Canon T2i/550d rebel lenses, advice wanted

T

TraumaBunny

Carbonite Member
Hey guys, I'm a beginner, a n00b, a dummy so please take it easy on me! lol

I'm purchasing a Canon T2i/550d to learn on. I'll be filming things with it too.

I'm hoping to get an additional lens that's similar to that of a camcorders. The kind of lens where I can literally point at anything while shooting video and it'll remain sharp and in focus on matter what the distance.


What kind of lens would serve this purpose?

Thank's guys!
 
Hi TraumaBunny,

If you want everything in focus then just close down the apeture. The higher the fstop number the wider the depth of field.

Adz
 
Thank's for your reply adzcool! So I could do that with the the 18-55mm stock lens? I like depth of field but I dont want to create a depth of field overdose while filming.

I've noticed in some videos people are using the stock 18-55mm lens and things keep going in and out of focus, I was hoping to avoid that issue.

I feel embarrassed because I'm a new to the scene student lol it's okay if y'all poke fun at me I would too. I've seen some of your videos and they're incredible, everyone here is so talented.

I'm kinda nervous to be here lol
 
Also, the wider the lens (focal length) the greater your depth of field will be. For example, on your 18-55, at 18mm there's much more in focus than at 55mm where it is more narrow. And yes, f-stop also plays a big role.
 
Hey guys I really appreciate this advice! Basically I just want a lens I could use in the same way one would a regular camcorder.

The kind of lens which doesn't have DOF or anything like that. Like a normal camcorder's lens.
 
I have a regular camcorder here and I can just point it at things and capture whatever I like without having to adjust it's focus. That's the kind of lens I'd like to get for my Canon T2i.

I'll get different lenses for depth of field shots and stuff.

I'm still learning and I'm only a student lol I hope I'm not annoying anyone.
 
Well, there's no such thing. If you want a camcorder look, you'd have to get a camcorder...or buy a GH1 that has autofocus (the kit lens does anyway...I'm not quite sure about its compatibility with other lenses).

All lenses on the Canon DSLRs are manual focus - the only way to keep things generally in focus like mentioned above, is to use a higher f-stop. The higher your f-stop, the darker your image...so this really only works outside.

I think you might be misunderstanding though. The only reasons you're seeing things like blurry background/sharp foreground and going in and out of focus, is more or less due to the operator and opening the aperture as wide as possible (lowest f-stop).

There are also a variety of factors that contribute to the film "look". Lighting, camera operator style, fps, etc.

Basically, if you want autofocus - you're going to need to get a GH1 if you're looking at a DSLR type camera (though its not technically a DSLR). If you want a Canon DSLR, you're going to have to learn how to pull focus and that doesn't always mean sharp -> blurry, blurry -> sharp.

If you have any more questions, feel free to shoot me a PM.

Best of luck,

Kegan
 
I agree with everything Hunter007 said. It really sounds like you need a camcorder instead of a DSLR though. Having everything in focus all the time practically defeats on of the best reasons to use a DSLR for video. That aside, there is no perfect all purpose lens, but I think you could cover a lot of shots with the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L, a zoom lens like every camcorder has, versus say a prime lens like Canon EF 50mm f/1.4. The downside of course is the 24-70 is VERY expensive and the 50 is relatively inexpensive, plus I recommend getting familiar with the kit lens before you buy anything so you can experiment to determine your needs. Just don't count on zooming while filming and always getting good results, but its probably not impossible. Ditto on the lighting responses. The higher the fstop the more will be in focus so you'll require as much light as possible to reduce the need to adjust focus for movement.
 
You need a camcorder not a DSLR. BTW, even a camcorder has out of focus areas, but you're probably used to autofocus keeping the subject in focus, and the out of focus areas are less obvious on a camcorder.
 
TraumaBunny said:
Thank's for your reply adzcool! So I could do that with the the 18-55mm stock lens? I like depth of field but I dont want to create a depth of field overdose while filming.

I've noticed in some videos people are using the stock 18-55mm lens and things keep going in and out of focus, I was hoping to avoid that issue.
Click to expand...

TraumaBunny said:
The kind of lens which doesn't have DOF or anything like that. Like a normal camcorder's lens.
Click to expand...

TraumaBunny said:
I have a regular camcorder here and I can just point it at things and capture whatever I like without having to adjust it's focus. That's the kind of lens I'd like to get for my Canon T2i.

I'll get different lenses for depth of field shots and stuff.
Click to expand...
You really should learn about DOF before you go any further. You are evidently very confused about it, due to your lack of knowledge, and I can already see that this is leading to unproductive discussion in this thread. Frankly, what little you do know isn't helping you right now. As the saying goes, "A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing."

I suggest the that you read the Wikipedia article on depth of field as a starting point.

Depth of field only refers to the total amount of distance in which a subject appears to be in focus. DOF is not a characteristic that a lens or may not have. It's an effect that's created entirely by the branch of physics known as "optics," from which photographic technology is engineered. All lenses create a depth of field.

Shallow/small/narrow depth of field refers to the effect of having only a small part of the image in focus, while large parts of the image are out of focus. Deep/large/wide depth of field refers to the effect of having large parts of the image in focus, while small parts of the image are out of focus. This is the most fundamental terminology to understand.

Depth of field is determined by exactly four factors, when viewing distance is assumed to be constant.

1) Focal length: The shorter the focal length (i.e., the "wider" the lens, in terms of field of view), the deeper the DOF (i.e., more things will appear to be in focus). The greater the focal length, the shallower the DOF.

2) Aperture (iris) setting: This is measured in f-numbers. The f-number refers to the ratio of the diameter of the iris opening to the focal length. The smaller the f-number, the wider the iris (i.e., more light is passed through the lens). The wider the iris, the shallower the DOF. So a lens at f/2.0 will have much shallower DOF than the same lens at f/8.0, all other things being equal.

3) Subject-to-camera distance: The closer the subject is to the camera, the shallower the DOF. All lenses with adjustable focus have a "hyperfocal distance." This means that when the lens is focused at infinity, all objects at a certain distance and beyond will appear to be in focus.

4) Image format (or sensor) size: The greater the sensor size, the shallower the DOF. The reason why traditional camcorders have such great DOF, where often almost everything appears to be in focus, is because they use sensors that are much, much smaller than DSLR's.

There is no such thing as a lens that simply does what a camcorder does. In fact, such a notion is incoherent. The lenses that are built into camcorders work on exactly the same principles as the lenses for DSLRs. The only reason why they produce different results is because of the physics of DOF, as I explained above. So to accomplish what you want, you must learn as much as you can about DOF. Then you can find ways of maximizing it. In case you're still unclear about what I'm saying, maximizing DOF means trying to get much of the image in focus as possible.
 
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