Lenses for an organic, filmic look

S

SamB2013

New member
Hi all,

I shoot on the Sony FS7 with DSLR lenses, mostly the Sigma 18-35 f1.8 or Canon L glass. I'm soon to start shooting a feature doc and want a more organic, natural look than the one I have been able to get thus far with this set up. Although the camera is brilliant for the money and highly versatile, I feel the image is lacking something that's difficult to articulate - perhaps it's over-sharp / too electronic, if that makes sense.....

I'm considering two different possibilities:

1) Use a diffusion filter like a Black Pro Mist 1/8 to increase contrast and knock the hard edges of the image and keep using the Sigma 18-35 as the main lens. This has the advantage of being cheaper plus having a zoom will be very helpful for some scenes.

2) Invest in a set of vintage primes. I'm looking at a set of Leica R Primes, whose character & feel everyone seems to rave about (or possibly Contax Zeiss, also highly rated and a fair bit cheaper). These could help give the film its own distinctive look plus will probably be a decent(ish) investment.

All thoughts / advice gratefully received.

Cheers,

Sam
 
Practice grading. That's going to get you a lot further than throwing money at lenses. I really like my vintage lenses, but realistically they make a minor difference compared to lighting and grading.
 
I don't grade my own stuff, we'll have a colourist do all that, so there should be a fair amount of scope to get different looks (especially with the XAVC-I codec). I hear what you're saying.... probably only a small portion of the audience are going to notice the difference between lenses
 
Are you certain you want a high contrast diffusion? Could what you don't like be accutance vs. resolution? You might try a filter that slightly lowers contrast and see if you like it.

The only input on lenses I have is based on HD from a camera that doesn't have a great image. I found that medium format Mamiya 645 lenses had a more appealing image than the Zeiss Touit lenses (Fuji X-T1), and really even Canon FD. Might be camera specific so they may not work for you. There are damn cheap right now, and you could still use a speed booster since they are much longer flange distance. The bad part is that most m645 to EF adapters are way too short, need to work on shimming my fotodiox "pro", this adapter is easier to shim than some others. Lenses go from 24mm (only one I don't have) at $500-$800 up to 500mm. Most of the lengths are around $100 to $200 each, so you could build a set pretty cheap. 24f4, 35f3.5, 45f2.8, 55f2.8, 80 f2.8 or f1.9, 110f2.8, 150f3.5, 210f4, get the N version which is newer coatings if you can find them.

Or you could go with a bunch of old Russian lenses which would give the images a lot of character.
 
SamB2013 said:
Hi all,

I shoot on the Sony FS7 with DSLR lenses, mostly the Sigma 18-35 f1.8 or Canon L glass. I'm soon to start shooting a feature doc and want a more organic, natural look than the one I have been able to get thus far with this set up. Although the camera is brilliant for the money and highly versatile, I feel the image is lacking something that's difficult to articulate - perhaps it's over-sharp / too electronic, if that makes sense.....

I'm considering two different possibilities:

1) Use a diffusion filter like a Black Pro Mist 1/8 to increase contrast and knock the hard edges of the image and keep using the Sigma 18-35 as the main lens. This has the advantage of being cheaper plus having a zoom will be very helpful for some scenes.

2) Invest in a set of vintage primes. I'm looking at a set of Leica R Primes, whose character & feel everyone seems to rave about (or possibly Contax Zeiss, also highly rated and a fair bit cheaper). These could help give the film its own distinctive look plus will probably be a decent(ish) investment.

All thoughts / advice gratefully received.

Cheers,

Sam
Click to expand...




one this is for sure,

you wont lose money on a set of Leica R's. there getting harder to find, and the look is amazing.
 
I'd look into diffusion filters. I just wrapped a feature that I shot on Zeiss CZ.2 zooms and Cooke MiniS4s, and honestly the differences between the glass were far less notable than the vibe that adding a 1/2 Black Promist in front of either lens brand offered.

Any decent modern lens is going to offer a sharp, detailed image with pleasing contrast. It's the filtration you put in front of the lens, and how you colour grade your digital negative that makes the bigger difference.

The ACS recently shot this fantastic comparison of a wide range of different spherical lenses, both old and new: https://vimeo.com/128747333


And I think it makes it pretty apparent that most of these lenses share more similarities than differences. It's what you do around the lenses (lighting, filtration, grading) that makes the image.
 
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