Canon EF 1200mm f/5.6 L USM for video

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May 3, 2012
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Came across an article in the L.A. Times with an interesting photo of the Big White in action: Cinematographer Mandy Walker with cameraman Doug Lavendar shooting "The Mountain Between Us." (20th Century Fox)
 

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Yeah, the BBC have used 1200mm+ lenses for TV here and there, too. Usually for b-roll. Get up on a tall building, point it down, and you've got some excellent crowd shots without disrupting anything with a crane rig; filler shots for wildlife documentaries, too, though nothing substantial since at that range you're looking at a lot of haze out in the wilderness. The recent Planet Earth II series has some EF 1200mm use.

I think many Canon users would be surprised by which EF lenses actually get used by major production companies. The 1200mm and 800mm get fair use; regular video cameras don't typically have access to that kind of focal length, so if that's what you need you basically have to grab an EF-compatible system. The 500mm f/4 IS is really common; the 600mm kinda gets skipped over. (The Sigma 200-500 on EF mount is also very common.) The 70-200 f/4 IS, anecdotally here in the UK, is used more frequently than the f/2.8 IS. The 17-40mm is a mainstay for the BBC, even though many people here and on other Canon sites will write it off as being the poor man's 16-35. (And, side note: Samyang lenses are quickly taking over.) A lot of the EF lenses sites dedicated to SLR video hype up actually don't see much use in professional production, while a lot of the lenses they wouldn't even think of commenting on—like the 1200mm—actually do see some significant professional use.
 
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It's the first time I have seen one with the variable flange distance PL mount though.

Also acefibble, don't forget one of the wildlife videographers holly grails, the FD 150-600 f5.6, many of them now have a PL conversion.
 
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