p.1 #1 · A rare 200 f/1.8 find (Not available any longer)
KEH have a 200 f/1.8 in a (-LN) condition, which is an uncommon find, especially at that price.
Going by past experience of many people, when KEH call a lens (-LN), that means it should be "like new" indeed.
However, there are a couple of caveats:
*KEH do not check IQ of their lenses, and not all 200 f/1.8s are equally sharp.
* There used to be a paint shop in S. Korea which did a super job of repainting 200 f/1.8 lenses.
It would be really surprising if KEH's gear appraisors would miss such a thing, but one never knows. Several years ago a number of those repainted (undisclosed) and seemingly mint lenses used to fetch big bucks on ebay.
The 200 f/1.8 is not just a fast/sharp lens, it also does good bokeh.
p.1 #6 · A rare 200 f/1.8 find (Not available any longer)
Great find Peter!
I find I almost never need IS with mine as the main uses for me shooting bands and comedy performances I want 1/200+ shutter anyway and have no problem getting sharp shots handheld at those speeds. When I use it outside I can get 1/4000-1/8000 often I don't tend to shoot this lend stopped down. The lens is still serviceable at several places and parts are still sometimes available. I have never heard of anyone with a non-functioning lens. There are some risks but the rewards are worth it to me.
p.1 #7 · A rare 200 f/1.8 find (Not available any longer)
saneproduction wrote:
Great find Peter!
I find I almost never need IS with mine as the main uses for me shooting bands and comedy performances I want 1/200+ shutter anyway and have no problem getting sharp shots handheld at those speeds. When I use it outside I can get 1/4000-1/8000 often I don't tend to shoot this lend stopped down. The lens is still serviceable at several places and parts are still sometimes available. I have never heard of anyone with a non-functioning lens. There are some risks but the rewards are worth it to me.
p.1 #9 · A rare 200 f/1.8 find (Not available any longer)
saneproduction wrote:
I was shown the light by you
You should see the 1080p video we get out of the C300 with this lens YUM!
Must be real sweet.
I hear that both 200 f/1.8 and 50 f/1.0 are in demand by videographers these days, although many of them would probably wanna rent only for the duration of the shoot.
p.1 #10 · A rare 200 f/1.8 find (Not available any longer)
It is true. They shot that series finale of house using 5DII cameras and those 50 F1 lenses. I would love to have one of those . I can't imagine it is that much better than my 50 1.2 is, but I have never seen one in person. I almost never shoot video that wide open. I tend to shoot stuff f2.8-f4 for a more classic cinema look. I will use the aperture of the slowest lens in the range I am shooting a setup with. That often involves the 200 1.8 or the zeiss Makro planar F2. Example if I shoot an interview at two focal lengths it is often with the 85L II at F1.8 for the medium shot and the 200 f1.8 for the closup. If I go wider than 24, I have to drop to 2.8 because that is the only option (14L II or Tokina usually). I wish canon made an aps-c only 18mm 1.4 cinema lens (super 35 motion picture cameras are closer to APS-C size since the film runs vertically instead of horizontally) so my kit could be 1.4 or faster 18-85mm
p.1 #15 · A rare 200 f/1.8 find (Not available any longer)
Here's a couple more images from the EF 200/1.8L, on a 1DsIII. The first two images are wide open. The third image is an f/9 version of the second image. Note that the first image has a touch of selective sharpening on the flowers at right and a few leaves near the bottom left, in order to bring out the in-focus areas without affecting the OOF areas.
p.1 #20 · A rare 200 f/1.8 find (Not available any longer)
If it weren't for the difficulty in finding replacement parts I would have considered the 200 f/1.8 a long time ago, so IMO this lens is way overpriced at $3.8k due to the serviceability issues.
