Thanks Bob for your valuable feedback.

Some weeks ago I have contacted a camera dealer and they gave me a list of accessories for the F5/ F55 which they have available.
They suggested the Schneider CINE-XENAR III lens set.
The set is twice the price of the F55, of course I could rent them.

Untill now I have always worked with autofocus/powerzoom lenses.
I find the zoom option quite handy for quickly framing a scene, and the autofocus for unpredictable moving objects.

After some research I have found this lens from Sony the SCL-Z18x140 which is compatible with the F5/F55.
I will also be shooting many documentary style scenes where unpredictable things happen.

In my experience autofocus and zoom can really help at those circumstances. So I am thinking of starting with the Sony SCL-Z18x140. And using/hiring the separate prime lenses for static shots and shots that can be planned before hand.

Would the quality be noticeably different between the SCL-Z18x140 and a prime lens?

These are the other accessories that the dealer suggested:

Viewfinders
Sony DVF-EL100 Oled viewfinder 0.7"
Sony DVF-L700 7" LCD Viewfinder for F-series

Mic & Audio
Sony ECM-674 shotgun camera microphone
Tasker 0.30 mtr Male xlr to Female xlr 3p-3p

Recorder and memory
Sony AXS 512GB memory card
Sony AXS-R5 4K/RAW External Recorder for F-Series
Sony AXS-CR1 Access Card Reader

Schneider CINE-XENAR III lens set [/link] -



Matte box
Chrosziel Kit for Sony F5/ F55, for lenses with outer Ø
114mm: MatteBox 456
Rod support Step-down ring
Chrosziel 410-100 set of side wings
Chrosziel Direct Swing-Away System, pan
Chrosziel 206-01S DV studio rig follow focus system

Battery & Charger
V95 Li-Ion V-Mount
Battery 14.8V/6.6 Ah
VS 2-Channel V-Mount
Simult. Charger w. 75W DC-Out

Case
Storm Case iM3075

[I]"Would the quality be noticeably different between the SCL-Z18x140 and a prime lens?"[/I]

Yes. Zoom lenses that come remotely close to the same image quality as the best primes are extremely expensive and have quite limited focal length range.

Also the zoom lens that you're looking at is SLOW. It's T3.8 at the wide end and Sony don't even seem to state what speed it is at the long end, at a guess probably around T5.6. That's a lot of light being lost and to my way of thinking is a strong argument against the trend to the use of large single sensors for what you're shooting. What you gain in the sensor you lose in the optics!

One review of that lens says "Poor low light performance, with severe ramping". That's been my experience with any of the cheap zooms on the large format cameras.

Canon do make a set of two cine zooms (14-60mm and 30-300mm), are fast and they're roughly $50K, each and you'll probably need both of them.

Now compare what's available for the traditional 3 chip 2/3" cameras. A whole raft of glass and with internal doublers, buy those lenses and you're covered and you're not changing lenses and risking getting dust into the optics. The cameras that go behind the lenses are built like tanks, no need for extra bits and pieces and cables that are going to fail in the field.

On the down side there's no 4K ENG style cameras although NHK have been showing off an 8K ENG camera for years, go figure.

It seems to me that what you're really after is one camera to rule them all and that'll shoot 4K. I've yet to see such a beast. I think you need to think long and hard about what you want to do. Clearly you're doing your homework which is good but don't get swept up in the hype. I'd actually start by looking at available lens options and then think about which camera you can put behind that lens.

Bob.

Just to add some more info into the mix...

I work in Los Angeles, in the multicamera sitcom world and there have been some interesting developments lately regarding which cameras to use, a big issue for the major rental houses. Panavision, who is probably still the largest single provider of multicamer sitcom packages is trying to find the right replacement camera for the bulk of their shows. For many years, the defacto standard had been the Sony F900, these cameras really proved to be workhorses but about 3 years ago some shows started to want something newer, less problematic and all that they could come up with were the Sony F23 cameras recording to an SRW-1 deck. To my eyes, the F23 was only very slightly better than the F900, although HDCam SR was better than HDCam and those old decks in the F900s were what was failing most. No one was exactly enamored with the F23 as a long term replacement and there was so much happening in camera development, mostly with large imager cameras, that lots of DP's and producers were looking for something fresher than the F23. Panavision started to develop a system using the Sony F55, seemed like a pretty good idea, spec wise the camera had alot to offer. They have a few systems out there this season, most notable, The Big Bang Theory, which last year shot on F23's and the rest of the seasons shot on F900's. The biggest challenge, so far, turns out to be the depth of field issue on the larger imagers. Most people assumed that the larger imagers, more closly resembling 35mm film cameras, would be good at a 4.5/5.6 split, which is where lots of the older sitcoms that shot on film shot at. The smaller imager cameras, like the F900 and F23 are routinely shot at 2.4 to 2.8. Turns out, an F5.6 on an F55 seems to be a good deal shallower (if thats a proper word in this context) than 35mm film would be. No one has offered up an explanation for that to me, anyway. Some folks are recommending shooting at an F8 or even an F11, seems sacreligious, an F11? What? Of course, the iso setting on an F55 is rated pretty high, something like 1200 or maybe 1600 asa, and the gain is supposedly incredibly quiet which means you can push it even further. Seems crazy, like all the numbers we've all used in the past are obsolete. Anyway, I know several DP's who just say flatly "I'm not shooting at an F11, period." The jury is still out on these cameras as far as multicamera sitcoms go, which is a specialized field that does have unique requirements that would not pertain to doing single camera sitcoms or feature films. All that said, I wonder if everything we know about lens and f stops and depth of field has shifted somewhat. I know that with my crop sensored Canon 60D, I bought the Canon EF 70-200 F4 lens, debating whether I should get the 2.8 lens, which I've used many times. I opted for the considerably cheaper f4, and because of the gain stucture of digital cameras in general, I have never needed to shoot at 2.8, in any conditions, and the depth of field on that big of a zoom is almost always miniscule. I was shooting a multcamera concert and decided to drag along my DSLR to mix in with some 3 chip HDV Sony cameras. I'd done this once before and painstakingly kept the thing at an F4, needless to say, not alot of usable footage. The next time I did it I said, what the he**, I'm going to crank up the iso and shoot this with as much depth of field as possible, I ended up shooting everything at anywhere from a 5.6 to 11, figuring all the while, that this is going to be so noisy, probably unusable, although it looked great on my lcd viewfinder. Much to my amazement, there was NO noise, none, weird, I was using iso 3200 and even 6400 at times, which I've used before in low light and wide open and it was really noisy. Here, I had a fat exposure, lots of light (relatively speaking) and no noise, it looked beautiful, almost too beautiful when cut in with the HDV footage. Crazy. Anyway, I'm rambling on. I don't really have any point to make other than I've been a professional in this business for many years and all of a sudden things don't mean what they used to mean. Keeps it all interesting, I guess.

Thanks Bob :- ).

Which 3 chip 2/3" camera lenses do you mean? I would like to know more about that.
Any of these? http://cvp.com/index.php?t=category//lenses/2||2f3||22+b4+mount+hd+lenses/

I read some good reviews here about the SCL-Z18X140: Any experience with the 18-252mm (SCL-Z18X140) Zoom Lens - Page 4

Do you approve a fixed lens like this one: http://www.abelcine.com/store/Arri-Zeiss-35mm-LDS-Master-Prime-T1.3/

Which fixed 35 mm lens would you choose? I am curious.
What is your opinion about still camera lenses? Fixed ones. Would you use them and can they give good results? Like the Carl Zeiss ZE 35mm F/1.4, Distagon T* Canon. Or
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=sigma+35mm&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ma&Top+Nav-Search=

I think it will be a good learning experience if I do a test by switching the SCL-Z18X140 with a prime lens to see the difference.
But I would like to know which 'good'/ 'cinematic' prime lens I can compare it with.

Here are some lenses that I can hire: http://www.eye-lite.be/php-nl/products/index.php?bra_id=51


@ ddm Thanks for sharing your story! Very interesting indeed :- ).

Interesting Zoom lens from Zeiss 28-80 and 70-200 mm:
http://lenses.zeiss.com/camera-lenses/en_us/cine_lenses/compact_lenses/compact_zoom.html

Some more lenses:

There's no shortage of desirable cine zoom lenses available such as the optimo-24-290. It does weight 11Kg. That with a 1.4 or 2.0 extender and you're covered. You just need an assistant to carry the beast.

Problem I see is we can play this game for a long time and achieve nothing.

Now I already know which camera, lens and tripod I'd buy if I won the lottery just so I can shoot what I mostly shoot and never have the opportunity to blame my kit for the lack of results. It'd certainly not be the ideal package for every scenario and certainly not for anything involving set pieces although the results wouldn't be ugly at all.

You simply have to constrain the range of what you're trying to be well covered to shoot. Then consider how much bang you can afford for the bucks you have to spend.

Bob.

Thanks Bob!

That's a big beast indeed! Impressive. :- D.

Do you have any of your work viewable online? I am curious.

VMP

[I]"Do you have any of your work viewable online? I am curious."[/I]

Nothing I'm especially proud of as I focus more on the people I work with but regardless here's my YouTube channel

I do work part time for a rental company down here so sometimes I get to borrow kit that I'll never afford and I do get to speak with people who work on projects with significant budgets. I also have to deal with lost souls and the unwashed masses.

Bob.