You agree about this summary of how prime are the best (especially nikkor AI) cinena

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deleuze3

Well-known member
Just wanted to know what you think of a pro on youtube that says many things about how primes are the best (especially nikkor AI/AIS) for cinema work).
HERE IS THE SUMMARY of it:

Always in favor of using prime lenses
Monumental difference
90% of hollywood cinema are shot with primes
For documentary film producer, independant filmmaker, documentary filmmaker

When you have the control of the situation and you can move the camera around. Primes are better than anything today. Higher and better performance than 15, 20, 30 000$ PL mount cinema lens.

Ø Mechanical optic (no electronic control)
Ø Manual aperture control (manual control of the iris of the lens itself)
Ø No autofocus
Ø No IS
Ø No metering connections
Ø Can be mounted on the iris of the lens itself)

Ø Better optical performance
Ø Better resolution
Ø Less distortion
Ø Most filmic look you can get, work of art, beautiful
Ø Low light
Ø Sharper
Ø Shallow depht of field
Ø Focus handling better
Ø Better build
Ø Color rendition a bit cool

But not super sharpness
 
The MTF curves of modern, fast, Nikon and Canon short zooms, e.g., 28 or 24 - 70mm, f/2.8 are very impressive and you're not going to see much benefit over a prime in the same focal-length range unless you need the speed that an extra stop on some primes offers. A lot of things he mentions, e.g., manual aperture control, have nothing to do with prime -vs- zoom.
 
Horses for courses. There is no universal best, though for that specific use there are some advantages to primes if you're comparing dollar for dollar. If you're in a faster paced environment, zooms are going to save you a lot of time and time is money too.
 
Primes will always be faster and sharper with less distortion. That's the benefit of 1 focal length and less optics moving around. Modern zooms have cut the gap through, where it's not that big of a difference anymore. I love my PL primes. But if I'm on a job that I deem needs a zoom, I'm renting a zoom. It's always has to do with the job your be shooting that decides the lens choice. Not what someone on the internet says. (Ironic isn't it?) ;)
 
I prefer primes. But if you don't have the time to change lenses, they're not an option.

For me, the benefits are: usually better bokeh, usually sharper, nearly always faster.
 
Everybody has a different opinion.

I would worry about what works best for my own shooting situations rather then some "pro" on YouTube.

And for what it's worth, I could post a shot taken with a prime and a shot taken with a zoom, and that so called pro would not know which was which, nor would anybody else.
 
"Most filmic look you can get" ?

I call BS

'Cos, let's face it, the opening shot of the Godfather is just dire....
 
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