Buying lenses need some help

sfoster

sfoster

Well-known member
Well I'm about to bite the bullet and spend a lot of money. I plan on getting 25mm 35mm 50mm and 85mm lenses for my brevis adapter. I'm concerned about the lenses breathing though. I want fast lenses 1.2-1.8, but I don't want them to breathe while racking. Which lenses don't breathe? Or at least breathe the least? Can I get away with cheaper lenses like the SLR lenses or do I have to spend a lot more money?
 
Sorry to say, but most SLR and manual photo lenses breathe quite a bit. It is a part of the build of the lens. In order to get some glass with minimal to no breathing, you will need to look into some high end cine lenses, which are obviously way out of most peoples price range. I can say this though, you will find the best SLR glass in prime lenses for minimal breathing. Zooms breathe heavily, where primes generally are more subtle.
 
Thanks, that's what I figured. Are some brands better than others with breathing on the primes, or are they all about the same? I'm looking at the Zeiss Jena lens because of a post I read from Barry, but I haven't decided totally yet.
 
Zeiss would probably be the best.

Pcascio, breathing refers to when a lens changes the apparent focal length slightly while adjusting focus. It doesn't affect racking or pulling focus, but it makes it look less professional, as most cine lenses don't breath at all.

for an example, watch during the rack focus to the closest shells to the camera in this clip, it appears as a slight zoom while focusing.

http://www.iandudleydp.com/LX-LOMO-TEST.mov
 
Thanks. I might just settle for the cheaper nikon lenses and just suffer when I have to rack. Hopefully the movement of the camera will cover up most of the racking. When is a static shot, I'll just either suffer, or deal with it in post, if I can!
 
that's what I would do if I were you. I gotta tell ya, the only people that will really even notice, let alone think it looks less professional, are other cinematographers. The average audience member won't give it a second thought. They won't even give it a first thought. :)
 
Yeah, but when it comes to putting together a professional looking real and pros will be judging it, I want it to look as good as possible. I also read that some lenses breathe less at certain f stop settings. Is this accurate? It doesn't make sense to me!
 
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