Ideal lenses for doc interviews using 5D Mark III. Canon Cinema, Zeiss CP.2, etc.?

Abaddon

Abaddon

Well-known member
I'm planning to start a documentary and I want to make sure I have the right lenses for the interviews.

Currently, my main lenses are the Sigma 35mm 1.4 Art and the Canon 70-200 4.0L. I may look to rent some Canon Cinema lenses and some Zeiss CP.2 lenses to compare image quality as a test. I'm sure the Canon Cinema and Zeiss lenses are superior, but I wonder if they'd be so much better for this application to justify the ongoing rental costs.

Thoughts?
 
The 70-200 f4 if it is the more recent IS version is a very nice lens. I would not think you would need to rent anything for an image quality upgrade, just if you need a wider aperture. F4 on a full frame can often be a good balance between subject focus and background blur. I like to have a zoom for interviews for little reframing moves. Picking up the camera (if on tripod) is kind of clumsy.
 
I have a full set of zooms and primes, and for my documentary style work I pretty much exclusively use my primes. I honestly don't know why you would want the hassle of working with primes and I can rarely think of a situation in a documentary where I would shoot at a wider aperture than I can get on a zoom. But that's just me. Maybe if you had a some cinema style lenses, you might feel like they were special enough to deal with the added hassle of using them, but I would still suggest just focusing one ease of capturing a moment versus having the technically better lens.
 
Although I rarely shoot interviews anymore, when I do, I always shoot with two bodies. One cam gets the 24-70 f/2.8 L MKII, the other get the 70-200 f/2.8 L MKII.
Shoot close to w.o. with enough distance between subject and b/g to enhance fall off of focus and lighting.
 
The image quality is not why you would ugrade from your EF lenses to the CP2s. The CP2s are good but not great...it's more about the housing, consistency of weight, declicked aperture etc. that make these lenses good for production use. The Canon cine lenses use very nice glass, however, if you are shooting on a 5DIII, your money is probably better spent elsewhere in order to see an increase in production value.
 
Really any lens would be fine, the use of faster ones are more likely to get you into trouble if the subject moves and you lose critical focus, because pulling focus back and forth on 5Ds or DSLRs doesn't work too well since they are too lightweight and will shake. Don't get me wrong, lenses matter, but it is just from my experience in dealing with documentary style interviews that people move, and when you are on a full frame and around f1.4 to f2.8 even centimeters/inches will start to count, it is really ugly when someones ears are in focus but their eyes aren't, and that is just 2-3 inches... It just that if you use the 5D's screen to tell focus you will get fooled, and during record you can't do a digital zoom to check the focus either.

So I would say any lens that are good at f4 and more stopped down are good a good choice.
 
Thanks for the info. I think going with a 24-70 and 70-200 will probably be the most practical solution. And yeah, I think keeping things at f4 will probably be a safe move. I've used my Canon 24-105 for interviews but I haven't been too thrilled with the image quality at times. I may pick up Tamron 24-70 to stay within budget.
 
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