what lens to buy for excellent video 'film like' result on Canon EOS 7D

[Chris Barcellos]

No, but I have a Nikon 35mm F 2.0 that I use on my Canon T2i that serve quite well.

To the OP, if you are serious about doing cinema type films, you do not need to bury yourself in high priced lenses. Pentax and Nikon 35mm still lenses among other adapt well to these cameras and can be had for around $80 to $100 apiece, and you will not be using auto focus and auto aperature settings on your film shooting anyway.

[Wajahat Abbasi]

Originally Posted by Perrone Ford

"Worth" is something only you can determine. That 24/1.4L lens costs about 1/20 what a top quality Cinema lens costs. Are those lenses worth it? Who knows.

I can absolutely guarantee you, that if you make a great movie, no one is going to care if you used a $400 lens or a $1500 lens. And by the time you take it through post, the difference will be very, very small.

thanks for the great advice!

[Wajahat Abbasi]

Originally Posted by Philip Hinkle

Keep in mind that good lenses help with that film look but good lighting will do even more to give the film look than lenses do. Using lighting properly in a scene to create shadows in the right places and light in the right places will create that film look. I've seen plenty of footage shot with A1 and other similar prosumer cameras that were amazing and you would never know they didn't have glass like a DSLR in video mode.

I have a 7D and I have gone the route of manual focus lenses. Those are old lenses from the film days that are available inexpensive and with a little digging you can find some great glass. You have to have inexpensive adaptors to make them fit and no auto functions work but in video mode they don't work anyway. I have a collection of 4 or 5 lenses for my normal wedding shooting. They all cost under $250 combined for all 4 lenses. The slowest in the group is a Vivitar 70-210 f3.5. All the others are 2.8 or faster so they work well in low light. You have to do lots of research to find the good ones but they are out there and reasonably easy to find. Lots of small film makers have been snatching them up over the past years because they work great and have a little different look than the digital glass. This site is a good source to start learning about them.

Canon EOS lens Adapters - Manual focus lenses on Canon EOS bodies

This site has some neat ways retro lenses are being used with digital.

The Retro Way: My Other Photography

Might be worth looking into if you are on a budget like I was. So far I love what I am getting from them.

thanks ! what lens do you use?

[Philip Hinkle]

The lenses I have are the following. Some are better than others.

Hanimex 28mm f2.8 with an M42 mount. At 2.8 it's a little soft but at 3.5 it gets nice and crisp. I use this mostly for preps at a wedding and there is usually enough light around for 3.5 since I can bump the ISO to at least 800 with no visible issues. Got it for $10 off ebay plus $10 shipping.

Sears 50mm f1.7 with M42 mount. I know most Sears lenses are crapola but this particular model is pretty well built and I think it was made by Mamiya. Their 50mm series were the good ones. It is crisp even at f1.7. I found it at a buy/sell shop locally mounted on a Sears 35mm film camera. Paid $20 and threw the cam away. Don't use it much cause my 58mm is dreamy....see next lense description. For $20 though it was too good to pass up....I need to make another trip to the buy/sell shop to see if they have anything new. They have a whole warehouse of stuff that isn't out for sale yet.

Helios 58mm f2.0 with M42 mount. This is a cool Russian kit lens that is gorgeous and has a neat organic look to it. My favorite lens of all. They are available if you want to purchase from Russia for about $50 plus $40 shipping. It is worth it though. I got lucky and found some one stateside that had one and got it for $38 plus $10 shipping. Here's a screen grab from the lense....nothing spectacular for content as I was playing with it for the first time but it shows the cool blur from the old lens.



Vivitar 70-210 f3.5 with Nikon mount. Got this one for $58 plus $10 shipping on ebay. It was well used and seems a little loose and sticky on the zoom slider. They usually sell for about $100 so the $58 was a fair price. It is on my list to replace first when I get a chance. The footage from it is great. I have found it is plenty fast for most church settings. It does much better than my A1 does.

The adaptor rings for all the lenses are about $10 off ebay and work well except for the Nikon mount for my long zoom. I got the Nikon mount from Fotodiox and got the consumer version. It works pretty well but seems to have a small amount of play in it. Their pro level adaptor is over $50 but will probably be a little more secure. For now what I have will work fine. Once you setup a shot and let it roll there are no problems with it.

All total I think I have less than $250 in my lens set and they work pretty well for weddings. I'm only shooting one DSLR at a wedding. It is my b-roll cam and eye candy cam. It isn't being used all day. It's just to give me that extra pop for cutaways. I would like to add either an 85mm or 100mm prime to my collection for the first dance when the dance floor is big so I can get nice closeups. There is also a nice little Vivitar 28-90 2.8-3.5 and 28-105 2.8-3.8 floating around that is a nice versatile walk around video lens too. Those may also be on my list for some variety during preps.

Remember that these are all non-IS lenses and shake on DSLR footage is not real pretty so you will want to at least make sure you have a monopod and a steady hand if you aren't on a tripod or your footage will be a little jittery.

[Ian Holb]

These lenses are very good. I have the 85mm.

Samyang 85mm f/1.4 MC lens for CANON 500D 1000D 5D 7D - eBay (item 110491955266 end time Sep-06-10 06:02:35 PDT)

You can also check out their 14mm rectilinear lens.

I hear they are coming out with a 35mm f1.4 by the end of the year, so if you can wait for it, I would see what they have to offer.

All their lenses are full manual, so you get hard focussing stops and manual aperture rings (you can de-click them) so they act just like cine-style movie lenses. The quality is surprisingly good for such low-cost lenses. I've been very pleased with my 85mm.

[Chris M. Watson]

Hey Phil,

Great write up! I have to say that you would love the Vivitar 28-90 or the Vivitar 28-105. To me, that focal range really hits the sweet spot when it comes to documentary shooting. I'll let you play with my copy when we're at WEVA. It's easily one of the smarter lens buying decisions I've made. See you in a few days!

[Philip Hinkle]

Looking forward to trying a few of yours out. I know these are relatively inexpensive in the grand scheme and will be one of my next acquisitions when my money flows again. That variable zoom really looks like a winner. You going to have the Jupiter along you had for sale or did someone snatch it up. I would like to try that one out.

[Chris M. Watson]

Someone already snagged that one but I will be bringing along my Volna-3 (80mm f/2.8) that's a real gem. Not so great in low light obviously but the imagery is special and the bokeh has a nice textured look to it. It's one of my favorite lenses. I'll also be bringing along some of my favorite 50's with me like the Mamiya 55mm 1.4 that I'm selling as well as the Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 50mm 1.4 (which I'm definitely keeping).

Really glad to see some fans of old glass on this forum. Those retro lenses still kick ass.

[Perrone Ford]

Originally Posted by Chris Watson

Really glad to see some fans of old glass on this forum. Those retro lenses still kick ass.

Still? These things are just starting to really kick ass. Do you remember the film from back then? Print film was a JOKE compared to what we have now. If you wanted real imagery you shot Kodachrome 25, and looked at your images projected big onto a screen.

These lenses mounted on 15 or 18MP cameras are really showing their worth. I am going to shoot my first music video in a month or two and every frame of it will be captured on vintage lenses. It's a total eye-candy shoot with an opera singer, so that dreamy look, and creamy-soft bokeh is the look I want. I tend to prefer that look.

[Sareesh Sudhakaran]

perrone...
could you recommend examples of a few retro primes that might still be available today? The issue is, if one finds a lens that 'meets' the specs, how do we know if it's really any good (especially if it's on ebay)? Where would one find adapters for these?

[Philip Hinkle]

And at the prices you can snag retro lenses for I will continue to like the look for a long time. Just makes shooting fun for me. Yes you have to work the camera alot with these lenses but they can be beautiful.

[Perrone Ford]

Originally Posted by Sareesh Sudhakaran

perrone...
could you recommend examples of a few retro primes that might still be available today? The issue is, if one finds a lens that 'meets' the specs, how do we know if it's really any good (especially if it's on ebay)? Where would one find adapters for these?

I am preparing to buy a few lenses:

1. Nikon 105mm F/2.0
2. Pentax Super Takumar 50mm F/1.4
3. Pentax SMC Takumar 85mm F/1.8 (if I can afford it) If not, Yashica or Nikon.

The Nikons require a simple $15 adapter you can get on eBay easily. The Pentax and Yashica are made in what is called M42 Screwmount. You can get adapters for them on eBay or other sources, but they are a more pricey in some cases. This is of little consequence to me. I'll be buying these lenses over time, and hope to amass a full set of Yashica, a full set of Pentax, and a full set of Nikon AIS. This should let me lens my films or photoshoots and have more consistent looks.

If you want to delve into the world of manual focus, vintage lenses, take some time to educate yourself. There are dozens of resources available. If you don't trust the long term sellers on eBay, a place like KEH camera should fit the bill. You'll be paying prices about the same as eBay "buy it now" prices, but it's a known quantity from a quality reseller.

Putting together a full range of glass at about F2 or F1.8 is an undertaking to be sure, and you have to be patient. But the reward of bringing a case of lenses on a shoot is that you can open up that lens case, and lens anything indoors at F2 or F1.8 (or faster in some cases), and lens anything outdoors at F2 or F2.8. Night shoots cease to be an issue. Available light work becomes a reality.

I just found out this weekend I have to shoot a live event in a venue where the floor is reading less than 3 footcandles. I am going to NEED that F1.4 lens just to get a reasonable image at ISO800. That is why I am moving so rapidly toward faster glass.

Check out some of these resources:


Why I hope I can get this 85:
MFlenses.com - smc_takumar_85mm_f1_8_PK-006.jpg

English

Cool site: heck the imagery form this 50mm.
http://www.retrocamera.net/review-of...-m42-lens.html

[Manus Sweeney]

I'm excitedly waiting for a MIR 24N 35mm f2 to arrive..

Images look amazing and 35mm on a 1.6 crop is a really natural and beautiful look I find.. I think that lens is going to end up spending a lot of time attached to my camera!

[James Donnelly]

Perrone, just a reminder regarding our recent discussion, I was promoting the f/1.9 variant of the Takumar 85mm.

Reason being, it normally goes for around a third or less the price of the fabled f/1.8, yet I am fairly sure most would agree it is far better than one third as good.

I have the f/1.9, and as soon as time permits, I will upload some sample footage to demonstrate.

[Sareesh Sudhakaran]

Originally Posted by Perrone Ford

Putting together a full range of glass at about F2 or F1.8 is an undertaking to be sure, and you have to be patient.
]

Thank you for the links! Loved the Yashinon 50mm images and the colors. Great place to start searching. Thanks again!