What Lens Did They Use?

looks like some distortion to me .. IMO that's what is giving the illusion the room is slightly moving ...
 
Weird, anyway.

But I'd think, if they were going to go out and buy/rent the squishy, they'd use it for a scene with a little more oomph in it.

Oh. Wait a sec. This is from The Changeling, George C Scott & Wife, 1980. I don't think that lens was available then.
 
Its called a "death Lense" or a .07 wide angle, its made for the dcr vx2000/2100 by century optics but can be modified to fit a dvx. The DVX already has a wide angle lense built into it, unlike the dcr, so when the "death lense" is put on it you get some distortion because it is too wide for the camera to acknowledge, which gives the appearence of the room moving. I used this same trick in my newest movie, Unit 0.
 
Interesting shot, the lack of rectilinear distortion (barreling) rules out a fisheye attachment such as we make, in fact most video camera lenses have some distortion full wide.

Dan, do you know what camera it was shot on? I think the illusion of the movement is just that, a combination of a wide shot and the pan, and picking the subject matter. It frankly makes me wonder if this was shot either on film or with a high end video camera with a wide zoom that has very little distortion.

All pure speculation except for the fact that a Century Fisheye (aka death lens in the skateboard circles) did not shoot it because of the lack of rectilinear distortion. The wide look or perspective distortion is a function of focal length and format.

Bill Turner
Century Division
Schneider Optics, Inc.
 
I can't find any tech info on the film. It didn't look like video to me (especially not 1980 video), and I'm not good enough to even be able to tell what film format it was done in. 16:9, though. Ooooo, big help. :)

Odd though that they didn't do it again/more in the film. That scene wasn't anything special. Just a walk-through of the house right near the beginning. There were so many other instances where something like that would have been effective. Makes me wonder if it's just an artifact of sorts from the transfer to DVD...though I can't really think of what might have gone "wrong".
 
Amerikan123 said:
Its called a "death Lense" or a .07 wide angle, its made for the dcr vx2000/2100 by century optics but can be modified to fit a dvx. The DVX already has a wide angle lense built into it, unlike the dcr, so when the "death lense" is put on it you get some distortion because it is too wide for the camera to acknowledge, which gives the appearence of the room moving. I used this same trick in my newest movie, Unit 0.
Click to expand...

the death lense is actually .03 not .07
 
Cool thought came to me outta this thread... those 35mm adapters with Nikon mounts? Nikon makes some very wide glass with no rectilinear distortion. Pricey, pricey lenses, but they've made variations of 'em for years for architectural use. A good photo rental house will have one. Would be fun to play with... I've used them on an SLR, and moving around to setup your shot? It's like an LSD flashback...

(Not that I'd know, err, what one of THOSE is like, no sir officer...)
 
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