Interview Lens

Just got some possible good news from B&H:
"BHRep: You are within the 1st 20. There are currently 36 on backorder. We have over 100 scheduled to arrive."

Hopefully he knows what he's talking about...
 
Noel Evans said:
14-140 - Why? Because interviews require a lot of flexibility as the locations are always different, you dont always know what your going to get until your on location and often times you see the location for the first time when your shooting it. Interviewees also dont want to be sitting around forever while you set up. Id rather pop on the 14-140, choose my background - then spend the time lighting it and making it pretty. When I get to my camera the 14-140 will then let me go in a bit out a bit throughout the whole thing.
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Is that glass parfocal?
 
Speaking in terms of desired results, as opposed to specific lenses, the criteria I would be looking for would be:
Zoom, so a mix of shots can be captured.
Constant aperture zoom, so iris doesn't need to be changed.
DOF of at least 20 inches, perhaps up to 24? (I would do tests first). I don't want the subject rocking in and out of focus. As long as they're not against a wall (and why would they be), the BG will still be pleasantly soft. Pleasantly soft, not a total lack of context of the subject's location.
 
groveChuck said:
Speaking in terms of desired results, as opposed to specific lenses, the criteria I would be looking for would be:
Zoom, so a mix of shots can be captured.
Constant aperture zoom, so iris doesn't need to be changed.
DOF of at least 20 inches, perhaps up to 24? (I would do tests first). I don't want the subject rocking in and out of focus. As long as they're not against a wall (and why would they be), the BG will still be pleasantly soft. Pleasantly soft, not a total lack of context of the subject's location.
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Have you thought about the Canon 24-105 L IS, should end up having a focal range of 50-210mm which is not bad for an interview, not to mention the constant f4. It might be alright if a decent lens mount is made.
 
Matthew B said:
Have you thought about the Canon 24-105 L IS, should end up having a focal range of 50-210mm which is not bad for an interview, not to mention the constant f4. It might be alright if a decent lens mount is made.
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Thought about it, and am waiting to use it!
My wife's a still photog, has a set of 3 L series zooms (all 2.8 constant aperture) and 2 primes.
They are mine to use on the AF100 as soon as Birger releases an adapter.
So I'm awaiting the Birger as breathlessly as the AF100!
I have a deposit on an AF, and would be happy to make a deposit on a Birger.

But yes, an equivalent 50-210 would be a great range. I had experimented with my wife's 70-200 on her 5d (stills only non-MkII) in interview settings, seeing what it might be like using a MkII (which I ended up not getting), and while not the range of an ENG lens, it was great for MS-CU, with a nice bokeh.

C'mon Birger, please, please, please!!! :undecided
 
Andrew J. Allsbury said:
. The 14-140 looks to be a great lens, but at f4 I don't think you are going to take full advantage of the DoF most want from this camera in an interview setting.
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This is exactly correct. Unless this lens defies all the rules of the past one hundred years -- that "14-140" will look exactly like something shot with a 150/170/200A. You pay dearly in terms of speed and sharpness for any lens with any "super" zoom range.

The "wow" shots we got (Letus w/150 or 170) were mostly with the Zeiss 85mm F/1.4. Unfortunately, that Zeiss is VERY soft wide open. We recently tried the old Nikon manual focus 85mm F/2 -- and were blown away by how sharp it is wide open. Traditionally, 85mm is the ideal portrait lens for a range of reasons.

The problem, and it is a problem, is that on the AF-100 your magnificent 85mm is the equivalent of a 170mm -- and that's a headache. The next problem is that most all wide angles, including the ones that cost a fortune, introduce various forms of distortions for portraiture.

So, although the Zeiss 21mm (42mm equivalent on the AF-100) is probably the answer to the question of the OP -- the truth is that we really don't know how well these lenses are going to work on the AF-100. Chances are a 2x crop on a Zeiss 21mm still isn't going to create the magic of a traditional fast 85mm -- so the smart folks may be the ones sitting on the sidelines waiting for the two thousand tests that will appear on Vimeo after initial release before buying new lenses.
 
AGMedia said:
The "wow" shots we got (Letus w/150 or 170) were mostly with the Zeiss 85mm F/1.4. Unfortunately, that Zeiss is VERY soft wide open. We recently tried the old Nikon manual focus 85mm F/2 -- and were blown away by how sharp it is wide open.
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There was another quote about paying a price in sharpness with a wide range zoom like the 14-140.

What nobody has discussed yet, and since this is the "Interview" thread, is the fact that too much sharpness is NOT necessarily desireable... now that we have Hi Def, I don't really want to see every pore on someone's nose or every hair coming out of somewhere... in fact, whenever I interview women execs (and gerenally most interviews) I use a 4X4 Black Diffusion FX 1/2 to filter out some of the wrinkles and smoothe out the complexion. The subjects are always flattered and that's what you want... a happy client.

In the old film days, they would stretch a nylon stocking over the lens for Extreme Close Ups. So, the main point is SOFT lighting (umbrella or bounce plus a diff screen on the lights and then a diff filter in front of the lens).

Framing is what you want from the lens... something that lets you get back far enough that you don't distort the features of their face. In the still world, the 135mm used to be called the "portrait" lens for this reason. In our world, the zoom lets us change focal lengths during the interview, so we can have a few shots to cut from.
 
I've used a Canon 1.8 50mm and feel it's a perfect lens for the job.

INTV_Test 01.jpg

The bookcase was about one foot behind her. Blew my HPX out of the water! (sold it too.)
 
Multi-Media said:
There was another quote about paying a price in sharpness with a wide range zoom like the 14-140.
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you can only worry on sharpness on 14 megapixel stills but not on 1080 video. so it will be sharp. if you want to soften it, increase detail coring in camera.
check barry's gh1 tests for more info
 
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