When should you not use a 35mm adaptor?

A

Angelshare1

Well-known member
I'm going to have access to one coming up and I'm afraid that I might get into a mentality where if you have a hammer everything looks like a nail. As a general rule of thumb where do you use one, and where do you not want to use one? When should I say no to my DP who's excited to use one.
 
It's a tool, that's all. For some projects you want that look - for others you won't. They certainly aren't something you would put on and leave on - I quite like decent depth of field for most practical projects. I always look at the film derived popular TV series - they spend ages getting more depth of field, not less.
 
Well (not 100% sure for all) there not too easy to take off and on during a shoot. Once it's on I'd think it'd be on for the whole day. You can use different lenses to achieve more or less DOF.
I try and get the shallow DOF for critical shots and closeups and deepen it for movement shots. Just pic a movie and watch it, paying close attention to the background. Theres quite a bit of variety but I think there is a continuous element there that the majority of shots are somewhat shallow.
This is done to get the viewer to focus on one part of the screen.
 
Zblock said:
...You can use different lenses to achieve more or less DOF.
Click to expand...

This is a common mistake that most of the people do! Focal distance does NOT influence DOF! And that's a technically proven fact!

DOF perception though... Is another matter!
 
You can adjust the aperture of the lenses to get more or less depth of field. This will depend on the lenses and adapter you are using, though, as some lenses cannot have their aperture adjusted while using it on an adapter.
 
naavt said:
This is a common mistake that most of the people do! Focal distance does NOT influence DOF! And that's a technically proven fact!

DOF perception though... Is another matter!
Click to expand...


Yeah but it's also a proven fact that viewers don't care as long as it looks good. Perception/actuality whatever as long as you get the desired results.

But you are correct though.

By switching from my 200mm to the 50mm or smaller I get the perceived wider DOF and it's easier to keep my actors in focus as they move as well as keeping the background from being completely blown out.
 
Italian Job said:
FOCUS guys!
When ther's not enough light it's impossible to focus.....
The only reason not to shoot with it on.
Click to expand...

Well, that's not really true. Focus really has nothing to do with how much light are present since it depends only on the distance from the film plane to your subject. You can still get sharply focused footage even in low light. Autofocus is affected by low light, but that's not available with an adapter anyway.
 
When you're shooting in low light situations - avoid!

When you need to change focal lengths often and don't have a zoom lens - avoid! (especially if you have very little time to shoot what you need)

When you have subject matter that's moving a lot and/or quickly and you're not shooting wide and don't have a focus puller or time to deal with focus marks - avoid!

.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top