Light And Lenses - The basic filmmaker ep 63

This episode of The Basic Filmmaker is sponsored by... No one. Let's talk about lenses! I've been getting a lot of questions about buying cheap lenses and saving money. There's nothing wrong with low cost lenses or saving money, but let me give you something to consider. Filming has some critical aspects to it. The biggest one is to remember is: it's ALL about light. Before the camera records the image (the light) to the card, it (the light) goes onto the sensor, and before that it (the light) goes through the lens. Hopefully you can control the light, and, hopefully you've got a decent camera. The thing that will kill your shooting between those two, is the lens. A low cost lens gives soft images that aren't sharp, are grainy, and have less vibrant colors. A higher cost lens gives clearer images that vibrant and sharp. I have talked to many people who are convinced by advertising, or gear junkies, or friends, that the next great thing to spend money on, is the next greatest camera, or a full frame camera, or a camera that shoots raw, or a steadicam, or whatever. Well, if you haven't done so already, the next best thing to spend money on is: a good quality LENS. I would rather use a $200 camera and a good $800 lens, than a $800 camera and a $200 lens. If you want your video to look really good, you buy a GOOD lens, or, you'll wonder why you can't get awesome footage like you see other people get, and, you'll be tricked into thinking it's your filming, or you need a better camera, or your editing sucks. For example, for personal use, I have a 5D Mark III, which is about $3500. I also have other lower priced cameras like a t3i, now about $500. If my only choice were to shoot a scene with the full frame sensor awesomeness of the 5D Mark III and a cheap $100 lens, or, my low cost, crop sensored t3i, with a really nice lens, I'd always choose the t3i. Why? The awesome 5D Mark III would just be filming the images through a soft and dull lens, coming through crappy glass and through the crappy lens before it even hits the sensor to record the images to the card. It's like buying glasses for your eyes. Do you want to buy cheap glasses and see the world as soft and unsharp, with dull colors, to save some money? Or do you want to spend the extra money for glasses, where you see the world as sharp, with vibrant colors and clarity? Well, the lens on your camera, is the camera's glasses. A more expensive lens for your camera, usually means higher-quality glass, sharper detail and more vibrant color. And you can also go crazy with this. For example, you can buy a great cinema zoom lens which is priced at about $38,000! But I wouldn't suggest it unless you've got a paying gig with a huge budget, and why would you buy them anyway when you can rent them for about $500? Anyway, here's my recommendations: Unless your camera really sucks, keep it, and spend your money on some lenses. If I were looking at lenses, I'd buy something like a good 28 mm, a good 50mm, and maybe a good 85 mm to start. These lenses shown here, are about the lowest acceptable quality I'd go with, and if you buy all three it's going to cost you about $450 for the 28mm, $400 for the 50mm, and about $420 for the 85 mm. That's $1200 for lenses, that would cover the most common situations you'll run into, such as shooting in a small enclosed space, a room, or longer shots outside. And that's not cheap for most people. Here's another thing to consider, at least for canon owners. Let's say you do decide to upgrade your camera to a full frame 6D, or 5D Mark II or Mark III, or whatever the next thing is. A lot of these cheaper lenses won't fit those cameras. The higher quality EF lenses, which are generally more expensive, DO fit all canon cameras. So your investment means you can upgrade to new cameras all you want, and never have to buy new lenses. Now, all that being said, if I was limited to a budget, and could only buy one single lens that I could use for all around photography and video shooting, I would, hands-down, get a good zoom lens, and it would be this one: The 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM lens, or a similar featured model for Nikon and others. It shoots at f 4.0 no matter what focal length is. That's important. When you see these lower cost zoom lenses that say f 5.6 - f 8.0, you're going to get pissed off, because to further you zoom out, the less light comes in. And that's the first test of a quality zoom lens. On this lens, the f -- stop remains constant at 4.0, whether it's zoomed all the way in, all the way out, or anything in between. It has super high quality, ultra density glass, with 3 lenses that give you very sharp pictures and very little distortion. This lens also has very high quality image stabilization, which is must for hand held shooting. It has very quick and very silent auto focus, and is dust and moisture resistant. There is a reason why this particular lens is so popular with photographers and videographers. Basically, it focuses fast, has a constant f stop, is built like a brick, tells weather to go eff itself, fits ALL canon cameras, and, although this lens normally costs around $1200, I found one on Amazon, possibly mismarked for $750, which is a steal. So for $750, you get all focal lengths, from 28 mm to 105 mm, in a very respectable lens. Both links are below. As far as Nikon and other camera owners, I would suggest finding a similar zoom lens That has comparable features. I'm not saying this is the BEST zoom lens you can get, but I am saying it's one of the best all-around lenses for money, and you won't be disappointed. I highly suggest you bring your camera and cheaper lens into a real camera store, take some video or photos with your lens, then take video or photo with this lens. Take the footage home and check out the difference. You can also go to somewhere like Borrow Lenses dot com, rent one of these for a couple of days, try it out and return it. The most important thing in your shooting is light, then the lens, then the camera. If you've got good light, and a decent camera, the next thing you need is a good quality lens. I hope that helps, and, thanks for watching. Let's talk about lenses...holy crap!