses were made for RED owners and are only PL mount.  Also, the lens back was longer.  If you wanted to use the CP's on a DSLR you had to pull out the mirror and put in a PL mount.


The CP.2's have a shorter end and it's easy to change the mount to just about anything.

Here's an interesting manual for changing the mount and adjusting flange depth on the Compact Primes.  Makes you wish they had a back focus...


http://www.zeiss.com/C12575690045D103/EmbedTitelIntern/MountChangeInstructionsCP.2/$File/MountChangeInstructionsCP2_EN.pdf