Question about focal length

S

sharry

Well-known member
Hey everybody. I read an article in which roger deakins mentioned that he loves the 32mm lens and if given only one lens to shoot a feature, he would choose this lens. On another ocassion he has mentioned that there are very few times when he has gone more than 50mm lens.

Now motion picture film is not full frame. Its almost the size of a micro four thirds. Only bigger. So when a cinematographer says that he likes a 32mm or a 36mm or 50mm lens what focal length is he actually shooting. Or am I missing a big point here? Thanking you in advance.

I am buying the AF100 and am thinking of buying a couple of nikon ai manual focus lens. Hence the question.
 
sharry said:
Hey everybody. I read an article in which roger deakins mentioned that he loves the 32mm lens and if given only one lens to shoot a feature, he would choose this lens. On another ocassion he has mentioned that there are very few times when he has gone more than 50mm lens.

Now motion picture film is not full frame. Its almost the size of a micro four thirds. Only bigger. So when a cinematographer says that he likes a 32mm or a 36mm or 50mm lens what focal length is he actually shooting. Or am I missing a big point here? Thanking you in advance.

I am buying the AF100 and am thinking of buying a couple of nikon ai manual focus lens. Hence the question.
Click to expand...

You'd have to know what the film size is to then correlate the focal length with the Field of View. If Deakins stated a preference, it was related to film dimensions, and the the focal length relates to FoV, as well as some elements of Depth of Field for a given Circle of Confusion.

So, I'd interpret the specification of a 'preferred' lens with those three parameters in mind.

Relating a film+lens from one shooting medium to another, for example relating what 32mm for 'movie film', for a given aspect ratio, say 1.85:1, to 'still 35mm' which has an aspect ratio of 1.5:1, may help people who are very familiar with 35mm still lens characteristics... but to me it doesn't really help because many people don't know what's going on with their 35mm still selection... some do... many don't...

Sounds to me that Deakins prefers nearly normal lenses and at most slightly telephoto for almost everything he does...
 
sharry said:
Hey everybody. I read an article in which roger deakins mentioned that he loves the 32mm lens and if given only one lens to shoot a feature, he would choose this lens. On another ocassion he has mentioned that there are very few times when he has gone more than 50mm lens.

Now motion picture film is not full frame. Its almost the size of a micro four thirds. Only bigger. So when a cinematographer says that he likes a 32mm or a 36mm or 50mm lens what focal length is he actually shooting. Or am I missing a big point here? Thanking you in advance.

I am buying the AF100 and am thinking of buying a couple of nikon ai manual focus lens. Hence the question.
Click to expand...

It's not 'almost' the size of m4/3'rds, however subjective almost may be. If anything, if you are going to compare photography formats and cinematography, it's more close to APS-C.
 
I do most of my shooting on a Canon 7D which is an APS-C sensor camera, and I find myself using my EF 35mm F2.0 the majority of the time. I don't know if it's necessarily the focal length that I like, but that lens has a unique softness to it and it's versatile in terms of FOV.
 
I do most of my shooting on a Canon 7D which is an APS-C sensor camera, and I find myself using my EF 50mm f1.4 the majority of the time. I had a 28mm f2.8 and I like the Sigma 30mm when renting. I've never heard of a 32mm. Must be a cine lens.​
 
I also regularly use my 50mm 1.4 (on a nikon) as my primary go to lens. Excellent sharpness, and quite fast of course
 
I use a 30mm F1.4 Sigma on my 7D almost exclusively. It's very close to what 50mm would be on a Full Frame and is VERY close to what our eyes see naturally. I use higher focal lengths when doing fight scenes or bringing a scene closer together. In studying film, I learned how much you can convey with wide/tele shots as well when you need that, but for most of the shots, I stay with a normal focal length that is confortable and what I consider neutral.
 
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