Which affordable lens best for steadycam?

define "affordable"

I plan to use my tokina 11-16 when my flycam nano arrives, hopefully next week

is that "affordable"?
 
a wide angle is much easier to fly when it comes to maintaining focus, I imagine you already know this. There's times I fly with a shallow dof, but it's much more time consuming to get focus down. Im always trying little tricks to keep the actors and operator at a set distance to maintain a sharp image. I have gone as far as tying a string from operator to actor to keep them from drifting. And it actually worked half way decent. Especially if your flying in a circular motion around the subject. Obviously it's not ideal, but hey, sometimes you gotta do what you gotts to do.

You can always stop down if your shooting with a not so wide lens.
 
maranfilms said:
Im always trying little tricks to keep the actors and operator at a set distance to maintain a sharp image. I have gone as far as tying a string from operator to actor to keep them from drifting. And it actually worked half way decent. Especially if your flying in a circular motion around the subject. Obviously it's not ideal, but hey, sometimes you gotta do what you gotts to do.
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Brilliant idea.

I can't imagine IS would hurt on a steadicam, so maybe a 17-55 f2.8 IS?

Even a cheap Canon lens would work on a steadicam, because you're often not pulling focus, and just shooting with the iris closed.
 
Depends on your priorities. Best performance is the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8.

Cheapest is the Tokina 12-24 f/4.

Lightest (very important on the Nano!) is the Canon 10-22mm.
 
I received my flycam nano yesterday

first thoughts here:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?245826-Camera-Stabilizer-for-a-T3i

regarding lenses: this thing won't take a big load, so tokina 11-16 means take the grip away, and no macro rails for easier balance, as I had planned to do; I think I'll just use the tamron 17-50 or even the 550D kit lens, which by f/11 is nearly as good as the tokina (astigmatism/coma/whatever has gone down, and diffraction is just starting to appear):
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/...meraComp=474&SampleComp=0&FLIComp=5&APIComp=5
 
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