Narrowing down my lens choices...

[ROCKMORE]

Now, I can buy the body alone for £1000 but adding a 18-135mm lens makes the price increase to £1315 or adding a 15-85mm lens takes it up to £1420. I was thinking I might be best to buy the body alone and add lenses myself?

This may sound strange but the 18-55mm is probably the best lens to start with. I had no choice and had to take it with the T2.

It is very cheap and has a lot of shortcomings / Many lenses are expensive with the same shortcomings.

I've worked with it for a month intensively and got some great results /

I found out what lenses to avoid investing in, which will save me a lot of time and money namely any variable aperture lenses are OUT.

I can still sell it or keep it around for crash camera.

 

[saneproductions]

I wonder what would happen if I put my .7x Century Precession 77mm thread wide adapter on the 11-16mm. Would be interesting to find out.

Hmm, I bet is would vignette, but it would be fun to try~

 

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

I would skip the kit lens. It's not too bad but the variable aperture is a killer for my style. I have the Tokina and I love it. If I were to get 3 off of that list I would get the 50, 11-16, and the 17-50 VC. It is worth the extra money IMO. Just my 2.

IMHO, I'd say whatever lenses you're considering, you need a wide, normal, and long for narrative work. Otherwise your vocabulary is limited. Limited to only wide/ normal (obv)

Each is used in a specific way to make a specific visual point. You can't say what a long lens says if you only have option sof 11-50mm.

For example. In addition to making a set look big. Wide lenses can make actors look farther apart from each other. Can be used to make one look bigger than the other. Can be used as a portrait lens for character actors to make them look even more charactery - like make their nose way bigger, can be used for close ups to add disorientation - like in a horror movie.

Long lenses do the opposite. Can be used to make a location feel more clostrophobic, can be used to make the actors appear closer together, are often used as portrait lenses to make features seem more even - like make a big nose not so big, add beauty for portrait shots.

A narrative example of using them might be something like this.
You have a scene where to characters are fighting and threatening never to see each other again at the top. You could (in theory) use wider lenses for prettu much everything. They'll seem more distant from one another, mirroring the subtext of the scene. You could then switch to longer lenses when they decide they're so in love they can't leave each other. Making them seem closer together and more attractive to us and whoever the character is through which we most identify with, see the movie through.

 

[steventimothy]

If you can find an adapter for your old Canon lenses, and they're fully manual, and you're sure it will work, and the adapter doesn't cost too much.... then go for it. Could be a very cheap way to get access to 3 more lenses.