help: which lenses they used

J

Joelnicolas

New member
Hello guys. Its my first time to post here. Im a complete noob.
If i posted this on wrong thread knidly do the needful.

For my concerns. I just want to know how they shoot and whicnh
Lenses they used for this video. Especially on 00.16secs.

https://youtu.be/5tq1JsCvWnY

For anyone who will help me a big thanks for you.
 
Unless anyone here was on the crew, it's hard to say exactly what lenses they used. I suspect it's something medium to tight, like a 50mm or more on a S35mm sensor, based on the shallow depth of field.
 
Likely they used expensive lenses from a rental house. And what you are liking is the extremely shallow focus achieved by use of "fast" lenses wide open or near wide open.

You could take a shot and ask Shana the name of the Director / DP who shot the spot ( assuming she remembers the individual's name and replies to inquiry ):

https://twitter.com/power_shana?lang=en

Most high-end commercials of this nature are shot with an ARRI Alexa or a RED camera with "high-end" cinema primes. ( Ultra Primes, Master Primes, Leica Summilux-C, Leica Summicron-C, Cooke S4 / S5, etc. ) The BTS video for another Nike spot reveals the camera to be an ARRI Alexa and I think the lenses are Master Primes:


What you are really asking, I think, is how you can achieve this sort of look and quality with tools you have available to you. I don't know the answer to that. There is no magic bullet to producing exceptionally good work. It helps to be using a camera with the capabilities of the ARRI and high-quality lenses, but there is more to it than just the camera and the glass. It is many things coming together in concert. The work of the DP on location, the grading in post, the edit, etc.

I've seen talented DP's produce stunning work with a Betacam that in the hands of others never produced anything remarkable or even above average.
 
JPNola said:
Likely they used expensive lenses from a rental house. And what you are liking is the extremely shallow focus achieved by use of "fast" lenses wide open or near wide open.

You could take a shot and ask Shana the name of the Director / DP who shot the spot ( assuming she remembers the individual's name and replies to inquiry ):

https://twitter.com/power_shana?lang=en

Most high-end commercials of this nature are shot with an ARRI Alexa or a RED camera with "high-end" cinema primes. ( Ultra Primes, Master Primes, Leica Summilux-C, Leica Summicron-C, Cooke S4 / S5, etc. ) The BTS video for another Nike spot reveals the camera to be an ARRI Alexa and I think the lenses are Master Primes:


What you are really asking, I think, is how you can achieve this sort of look and quality with tools you have available to you. I don't know the answer to that. There is no magic bullet to producing exceptionally good work. It helps to be using a camera with the capabilities of the ARRI and high-quality lenses, but there is more to it than just the camera and the glass. It is many things coming together in concert. The work of the DP on location, the grading in post, the edit, etc.

I've seen talented DP's produce stunning work with a Betacam that in the hands of others never produced anything remarkable or even above average.
Click to expand...

Thank you for a thorough explanation sir. I have a sony a7s 2 for 3 months now, do you think i can produce similar to this one(im not saying very close to that video) using my a7s with samyang prime lens? And one more thing sir which focal length they used for that video? Can you make a guess sir just by looking on the footage? Thank you sir.
This is off tooic, i created a video of my friend can you do some criticism on it? Like what ive done wrong so i can correct it. Heres the link

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B06rEAn_6Ae6aDVadnIyRVVUN1U
 
That look should be easy enough to accomplish with a A7s2, but you'll need to make some adjustments due to the difference in sensor size.

The best image coming out of a A7s2 uses the entire width of it's 135 Format sensor, & for simplicity I'm going to assume the Nike ad was shot on a ARRI Alexa, which is Super 35. Also for simplicity I'm going to use f-stops instead of T-Stops, as they more accurately reflect DOF.

To match the FOV you'll need a lens that's (roughly) 50% longer than used on the ARRI, & to match the DOF you'll need a aperture (roughly) 1-Stop deeper. So if the ARRI used a 50mm lens @ f/1.2 your (135 Format) A7s2 needs a 75mm @ f/1.8.

Haven't used, or even handled, Samyang/Rokinon lenses, but doubt they're anywhere near as sharp wide-open as whatever top quality Cine Prime employed in that commercial, however since your able to use a deeper aperture your lenses should sharpen up a bit. And that Nike image isn't about sharpness.

Don't get caught up on exactly matching FOV, & DOF, rather focus on making pictures with whatever equipment you can easily access. Tune your vision.
 
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As Bern says, you can sort of capture a similar feel. Start with Samyang 35mm and 85mm. Along with wide aperture, camera to subject distance is key, keep it close to allow the background to fall away. Practice, practice and practice.
 
JPNola said:
Most high-end commercials of this nature are shot with an ARRI Alexa or a RED camera with "high-end" cinema primes. ( Ultra Primes, Master Primes, Leica Summilux-C, Leica Summicron-C, Cooke S4 / S5, etc. ) The BTS video for another Nike spot reveals the camera to be an ARRI Alexa and I think the lenses are Master Primes:

Click to expand...

And here's the finished Nike ad...

 
Joelnicolas said:
I just want to know how they shoot and whinch
Lenses they used for this video. Especially on 00.16secs.

https://youtu.be/5tq1JsCvWnY
Click to expand...

Throughout the video, it looks to me like they're shooting a few different focal lengths. For simplicity, I'm going to pretend that all videos were shot with your A7Sii, in full-frame mode. So to me it looks like in that boxer video that they often shot at the normal focal length (which would be on your A7Sii a 50mm) and never wider. Several times they switched to something tighter though, roughly double normal (100mm on your A7s) but there may be one or two that were more like 75mm. So you have a range from 50-100mm.

They also shot wide open, I mean it looks like f/1.4. This, as you probably know, is what gives it such shallow focus.

By contrast, the video with the car looks like it was shot with a wider range of lenses. There are some wide shots in there that look to me around 28mm or even wider (again, if it were full-frame camera). Since that video was actually shot on an Alexa, that means that for the wide angles it looks to me like 18mm, maybe slightly wider. Some people say don't talk about crop factor, but I think it's useful, and maybe a bit better to keep straight if you emphasize, lenses don't have crop factors, cameras do.

Anyway, you can gain a feel for focal length by searching in the reverse way. Instead of looking at a video you like and asking, what lens was that, search for videos that were shot entirely with one lens and ask yourself, how does this feel? I have done that quite a lot. Be sure to specify the camera too, though. For example, search Youtube for "5D 35mm" or "5D 50mm" or "5D 100mm." Then read the full description to make sure that they shot everything with one prime lens, not a zoom or set of primes. These will often be short and flawed, but concentrate on the feel of the angle of view.

Watch out for depth of field, though. Shallow focus can trick my mind into thinking that it's a telephoto lens --- especially if it's a normal lens (50mm on A7S). The normal lens is especially tricky, and I'm not the only one to say it. It can look like a wide angle or a telephoto depending on how close you are to the subject and how shallow your focus is. For example, this entire video was shot on a 50mm, on a Canon 5D, but I would have thought they changed lenses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK71Qc-7rlU

Joelnicolas said:
do you think i can produce similar to this one
Click to expand...

Like others have said, you really have to break down what you like about the video. Was it the shallow focus, camera angles, locations, lighting, color, editing --- all of the above?
 
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They also could have shot at one focal length and given resolution, then blew up the portion of the frame in post to achieve that blurry look. A lot of folks do this semi-intentionally during the interviews, when changing from a wide angle to a narrower closeup off a single camera. In this instance, this would have been done for stylistic purposes only.
 
Wow! Thank you for all the input. Im still reading all of your comments until now and i dont know what to say actually. Liitle bit speechless. Some of the terms mentioned (like fov etc) is quite new to me i think i have to do more and more of reading and practices. I just cant go for shooting right now because im working in abu dhabi temperature is really high.anyway ill just make the most out of my gear.
One more thing this is my lens all are nikon mount, because i have d750. Tamron 24-70. Samyang 16mm 2.0 aps-c. Samyang 85mm. Samyang 50mm fe. With this set of lens do i need or would it be beneficial if i buy 35'mm 1.4? Or ill stick with these lenses?
 
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