Most Commonly Used Lens?

Well, as far as I know, lens choice is a by project basis. For instance, in American Cinematographer, the guy who did "The Golden Compass" primarily relied on two lenses, one for wide shots and one for closeups and he chose them based on the idea that he didn't want the movie to be too wide to overdo the backgrounds and he wanted to show the characters' faces as much as possible.

In 35mm adapter setups, everyone has to have a 50mm lense apparently, yet when you read about the cinematography of films, more often than not, the 50mm isn't used as much compared to the other lenses.
 
Jack_Felis said:
Well, as far as I know, lens choice is a by project basis. For instance, in American Cinematographer, the guy who did "The Golden Compass" primarily relied on two lenses, one for wide shots and one for closeups and he chose them based on the idea that he didn't want the movie to be too wide to overdo the backgrounds and he wanted to show the characters' faces as much as possible.

In 35mm adapter setups, everyone has to have a 50mm lense apparently, yet when you read about the cinematography of films, more often than not, the 50mm isn't used as much compared to the other lenses.
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I had a feeling about the 50mm lens based on just WATCHING movies. My guess was 35mm and 85mm.

Thanks for the info, Jack. I just told someone else that it basically boils down to choice. I'm not a DP or anything like that, just like to gather info about these things.
 
I don't have a favorite because they all have pros and cons. I think the most versatile 35mm adapter lens is the 35mm as long as you can get close if necessary. Other then that I love the 85 for CU's, the 105 for macro, and the 50 for POV.
 
50mm is the closest to what we see out of the human eye...so it literally is standard. But that can be rather boring....or I guess I should say "normal".

Once you change the lens length to something different, whether wider or longer, you are now applying an interpretation of what is being presented on camera rather than just simply displaying it.

Or at least that's what I've been taught.
 
I think the more you use your own lenses and sort of train your eyes, the more you start to notice WHICH focal lengths are used in motion pictures. Lately I've noticed myself seeing films at the theatre and in my head going, "35, 50, 85, 50, 35, 105" because I can just sort of see what it is. I just saw "ATONEMENT" tonight, and they used a LOT of longer lenses for the bulk of the film. I don't think I ever saw anything as extreme as a 20mm, 24 or 28, and literally only a COUPLE shots with a 35. It seemed almost that all of the wide establishing shots were done with a 50 and everything got closer from there. Which I'm guessing was a stylized choice, the longer lenses on wide shots flattens things and makes it all look a bit like an old painting. It was very pretty though, I liked it.

I think the reason we see a lot of people mentioning the 50mm on this site in use with their adapters is because it's a very convenient lens. It's inexpensive, there's a LOT of them out there and available, you loose the least light, and since it's really right in the middle giving you a sort of "what you see is what you get" focal length, if you needed to (say your first short with an adapter and you only own one lens) you CAN do an entire project with it. Of course it'd be more interesting if you had a full array of lenses, but you get where I'm comming from.
 
Depends on whether we are talking about a 35mm camera or not. A standard set of primes for a 35 are:

18mm
24mm
32mm
50mm
85mm
100mm

That would be for an Arri - replace the 18mm with a 17mm for a Panavision. A film camera will usually shoot with shorter focal length lenses.

Compare that to what I have with my LEX:

28mm
35mm
50mm
85mm
105mm
135mm

So you can see that what may be used more often with digital may not be that way for film.
 
It depends on the director's style a lot as well. In "Directed by Steven Spielberg" it's mentioned that Minority Report was shot almost completely with 17, 21, and 27 mm lenses. And that he gets away with this as many of his dialog scenes are shot wide with complex blocking instead of "standard" shot/reverse style.
 
aravance said:
50mm is the closest to what we see out of the human eye...so it literally is standard.
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I have heard this all over the place but I personally disagree. I feel like a 35mm is a much more natural FOV.

For my set I have a

17-35mm
50mm
70-210

and have never really wanted anything more. I use mostly the 50mm for interior work and the 70mm on outdoor or closeups. The 35 end of my zoom sees a lot of small interiors as well in addition to outdoor establishing shots.
 
Well it depends on a lot more variables then you guys have touched on. First your sensor or gate size. For instance the 50mm on a 35mm is about the same as normal human percepetion. As sensor size change so does the lens size, for 16mm and a 2/3" sensor you need a wider lens, so for the HVX you need even a wider lense then that. So thats just the first part of what lens is the right lens. Next you have to consider speed, then brand each brand has its own charcteristics. So there is a whole lot more involved in selecting the lens to use then a favorite.
 
Whoa, discussion. LoL

I think that the choice by DP and Director may be the closest thing to "what's the most commonly used." I really dislike the look of a 50mm lens on my Letus Unit, but it seems to be the most popular lens on DVXuser for some reason. I much prefer 35mm and 135mm lengths. The 35mm because it really decreases the exaggerated DOF you get with these adapters, the 135mm because it's just pretty. =P

Thanks to Jared for the crazy thread! This post is SICK: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showpost.php?p=124489&postcount=21
 
Lol, no problem! Yeah, anything David posts is pure gold. I've spent hours reading through tons of pages in the "Ask David Mullen Anything" thread over there on reduser. Lots of great stuff about lenses and lighting and filmstocks and more...Check it out if you haven't already.

I really dislike the look of a 50mm lens on my Letus Unit, but it seems to be the most popular lens on DVXuser for some reason.
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It's probably in part because they're so darn cheap. A hundred bucks for a relatively high quality piece of glass that you might even already have lying around on your SLR... It's probably always going to be the lens that the adapter guys start with.
 
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