Finding the right glass for the RED camera is no easy task. To me, the Red Pro Primes just make things too sharp - skin seems to lose the buttery appeal of film and take on a frightful appearance - great for horror - not so much for fashion and beauty work. I had been using the Nikon mount Zeiss glass, but the set I had went to LA with its owner - so now adversity is forcing a revisiting of what I had already settled on. Since my RED is blessed with a Nikon as well as a PL mount (10 minutes and a dust free environment to swap) - I have a pretty amazing wealth of glass to choose from.
I dove in to the Nikkors and have found that a few are absolutely stunning - and possessed of a character that is unlike anything from Zeiss, Canon, or anything else - except maybe the Summilux-super-expensive-sell-my-gold-toilet-seat-to-buy-these-things lenses from Leica (don't get me wrong, well worth the scratch, but its scratch that must go elsewhere for the time being).
The Nikkor 50mm 1.2 is my current favorite - so much so that I went out and bought one at my local Hasidic camera superstore and promptly "de-clicked" it. Smooth iris, incredible character, flares to die for, and an unmistakable clarity of quality - yet without the weird "hyper resolution" of the Red Pro Primes.
Also in the bag currently are the Tokina 11-16mm - though this sucker currently needs a modification by Duclos lenses in order to be truly useful as the iris is not manually controlled ... yet. At wide-open-and-hoping' f2.8, it is an incredible piece of glass - I can't wait to shoot it in the sweet spot at 4-5.6!
The current lineup of Nikkor Glass in the Red Razor arsenal is the sweet sweet 80-200mm ED 2.8, the 17-35 2.8 Nikkor, the 15mm Nikkor (THIS LENS IS CRAZY!!!!!) and the 35mm 2.0 & 50 1.4 Zeiss Nikon lenses.
There is a set of Russian Anamorphics on their way - 35, 50, 75, 100 - all fast, all wide, and all heavy as a fat baby made of lead.
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