The Nikon 17-55mm f2.8 G has no aperture ring and goes for over $1000 used. While it's a superb lens, it doesn't really mate well with either a GH2 or an anamorphic adapter (the lens barrel extends when zoomed).

The Nikon 17-35mm f2.8 D is a different story. It has the aperture ring and fixed lens barrel needed to work gracefully with both GH2 and an anamorphic adapter. To handle the 17mm wide end of its range, an LA7200 is probably mandatory. Most anamorphics can only go as wide as 28-35mm without vignetting.

Nikon also made a 20-35mm f2.8 D which can use an Optex or Century Optics 1.33x anamorphic adapter. I use an Optex anamorphic with a Tokina 20-35mm f2.8 - an excellent video lens and significantly cheaper than the Nikon.

So, are the optex/century the same story as the LA7200 past 21mm, or would an LA/Century combo cover wide and long respectively? From what I have heard, they have a very similar effect.

The 17-50 Tamron is looking like a fairly good option at this point as well. It is not a "pro" built lens by any means, but this also makes it lighter weight, just as the LA/Optex/Century are some of the lighter anamorphic setups, and the GH2 is probably the lightest DSLR out there . . . hmm . . .

"Nikon also made a 20-35mm f2.8 D which can use an Optex or Century Optics 1.33x anamorphic adapter."

@LPowell doesn't the Century Optics 1.33x anamorphic adapter only work properly w/a 50mm lens or higher? The one that I purchased from you works great, but as you stated to me prior it only vignettes on anything less then 50mm (I use mine with a Nikon 17-55mm f2.8)

@LPowell hope I'm not going off topic here, but im also looking for a good zoom to work with the isco 1.5x attachment (isco 36) , as far as Vignetting goes, from my tests so far I find that the widest i can use the isco w/out any major vignetting is 28mm (i tried the vivitar 28mm 2,8), but as soon as I put the 0.5+ close up I start to see vignetting.My 35mm f2 nikon is great with the isco..A couple of people said to me in the past that its not a good idea to use zooms with isco anamorphics, i know my isco takes a 49mm size lens thread.Do you know of a good zoom in the 28-100mm or 35-100mm range that might work with the isco with out major vignetting, it would be great to have one lens for run and gun stuff to use with isco36, rather than have to change primes ..thanks

thanks for that info. I think the 28mm should also work with your isco.I have a vivitar 70-210 series 1, I will try to test that for more a close up anamorphic look

"The Nikon 17-55mm f2.8 G has no aperture ring and goes for over $1000 used. While it's a superb lens, it doesn't really mate well with either a GH2 or an anamorphic adapter (the lens barrel extends when zoomed)."

Have to disagree with part of his point. I use the 17-55 all the time and it works just fine with the GH2. Just get an adapter that allows you to change the aperture & you're good to go. The downside is not knowing exactly what your aperture is set at outside of wide open but the fact remains that you can move the aperture settings.

@LPowell
I fully understand the pitfalls of working with this lens and the adapters but it's too nice of a lens to leave lying around when I go out on shoots.
For what it's worth, gaffer tape can cure some of the ills you outlined.

Can't speak for the LA7200 but I used a Century adaptor on my 4:3 Sony miniDV camera. I now use it very occasionally on a couple of primes (50 and 28) and it's pretty OK really. On the miniDV camera, it didn't always look good during a zoom. I would end up spending time fighting this astigmatism effect where there would be two focus points with a slightly blurry compromise in between - particularly when zoomed in. In fact, I couldn't zoom all the way in without the whole image going crazy. Aside from that, I was never convinced that the "stretch" was consistent through the zoom range. Then again I wasn't after an anamorphic "look", just good correction for the picture shape, so the whole thing was a bit clutzy and "kind of sucky" as my teenage daughter would say.

I solved it completely by buying something else: a 16:9 camera with a decent, f1.2 20:1 zoom and very fast AF. For really demanding video work, by which I mean time pressure, unrepeatable event, have to get most usable shots with minimal wastage, I still prefer this camera (XHA1) to my GH2 as it is refreshingly easy to use and you get more usable footage per unit of time under pressure compared with struggling with the GH2 (sorry GH2, I do love you really)! I'm currently editing a stage performance we shot on two of these video cams a few weeks ago and it's so refreshing to have high-speed AF, great zoom range and the ability for the camera people to reframe and lock onto the next shot really really quickly. It's made the edit easy as there was very little wasted footage between shots.

The Nikkor is a big lens even before you stick the anamorphic on the front. 17-35 is only 2:1, which I think is way too small a zoom range for video, particularly if you are under time pressure in a situation where you have to grab good shots quickly. I can't say what the anamorphic would be like on this specific lens but I hope that helps a bit around some of the issues you might encounter - your mileage may vary!

If you are looking for this lens for video (I imagine you might be but I don't know) and if being able to operate quickly isn't an overriding concern (ie you can spend time setting up shots / repeating action), why not just use some fast primes?

Apart from the Canon EF 10-22mm & Olympus 9-18mm on the LA7200 I tend to stay away from zoom lenses when it comes to anamorphic since zooms vignette more easily than a prime would at the same focal length.

I use primes with as simple an optical design as possible (Helios, older Canon FD, etc.) since they seem to work better than the more complex and expensive primes like those from Zeiss, and they flare well.

I can go out to 14mm on a prime with the GH2 and LA7200 with no vignetting, and even the Olympus 12mm just about works if you get the back of the LA7200 as close to the front of the Olympus as possible... Not yet found a way to mount it without stacking stepping rings which cause vignetting.