I can afford two lenses...

DammitJanet

DammitJanet

Well-known member
So I found out I'm getting $1900 for my tax return and I want to get a T2i with it. I'm going to primarily be using it for narrative short films and just random still shooting around town and on trips and stuff.

As such, I'd like to get a couple of lenses to get me started that will work well for the kind of film work I intend to do. So far I've been thinking about the following.

One Canon EF 50mm f1.4 USM
One 18-55mm f3.5/f5.6 (the stock T2i lens)

I figure this way I'll have enough left for rails and a tripod but I fear that may not be the best combination of lenses for my video work. That 50mm is about $370, which is a lot for me, but I feel like I can splurge a bit on that one.

So what two lenses do you recommend I start with?
 
Older manual Nikon lenses with adapters are a cheaper alternative that usually have mechanics more friendly to cinema use. You can find a nice 50mm for $150-200.

The lenses you need really depend on what you want to do, but in addition to a 50mm-
28mm is a useful one.
Then maybe an 85mm or 100mm for the long end and you should be set for most anything.

If you do a lot of ENG/ documentary style shooting, you might consider a constant aperture zoom lens, so you don't have to change lenses all the time and can zoom like a video camera.
 
Well I just did a tally of all the gear I'm going to be buying along with the camera and lenses, including sticks/head package, extra battery, memory cards, etc. and it's not leaving much room. I'm wondering if I should instead go with the 50mm f/1.8 and some other lens...

Or...maybe just buy one zoom lens that can handle a pretty decent range for narrative storytelling that runs around $500 and use that for both video and stills.

Bring on the suggestions. :)

Here's an example of the kind of stuff I'll be shooting a lot of. This was all done on the 50mm f/1.4
 
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rather than buying a big rig, why not just start with a LCDVF, and go from there. you can get a surprising amount of stabilization for not that much money. good glass is undoubtedly going to be better than a shouldermount...

if you skip out on the kit lens, will you save any money?
 
I'd save about a hundred dollars if I don't get the kit lens but I might just start out with it and see what I can do. I have access to plenty of lights so I don't think I absolutely positively need f/1.8 or f/1.4 right off the bat. And if I do, I have a friend who's got the 50mm f/1.4 already so I could borrow his. And there's always ebay.

That would work out like so...

T2i with stock lens - 899.95
Extra Canon Battery - 69.95
2x8GB Transcend Class 6 SDHC cards - 39.94
Manfrotto 701HDV, 547BK Tripod Kit - 299.90
IndiFocus Pro Follow Focus - 300.00
IndiRails Pro 18" - 169.00

That would bring the grand total before tax and shipping to 1778.74

I might even have enough for a bag after all that. :(

I may just forego the tripod for a while since I'll have easy access to a cartoni focus until December.
 
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I would skip the follow focus for now too, and that would also allow you to wait on the rails. Besides, the kit lens has only a sliver of a focus ring that moves in and out as you zoom. I still haven't figured a way to attach gears to it.

I thought the T21 was $799? Buy from amazon and you won't have to pay tax.

I also remember buying 1 transcend 16GB class 6 sdhc card with reader for $22, and I would suggest getting more space. At least 32GB if you don't want to be dumping all the time.
 
Tim Joy said:
I would skip the follow focus for now too, and that would also allow you to wait on the rails. Besides, the kit lens has only a sliver of a focus ring that moves in and out as you zoom. I still haven't figured a way to attach gears to it.

I thought the T21 was $799? Buy from amazon and you won't have to pay tax.

I also remember buying 1 transcend 16GB class 6 sdhc card with reader for $22, and I would suggest getting more space. At least 32GB if you don't want to be dumping all the time.
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I feel like I need to get the rails and the follow focus now because I'm going to be shooting a short in July that I'll need a full rig for. The FF I'm buying uses a friction wheel instead of gears so I shouldn't need gearing just yet with the kit lens.

The T2i is $799 body only. With the kit lens it's $899, and I will be buying from amazon.

The idea with the 8GB cards is to shoot on one while the other dumps. This is a pretty common workflow on the sets I've worked on, but if I can find them for the price you mentioned I'll pick up a couple of 16GB cards instead.

I'm still open to lens suggestions too.
 
As mentioned earlier, the kit lens has a very narrow lip on the front of the lens for focusing. This lip moves in and out when you zoom. It would be super hard to work with a follow focus. The other issue is that the kit lens breathes like crazy on the long end and the focus ring is not dampened and smooth. Skip the follow focus and kit lens and get the tamron 17-50 2.8 VC instead. You can focus just fine without the FF. I don't even use mine 70% of the time because I don't want to f around with it every time I change lenses.

Most of the time all of that stuff like mattebox follow focus etc etc is just geek pron. Yes it has it's purpose, but I doubt that most people who buy all the toys really need them and it is definatly an extra after you have the rest of a solid kit.
 
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saneproductions said:
Most of the time all of that stuff like mattebox follow focus etc etc is just geek pron. Yes it has it's purpose, but I doubt that most people who buy all the toys really need them and it is definatly an extra after you have the rest of a solid kit.
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You might be right about the follow focus. That's also something I could borrow from my friend for the time being. That Tamron lens is out of my budget range though.

Now I'm thinking I might go with the 50mm f/1.4 and the EF 28mm f/2.8

Any thoughts on that 28mm?
 
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saneproductions said:
The money you are spending on the 50mm 1.4 plus follow focus will buy you the tamron.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/652136-USA/Tamron_AFB005C700_SP_AF_17_50mm_f_2_8.html

You don't really need primes and wide aperature as much as you need standard coverage. You really don't need to shoot any more open than 2.8 for most applications. Shooting 2.8, 2.8/4 split and f4 will give you much more managable DOF.
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Interesting...would I need a lens support for that lens on my rails?
 
nope, just the camera and the lens. It will cover almost all of the typical film lens kit (18, 25,35,50 and 85). You can always add something longer later, but it is used less often.

If I had to build a kit from scratch for a minimum cost (not ever planning to go full frame) I would get the t2i body only, the 17-50 with VC I linked above, and extra battery and two Patriot 16GB SDHC cards class 6 or class 10 (I went class 10 for shooting raw). Add a tripod and audio gear etc etc. All of this is before ever getting any rails, FF, mattebox etc. And I would spend as much as possible on the audio portion of my kit because that is equal if not more important than the camera. I would get the zoom H4n, SD cards for that, a 9 or 12' gitzo carbon fiber boom, sony 7506 headphones, an akg bluline with hyper cap and a k-tek kssm shockmount. If you need to shoot outside I would add a shotgun and proper zeppelin, but go to the audio section to learn more about that (skip wireless). You also need a fader nd or sing ray vari nd to shoot outside.
 
saneproductions said:
nope, just the camera and the lens. It will cover almost all of the typical film lens kit (18, 25,35,50 and 85). You can always add something longer later, but it is used less often.

If I had to build a kit from scratch for a minimum cost (not ever planning to go full frame) I would get the t2i body only, the 17-50 with VC I linked above, and extra battery and two Patriot 16GB SDHC cards class 6 or class 10 (I went class 10 for shooting raw). Add a tripod and audio gear etc etc. All of this is before ever getting any rails, FF, mattebox etc. And I would spend as much as possible on the audio portion of my kit because that is equal if not more important than the camera. I would get the zoom H4n, SD cards for that, a 9 or 12' gitzo carbon fiber boom, sony 7506 headphones, an akg bluline with hyper cap and a k-tek kssm shockmount. If you need to shoot outside I would add a shotgun and proper zeppelin, but go to the audio section to learn more about that (skip wireless). You also need a fader nd or sing ray vari nd to shoot outside.
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Since I'm in film school until December I'm not worried about audio since I can check out that gear anytime I want. I have plenty of experience with audio and I appreciate the recommendations in that dept. I would like to have my own tripod though, and since I don't have anything to put on the rails I guess there's no point in getting the rails yet.
 
I have not worked with it. Did you do a search on it here? Let me know if you have any other questions. I used to teach video production and now that I just work in production full time again, I miss annoying people with my opinions about things. This is such a nice outlet for that impulse ;)
 
Ideally I would like to have a Cartoni Focus, but I have no need for such a rugged piece of gear just yet (or the funds). I've used that Manfrotto model before and it's perfect for the sort of low-impact shooting I'll be doing.
 
I have the sachtler dv6SB with miller solo CF legs. If you do get into spending big cake someday, check it out. Cartoni focus is also nice. Sounds like the manfrotto is great for now. You don't have to have super heavy sticks until you start attaching all kinds of crap to your camera.
 
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