Which lenses to buy for filming
- Thread starter Salah Yousef
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Remember that the 40mm does not have stablization so keeping things without shake handheld is going to be difficult.
The manual focusing is done electronically. Basically you can only physically focus the lens by adjusting the focus ring when the camera is turned on. You can also get full time manual focus by holding the focus button half way down and turning the focus ring.
The manual focusing is done electronically. Basically you can only physically focus the lens by adjusting the focus ring when the camera is turned on. You can also get full time manual focus by holding the focus button half way down and turning the focus ring.
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thgmuffin said:
My 18-55mm has a stabilizer but I didn't know what was it's purpose what does it suppose to do. Could you explain it please ?
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Optical stabilization (OS) in a lens uses motors to shift the position of one of the inner elements, in response to signals from accelerometers (the same as the sensors in your cellphone that know which way to rotate the screen) and tries to keep the image projected onto the sensor as still as possible, even if the camera itself is wobbling about a bit - such as when you're hand-holding it. It's designed for still photography at slow shutter speeds. In video work it creates a whole other set of problems, as you will have two possible scenarios:
[list type=decimal]
[*]The camera is on a tripod - OS must be turned off or it will tend to start adding motion where there isn't any.
[*]You're shooting handheld or on a stabilizer rig, and you will pan the camera. Now the OS has a problem because it will start off trying to keep the image still, but will rapidly hit the limits of adjustment and suddenly snap back into the center. Instead of a natural 'handheld' feel to the shot, it will be still...still.. still.. BOINGGGGG.... still... still.... and it looks terrible.
[/list]
A lot of good advice already about lens choices, but so far nobody's actually asked what you will be shooting, and how. A fast EF-S 50mm (or full-frame EF 35mm on your crop body) will give a field of view roughly the same as your eyeball, so for example you can shoot a full-length scene from about 20 feet away. If you're capturing wide landscapes, home interiors, or working in small venues (e.g. filming a local band in a bar) then it's much too narrow a field of view, and you'd be looking at something around 16mm to 20mm. As a general-purpose lens on my crop bodies I use a Sigma 17-50 2.8 DC (outside of your budget but worth scouting for a second-hand one). It has OS for stills and a constant aperture. Some people get addicted to vintage glass (I have a growing collection, on a 5dIII an old Pentax 50/1.4 is hard to beat) but I wouldn't suggest it for a newcomer as there's a lot of dud glass on the used market, you really need to know how to service them yourself to get rid of the dust and fungus.
Bear in mind as well that normal Canon 'stills' lenses never have a mechanical aperture ring, so you must always change it using the command dial on the body. That's necessary for shooting in Tv or P mode, a little fiddly for video but not terribly so. Dedicated video lenses, on the other hand, only have a mechanical aperture - you cannot set it from the body, so you can only shoot in Av or M. Most also have a 'declicked' aperture ring that allows you to choose any position, not just the numbered f-stops. That's useful for video as people like varying the aperture as they shoot to adapt for lighting changes, but it's assumed you would be fitting a set of rails and a follow-focus system to keep it under control. It's possible to shoot stills with a video lens but it's a hassle.
The T3i/600D has a very important feature for video which can drastically affect lens choice. Normal video will have a lot of moire and aliasing (jaggy lines and color patterns on diagonals and finely-textured objects); that's just the price you pay for shooting video on a Canon DSLR - but the T3i can switch to 3x 'crop video' mode - it zooms in by 3x but the moire goes away completely. This gives a huge improvement in quality and still shoots in full-HD, but the extremely narrow field of view means you have to work with an ultra-wide-angle lens so the cropped region from the center isn't just showing someone's left nostril. If you install Magic Lantern to shoot raw video on the T3i (not in HD but decent enough) that will also crop the sensor. All this means with video it's easier to start with an ultra-wide and make it into a longer lens "electronically", than fit a standard 50 prime and have to stand half a block away.
My best suggestion - if you're not sure which lenses will suit you best, don't buy anything. Rent one for a weekend or borrow one from a friend, see how it feels, try something else next time. If (with respect) you don't have any friends with a shelf groaning with L glass, check out things like photowalks where you can spend an afternoon with a bunch of like-minded people and their backpacks
[list type=decimal]
[*]The camera is on a tripod - OS must be turned off or it will tend to start adding motion where there isn't any.
[*]You're shooting handheld or on a stabilizer rig, and you will pan the camera. Now the OS has a problem because it will start off trying to keep the image still, but will rapidly hit the limits of adjustment and suddenly snap back into the center. Instead of a natural 'handheld' feel to the shot, it will be still...still.. still.. BOINGGGGG.... still... still.... and it looks terrible.
[/list]
A lot of good advice already about lens choices, but so far nobody's actually asked what you will be shooting, and how. A fast EF-S 50mm (or full-frame EF 35mm on your crop body) will give a field of view roughly the same as your eyeball, so for example you can shoot a full-length scene from about 20 feet away. If you're capturing wide landscapes, home interiors, or working in small venues (e.g. filming a local band in a bar) then it's much too narrow a field of view, and you'd be looking at something around 16mm to 20mm. As a general-purpose lens on my crop bodies I use a Sigma 17-50 2.8 DC (outside of your budget but worth scouting for a second-hand one). It has OS for stills and a constant aperture. Some people get addicted to vintage glass (I have a growing collection, on a 5dIII an old Pentax 50/1.4 is hard to beat) but I wouldn't suggest it for a newcomer as there's a lot of dud glass on the used market, you really need to know how to service them yourself to get rid of the dust and fungus.
Bear in mind as well that normal Canon 'stills' lenses never have a mechanical aperture ring, so you must always change it using the command dial on the body. That's necessary for shooting in Tv or P mode, a little fiddly for video but not terribly so. Dedicated video lenses, on the other hand, only have a mechanical aperture - you cannot set it from the body, so you can only shoot in Av or M. Most also have a 'declicked' aperture ring that allows you to choose any position, not just the numbered f-stops. That's useful for video as people like varying the aperture as they shoot to adapt for lighting changes, but it's assumed you would be fitting a set of rails and a follow-focus system to keep it under control. It's possible to shoot stills with a video lens but it's a hassle.
The T3i/600D has a very important feature for video which can drastically affect lens choice. Normal video will have a lot of moire and aliasing (jaggy lines and color patterns on diagonals and finely-textured objects); that's just the price you pay for shooting video on a Canon DSLR - but the T3i can switch to 3x 'crop video' mode - it zooms in by 3x but the moire goes away completely. This gives a huge improvement in quality and still shoots in full-HD, but the extremely narrow field of view means you have to work with an ultra-wide-angle lens so the cropped region from the center isn't just showing someone's left nostril. If you install Magic Lantern to shoot raw video on the T3i (not in HD but decent enough) that will also crop the sensor. All this means with video it's easier to start with an ultra-wide and make it into a longer lens "electronically", than fit a standard 50 prime and have to stand half a block away.
My best suggestion - if you're not sure which lenses will suit you best, don't buy anything. Rent one for a weekend or borrow one from a friend, see how it feels, try something else next time. If (with respect) you don't have any friends with a shelf groaning with L glass, check out things like photowalks where you can spend an afternoon with a bunch of like-minded people and their backpacks
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If it were me, I'd get a good tripod with a decent video head. There is nothing worse than video which is bouncing around... Image stability on a lens will actually make things worse and change things from bouncing and shaky to bouncing and shaky with tiny jerks... You really need a tripod for stable video, or some kind of steady-cam rig, and ones that work are not cheap!
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First I do not do video very often but I would defiantly suggest against the EF 50 1.8 or Fd lens. The 50 1.8 is a pain to manually focus with its short pull and very small focus ring.
Fd lens can be used on current canon but the converter require a optical correction to correct for the flange distance. I would suggest against this. I bought one and it has major problems with wide angle lens. It was only really worth it with longer lens. Some of the Fd lens can be converted but this is usual reserved for expensive lenses. Fd lens are a fantastic idea with mirror-less where the flange distance is not an issue and they are cheep.
+1 for M42 and other old manual focus lens.
Fd lens can be used on current canon but the converter require a optical correction to correct for the flange distance. I would suggest against this. I bought one and it has major problems with wide angle lens. It was only really worth it with longer lens. Some of the Fd lens can be converted but this is usual reserved for expensive lenses. Fd lens are a fantastic idea with mirror-less where the flange distance is not an issue and they are cheep.
+1 for M42 and other old manual focus lens.
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I couldn't find the 40mm in my country :'(
I'll get EF 50mm f/1.8 II nifty fifty for 40 KWD which is about 143 USD.
What do you guys think ?
I'll get EF 50mm f/1.8 II nifty fifty for 40 KWD which is about 143 USD.
What do you guys think ?
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Salah Yousef said:I couldn't find the 40mm in my country :'(
I'll get EF 50mm f/1.8 II nifty fifty for 40 KWD which is about 143 USD.
What do you guys think ?
Unless you're shooting mainly interviews, 50mm may be too tight. I'd still say that you invest in a proper lens and a variable ND filter first (+ step rings because you may want to use the same VND for other lenses). If you want that NTSC or PAL look, you need to set your shutter speed to 1/30 or 1/25 respectively. Too fast and your movie will appear too jerky. Meanwhile, too slow and your movie will be blurred.
http://www.mediacollege.com/video/camera/shutter/
A Samyang 24mm T1.5 Cine VDSLR Lens is around $600 but at least you know you're investing in a lens you can still use even when you step up the ladder. It's a wide for a FF but normal lens for an APS-C.
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DFM said:
That's seriously lame. Canon's image stabilization in their camcorders is just amazing. If their still lenses really behave that badly with IS on, then that means Canon doesn't take video even slightly seriously in their still cameras. All it would take is a fairly simple firmware change to the lens coupled with a special message from the body to tell the updated firmware to change into a newly added mode that smooths the drift rate instead of locking the lens to a fixed position.
Maybe the Magic Lantern folks could start hacking on lens firmware next.
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DFM said:
Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're trying to say, but it sounds like you're saying that an EF-S 50mm on a crop body produces the same field of view as an EF 35mm on the same body. If that's what you mean, that's not correct. EF-S lenses are not compensated for the 1.6x crop. A 50mm lens is a 50mm lens, whether it is built for EF or EF-S. Using either one on a crop body is like using an 80mm lens on a full frame camera.
A single human eye has about a 95 degree field of view. 50mm on a crop body (or 80mm on a full-frame body) produces approximately a 25 degree field of view. That's not remotely the same field of view as your eyeball unless you have rather severe peripheral vision loss.
I can't imagine trying to function with a 50mm lens as your only lens on a crop body, video or not. A 20mm lens, maybe, but not 50. A 40mm lens works decently as a single lens on a full-frame body. Even 40mm is just way too narrow for a crop body, IMO, unless you have another lens to use for anything that isn't a closeup....
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verysimplejason said:Salah Yousef said:I couldn't find the 40mm in my country :'(
I'll get EF 50mm f/1.8 II nifty fifty for 40 KWD which is about 143 USD.
What do you guys think ?
Unless you're shooting mainly interviews, 50mm may be too tight. I'd still say that you invest in a proper lens and a variable ND filter first (+ step rings because you may want to use the same VND for other lenses). If you want that NTSC or PAL look, you need to set your shutter speed to 1/30 or 1/25 respectively. Too fast and your movie will appear too jerky. Meanwhile, too slow and your movie will be blurred.
http://www.mediacollege.com/video/camera/shutter/
A Samyang 24mm T1.5 Cine VDSLR Lens is around $600 but at least you know you're investing in a lens you can still use even when you step up the ladder. It's a wide for a FF but normal lens for an APS-C.
http://www.amazon.com/Samyang-SYCV85M-C-85mm-Canon-VDSLR/dp/B00AGS8QPW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1376811653&sr=8-2&keywords=Samyang+24mm+T1.5+Cine+VDSLR
Is this what you're talking about ?
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Salah Yousef said:verysimplejason said:Salah Yousef said:I couldn't find the 40mm in my country :'(
I'll get EF 50mm f/1.8 II nifty fifty for 40 KWD which is about 143 USD.
What do you guys think ?
Unless you're shooting mainly interviews, 50mm may be too tight. I'd still say that you invest in a proper lens and a variable ND filter first (+ step rings because you may want to use the same VND for other lenses). If you want that NTSC or PAL look, you need to set your shutter speed to 1/30 or 1/25 respectively. Too fast and your movie will appear too jerky. Meanwhile, too slow and your movie will be blurred.
http://www.mediacollege.com/video/camera/shutter/
A Samyang 24mm T1.5 Cine VDSLR Lens is around $600 but at least you know you're investing in a lens you can still use even when you step up the ladder. It's a wide for a FF but normal lens for an APS-C.
http://www.amazon.com/Samyang-SYCV85M-C-85mm-Canon-VDSLR/dp/B00AGS8QPW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1376811653&sr=8-2&keywords=Samyang+24mm+T1.5+Cine+VDSLR
Is this what you're talking about ?
That's an 85mm. I'm talking about the 24mm. Samyang may be branded as Bower, Rokinon, etc...
http://www.amazon.com/Rokinon-CV24M-C-De-Clicked-Compatibility-Wide-Angle/dp/B0094AYSPU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1376821878&sr=8-2&keywords=samyang+24mm
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verysimplejason said:Salah Yousef said:verysimplejason said:Salah Yousef said:I couldn't find the 40mm in my country :'(
I'll get EF 50mm f/1.8 II nifty fifty for 40 KWD which is about 143 USD.
What do you guys think ?
Unless you're shooting mainly interviews, 50mm may be too tight. I'd still say that you invest in a proper lens and a variable ND filter first (+ step rings because you may want to use the same VND for other lenses). If you want that NTSC or PAL look, you need to set your shutter speed to 1/30 or 1/25 respectively. Too fast and your movie will appear too jerky. Meanwhile, too slow and your movie will be blurred.
http://www.mediacollege.com/video/camera/shutter/
A Samyang 24mm T1.5 Cine VDSLR Lens is around $600 but at least you know you're investing in a lens you can still use even when you step up the ladder. It's a wide for a FF but normal lens for an APS-C.
http://www.amazon.com/Samyang-SYCV85M-C-85mm-Canon-VDSLR/dp/B00AGS8QPW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1376811653&sr=8-2&keywords=Samyang+24mm+T1.5+Cine+VDSLR
Is this what you're talking about ?
That's an 85mm. I'm talking about the 24mm. Samyang may be branded as Bower, Rokinon, etc...
http://www.amazon.com/Rokinon-CV24M-C-De-Clicked-Compatibility-Wide-Angle/dp/B0094AYSPU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1376821878&sr=8-2&keywords=samyang+24mm
That's expensive. Am looking for something simple and at 350 USD. The 50mm looks promising.
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verysimplejason said:Salah Yousef said:I couldn't find the 40mm in my country :'(
I'll get EF 50mm f/1.8 II nifty fifty for 40 KWD which is about 143 USD.
What do you guys think ?
Unless you're shooting mainly interviews, 50mm may be too tight. I'd still say that you invest in a proper lens and a variable ND filter first (+ step rings because you may want to use the same VND for other lenses). If you want that NTSC or PAL look, you need to set your shutter speed to 1/30 or 1/25 respectively. Too fast and your movie will appear too jerky. Meanwhile, too slow and your movie will be blurred.
http://www.mediacollege.com/video/camera/shutter/
A Samyang 24mm T1.5 Cine VDSLR Lens is around $600 but at least you know you're investing in a lens you can still use even when you step up the ladder. It's a wide for a FF but normal lens for an APS-C.
24mm on FF is super-wide, and wide on APS-C (38,4mm equivalent). The 35mm would be a better choice for normal on APS-C (56mm equivalent).
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The 50 1.8 is a great starter video lens for the price. Great optics, and it'll get you used to setting your exposure and manual focus. Sure, it's a little tight on a crop body but there's nothing like it for the price. I say buy the 50 and start shooting, upgrade later!
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