Anybody favour primes for event videography?

True macro lenses are capable of at least 1:1 reproduction ratio, they can project the object onto the imager at life size. Most still zoom lenses that are "macro" are really just capable of focusing very closely, but not in true macro territory.
 
Ebrahim Saadawi said:
. The Tamron one with VC is a super lens for event shooting giving prime look with zoom and IS.
Click to expand...


Is the Tamron VC 24-70 zoom really THAT good? I mean, how does it compare to, say, a Nikon 35mm 1.8G in terms of optics? I know it's not as open an aperture, but general optical quality, how does it compare? If it's as good or better, I may reconsider my budget and put in this Tamron 24-70.

Think i've been confusing what I need with what I want. In a perfect world, i'd shoot all day with primes. However, as somebody else here said, zooms are convenient and more appropriate for events which is why I need to make sure i can get the best midrange zoom I can get. But an affordable one, not those absurdly priced Nikon/Canon zooms.
 
How does this one look: Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Lens, $299. It has an average of 4.4/5 stars, with 374 reviews. I would think that the 28-135 focal range on a crop sensor would be more useful at a wedding.

For a crop sensor, I'm not sure you need something as long as 200mm. 135mm might be long enough, which is 4 times your crop sensor's normal focal length of around 32mm. That would be an angle of view of 11.25 degrees, compared to about 45 degrees from a normal lens. To get a feel for how far zoomed in 135mm is, imaging what your angle of view was with a normal-focal-length lens. Now cut the frame into 16 squares. Now zoom in to one of those squares.

I'm thinking a 35mm prime lens for the camera that can walk around at the ceremony, and certainly the reception. Here's a wedding that says it was shot with a Pocket with a 17.5mm (which is a normal lens on the Pocket) and to me it looks like all of the pre-ceremony and reception were shot with that prime. The ceremony definitely has some telephoto shots, and for that I think he used the Canon 60D that he mentions in the notes, with some sort of zoom. You just need some sort of zoom for the second camera at the back of the ceremony or maybe at conferences where you can't get close enough with a normal lens. And that's where I'm recommending the 28-135.

So here's your complete lens list:

- Nikon 35mm f/2.8 AI manual-focus prime
- Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
 
Last edited:
Hi combatentropy.

Thanks for the advice but...


1) The camera I will be using is a a Sony a7s. It has crop mode, but it is a full frame camera.

2) That's variable aperture. I can't be dealing with that for video. Maybe for pictures it's ok, but for video it's a no no in my book. Fixed aperture or nothing. I'm thinking about the Tamron 24-70 if it's a significantly better zoom than 28-75
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top