Is there any reason to keep my 1.4 lens?

I

ironpony

Carbonite Member
I originally bought it too see a lot better in the dark. The problem with it is, is that it looses focus so easily. To the point where it's not even worth seeing in the dark. I would rather have a dark murky grainy looking scene, that stays in focus, then a brighter look that keeps going in and out of focus. You can get away with murky black grain more stylistically, then you can with going in and out of focus.

The 1.4 is good for slow motion, since you loose light, and have to make the light look the same. But I could probably just light it differently and use an ND filter instead, of a whole lens for that. So is there any other reason to have one that will serve me, or is there a better lens out there, if I could afford just one?
 
Well you don't need to always shoot at F1.4. I hardly shoot at 1.4 on my Canon 50mm - the widest I'd go would usually be 2.0 or 2.2.
 
True, I will do some more tests on it, but does shooting at 2 or 2.2 still result in easy loss of focus?
 
It's not as bad as with 1.4. Let me put it this way: 1.4 is almost impossible to pull for, but I pulled a 30m dolly shot at 2.2, I would have never been able to do that at 1.4.
 
Add light to your scenes and close down the iris to gain greater depth of field.
For example... Try lighting your scenes to f4. A typical Canon APS-C camera with a 50mm lens shooting f4 from 10 feet away will have a near limit of 9.16 feet and a far limit of 11 feet, with a total DOF of 1.84 Feet. The same shot with a f-stop of f1.4 will have a very shallow DOF of .65 feet.

Good Luck!

Dave
 
David W. Jones said:
Add light to your scenes and close down the iris to gain greater depth of field.
For example... Try lighting your scenes to f4. A typical Canon APS-C camera with a 50mm lens shooting f4 from 10 feet away will have a near limit of 9.16 feet and a far limit of 11 feet, with a total DOF of 1.84 Feet. The same shot with a f-stop of f1.4 will have a very shallow DOF of .65 feet.

Good Luck!

Dave
Click to expand...

Well my other lens is an F4 so that's my point. Do I need to keep the 1.4 when my other can shoot at 3.5 and on, and not loose focus as easily. I like to shoot chase scenes at night and a lot of my microbudget scripts are written for that. But the 1.4 blurs out of focus like crazy during a chase, but the 3.5 lens does not so much. The disadvantage is that the 3.5 is very dark, but that's better than being out of focus, stylistically. If there is a reason that for me to keep the 1.4. than I will. I can try shooting a night scene at 2.2 and see how that works. It's just that the longer I keep the lens, the less money I'll get if I trade it in, or whatever I have to do.
 
Well I just tried shooting another night scene. One of the actors moved about two feet and went out of focus. Two feet! This lens is garbage for if you want to shoot anything that moves. I'll sell it and put the money towards buying a better camera for night shooting in the future. In the mean time, I'll shoot with my other lens which only goes up to 3.5. I'll just turn the ISO up to 3200. It's grainy, but I can get away with that much better than loosing focus so easily. Instead of having to go so grainy on the ISO what if I turned the shutter up to the 30? Or is grainier ISO better than not going above 50 shutter?
 
3200 ISO, that's hardly usable. Do you have a follow focus? I'd say it's best to learn to pull focus properly. It's really an important skill to have in the industry. All it takes is a decent amount of practice.
 
I don't have a follow focus and am just using a DSLR. What about turning the shutter up to the 30? It doesn't seem to look bad at all, but others say no more than 50.
 
You're still not getting it...

The lens is not your problem and your jumping to bad conclusions all because you don't properly understand.

I am going to hazard a guess that the lens is a 50mm... in that case, all you have to do is 'stop down' from f1.4 to something around f4, and automatically you will see a massive difference and more of the scene will be in focus, but. You are filming in the dark... so you need to light your scene a lot brighter to allow for f-stop change. Do not change the Shutter Speed, do not sacrifice bad ISO. The better alternative is to light the scene properly.
 
Well I took the lens back and will use the money for more lights. But I don't have time for that now. I have to finish this short now and either have to turn the shutter or ISO up. Otherwise I got nothing for this one. I did have a DP originally but he dropped out. So far the only way to get enough light is to put it real close to the actors faces, but that makes their skin too white. I guess I could change the color in post though.
 
You can chalk this all up to user error.

Use your 1.4 lens (that you sold, and will likely want to buy back in the future) close it down a few stops and then bring in more lighting for your short. No camera exists to make your scene look good if you don't know what you're doing. Sorry to be harsh, but its not equipment failure.
 
Yeah I know it's not equipment failure. But I still needs a lens that works for me, without having to do much several retakes, before the time limit on the location is up. I'll stick to the kit lens for now, and make up for the darkness in other ways. So for a future project I can take some time to practice with a 1.4. So when you are shooting a fight/chase scene, how do I keep it in focus, when the actors are moving every two feet very fast? There is a scene where one actor shoves another against a wall, and I had to refocus in less than a fraction of second, before the actors hit the wall from the time of the shove. How does one do that? Are their any books that are good teachers on how to use one?
 
Sounds like you need to A) stop down your lens and B) use something that's wider to be able to follow the action!

Or if you want to use the 50mm, bring in some lighting (take a trip to home depot if you cant rent or are short on cash), stop down to 5.6, and then you will have about a half a foot to 1ft of DOF. Throw focus accordingly!
 
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You need to STOP DOWN. It's when you change the Aperture, you either do this inside the camera, or you do it manual via the aperture ring. change it to a larger number, i.e f4 - f22... Then bring in more lights to light up your scene PROPERLY. Scour this website and you will find all the manuals explaining the basic in's and out's of film making, I think you need to have a hard read of that before you pick up a camera again.
 
Okay, thanks. But I've tried things like that in the past but if you throw that much light on, the actors faces will come out all white. How do I get that cinematic look that looks like they don't have a dozen stage lights shining in their faces, just to make them visible on camera? I did have a DP originally but he had to leave on personal emergency, and I was left to do it all myself in the middle of production. Trying to learn as much as I can. It's more difficult lighting at night of course, since using lights can make the actors look like they have obvious lights on them, and can't get night to look like night, cause the camera won't see it otherwise. If their faces are too white, I guess I can correct that in post, but how do filmmakers do it before that technology was invented? I will see about finding some books on it though. Thanks.
 
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You don't have to blast light in their face.

Light your background, and light your talent. You should be able to close down to a decent stop for focus, and have the subjects and the background both with the correct exposure.

filmmaking 101
 
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