How importaint is the glass(whether shooting film, HD video, 4K, ect.) you shoot with? I'm not talking about say base level slr lenses compared to Ziess glass, more so than about the brand, contsruction, lens coating, ect. I'd like to understand the optical aspects of cinematography alot more than I do, so I figured this might be a good question to start with..
Lens selection
- Thread starter Tokarsky
- Start date
RyanT
Veteran
It depends.
Different lenses have different looks. If you're shooting 35mm and finishing on film, it's very important. Shooting with a set of super baltars is going to give you a much different look than say shooting with a set of master primes...
If you're doing a DI though, or shooting digitally, some DP's would argue that as long as the lens has a reasonable amount of sharpness and is comfortable for the assistant, then it is good enough. You can achieve the same look the lens would create through the DI, and if anything have more control over the image.
The best way to test these things is to test. Like I said before different lenses give you different looks and it's just another tool you can use to tell your story.
Different lenses have different looks. If you're shooting 35mm and finishing on film, it's very important. Shooting with a set of super baltars is going to give you a much different look than say shooting with a set of master primes...
If you're doing a DI though, or shooting digitally, some DP's would argue that as long as the lens has a reasonable amount of sharpness and is comfortable for the assistant, then it is good enough. You can achieve the same look the lens would create through the DI, and if anything have more control over the image.
The best way to test these things is to test. Like I said before different lenses give you different looks and it's just another tool you can use to tell your story.
Ryan Patrick O'Hara
Veteran
Those must be the lazy DP's that enjoy spending countless hours and thousands of dollars in DI. Bet the colorists love them. Not to mention the DP is probably not paid for all that time, thus is not working during said DI. If he does choose to actually keep making a living, then he wont be there thus no control over the image. Probably the worst rationale ever.
rogar-BlackEye(DBGj1clark@ucsd.edu
Veteran
There are brands that have been associated with 'quality' over the years. Zeiss has been one of those names. I've only used Zeiss on Hasselblads for still film. Since I have a number of Nikon 35mm cameras and attendant lenses, I've tended to stay in that camp. While some people argue about specifics, in many ways, they do boil down to 'which brand you first signed on with', and having made that investment, tend to stay there...
In terms of The Glass... I'd look at coatings... yes... of course... Unless there's a 'nostalgia' look that absolutely requires an uncoated lens...
Lens coatings relate to light scatter, which relates to 'constrast', either locally, if there are near 'point sources' in theimage, or overall, if there are bright lights anywhere that the lens can 'pickup' (which is why there's a big lenshood often on 'movie' cameras, to limit such strays), and how humans 'appriciate' an image.
The quality of the optical grind, and how much corrections for aberations also factors into The Glass. The number of elements to correct for various distortions that occur in attempting to get a 'flat field' of illumination on the sensor.
The purity of The Glass as well as the absorption of various bands of light, figure in as well...
But all that really comes to 'how much you have to spend', and how 'visible' some defects are, if you can't afford a lens that 'corrects it all'... I hear the Unobtanium Corp is coming out with a cheap perfect f/1.0 zoom 2mm to 1m (paparazzi special) lens next year... better wait on buy anything for now...
Finnegan
Well-known member
I think lenses are extremely important. Cameras all generally do the same thing: record an image through either a physical phenomena like exposing film to light, or digitally through a sensor designed to appropriate light into binary code which can then be recomposited and read as visual information. The look, however, is entirely up how you light and your lens selection. Of course, quite a bit of the look nowadays is achieved in post, especially for films that are heavy on CGI or films whose story takes place in a world unlike our own.