Sony Lenses for video

Can someone recommend some good Sony lenses for video with the A7S2 and the A73? All of the semi-wide Sony lenses I am finding seem to not be designed for full frame bodies. I'm not sure how much of an issue that becomes, I've never dealt with using a lens designed for a crop sensor on a full frame body.

Thanks.

Primes or Zooms? AF or MF? What kind of budget do you have?
There are so many options, and this would help narrow down the choices a bit.

Just looking at B&H I found lines of E-mount Cine lenses by Zeiss, Sigma, Samyang/Rokinon, Tokina, SLR Magic, and Veydra. Fujinon has a couple zooms.
Sony sells two E-mount zoom lenses designed for video, an 18-110mm and a 28-135mm, but they're a bit pricey compared to photo lenses.

How wide is semi-wide to you? There are so many wide E-mount lenses for full frame; looking at photo lenses now, Sony makes 12-24mm and 16-35mm zooms, as well as 28mm and 35mm primes. Zeiss makes the 18mm and 25mm Batis, and 21mm, 25mm, and 35mm Loxia primes. Sigma has the Art series for E-mount now (14mm, 20mm, 24mm, 35mm), although availability may still be an issue for some of them. Samyang/Rokinon: 14mm, 20mm, 24mm, 35mm. Tokina Firin 20mm. If you want a manual focus prime you can get an adapter and use almost any lens you want.

I'm ok with Prime or Zooms. I think I would want all of them to be AF...if I need to I can turn off AF and just manually focus. OR is there a reason to want some lenses to be just MF?

Budget would be $1,500 and below for a lens.

I also don't think stabilizer built into the lens is an issue, because the A7 line has it built in, as far as I understand it.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding it, but when I looked at wide lens at BH I kept coming across ones designed for the 6300 model (I think that is the one) the one that is not full frame. What do I need to look at to ensure that the lens is designed for full frame and not the crop sensor?

Thanks.

all of the sony lenses have some video dna in mind and AF in video fine.

there are specialized video lenses which have a powered zoom and parafocal. If you need those features, there are only a few lenses that fit that criteria. 28-135 comes to mind for serious videographers.

stanwelks wrote in post #18695312
I'm ok with Prime or Zooms. I think I would want all of them to be AF...if I need to I can turn off AF and just manually focus. OR is there a reason to want some lenses to be just MF?

Budget would be $1,500 and below for a lens.

I also don't think stabilizer built into the lens is an issue, because the A7 line has it built in, as far as I understand it.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding it, but when I looked at wide lens at BH I kept coming across ones designed for the 6300 model (I think that is the one) the one that is not full frame. What do I need to look at to ensure that the lens is designed for full frame and not the crop sensor?

Thanks.

They may have ibis , but it is not as good as a lens with IS..
Most if not all fe lenses that have Af are focus by wire so manual focus is a bit inconsistent.

If you are primarily using auto focus though id say a 24-105 is a good all arounder especially if you are not low light alot.

What is a good wide lens with a wide aperture that is small and light weight so I can use it with a gimbal?

Thanks.

stanwelks wrote in post #18695312
Perhaps I'm misunderstanding it, but when I looked at wide lens at BH I kept coming across ones designed for the 6300 model (I think that is the one) the one that is not full frame. What do I need to look at to ensure that the lens is designed for full frame and not the crop sensor?

There's a check box in the filter section for "Full-frame Lenses" vs. "APS-C Lenses", just check the full-frame box

stanwelks wrote in post #18695312
I think I would want all of them to be AF...if I need to I can turn off AF and just manually focus. OR is there a reason to want some lenses to be just MF?

Main advantage to a MF lens is the manual focus will be much better/smoother/more consistent. As mentioned above most/all Sony e-mount autofocus lenses are focus-by-wire, which makes manual focusing smoothly/accurately more difficult. Cine MF lenses also have focus rings that easily fit focus pullers. If you get multiple Cine lenses from the same lineup they often have the same size and location of focus rings, so lenses can be swapped without having to redo your equipment setup each time. The balance might even be close enough to work in the gimbal without rebalancing.

stanwelks wrote in post #18695386
What is a good wide lens with a wide aperture that is small and light weight so I can use it with a gimbal?

wide + wide aperture + small and light? You're looking for the lens unicorn; does not exist. Pick two of the three...

Just did a search on B&H; here are the lenses wider than 35mm and faster than f/2.8 (sorted by focal length)
After each lens I added AF/MF, length, and weight
Sigma 14mm f/1.8 Art (AF, 126mm, 1170g)
Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f/2 (MF, 82mm, 500g)
Sigma 20mm f/1.4 Art (AF, 130mm, 950g)
Rokinon 20mm f/1.8 (MF, 114mm, 525g)
Tokina Firin 20mm f/2 (AF, 81.5mm, 464g)
Sigma 24mm f/1.4 Art (AF, 90mm, 665g)
Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 (MF, 124mm, 590g)
Handevision IBERIT 24mm f/2.4 (MF, 68mm, 320g)
Zeiss Batis 25mm f/2 (AF, 78mm, 335g)
Zeiss Loxia 25mm f/2.4 (MF, 74.5mm, 393g)
Sony 28mm f/2.8 (AF, 60mm, 200g)

The only one I would call "small/light" is the Sony 28mm f/2.
The Batis and Tokina might be small enough also if you want AF.
For MF the Handevision and Loxia are smallest

Thanks for your help, I'm new to video.

1. Any thoughts on the Sony 35mm f2.8 vs. the Sony 35mm Distagon f1.4? Besides the wider aperture and larger size of the f1.4, would the f2.8 work ok for video?

2. How useful do you think a 85mm and a 100mm are for video? The 100mm STF seems to work like a built in ND filter? So I'm guessing this works well when needing to shoot SLOG? Though just not sure how useful it is at the focal length.

3. Does a Sony 24-70mm f2.8 GM at the 24mm focal length work well for video? Is there a strong need to go much wider then that with video?

Thanks again.

stanwelks wrote in post #18695386
What is a good wide lens with a wide aperture that is small and light weight so I can use it with a gimbal?

Thanks.

this sort of depends on your Gimbal. I use a Zhiyun Crane V2, which has a capacity of 1800g. My biggest setup is the A7r3 + 28-75mm f2.8, and that works out fine.

I wouldnt go any bigger than that because I dont want to stress the gimbal. If you were running the Crane 2 or Ronin, you have like double the capacity, however, you also end up carrying much larger setups, which can get heavy real fast.

My most commonly used combo is the R3 + FE 35 f2.8 for gimbal shots because it's light, small, and I can handle it for longer periods. My other two, the 12-24 and 28-75, both gimbal ok. The 12-24 being very wide, gives a perception of motion very well. I've also used the Samyang 35 f1.4, which works well.

I like the 28mm f2, sharp, images look nice, and tracking AF is fine with it. Focus by wire though, so I'd probably look into some proper cine lenses if you ever want to pull focus manually.

I think the best lens for video on a sony would be their 28-135 PZ. Soon as I see another used copy up for sale at or sub 1500 I'm picking one up.