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Do they make lenses like this?

This is probably a dumb question but, I have a fight scene to shoot, but in the room of the location I want to shoot part of it in, it's a very tight space. The camera might be too close in some of the shots I want to do. The only solution would be too shoot most of it, from above, but that would be too much from above. The lens is a 18-55mm zoom. Do they make a lense that can see in a way, that's scaled back further from where the camera is? Like one that can zoom back to like negative 30mm?
 
No, but there are plenty wider lenses than 18mm. It's a big jump to go from 11 to 18mm, a similar scale difference as 110 to 180mm.

There are fish eyes too, some around 4mm. That's more than 4 times wider than your current lens, but really distorts the image.
 
If you can find a negative focal length, that lens will probably do that, but it'll bend space and time and is actually the cause of black holes... the cheater way to do it is to shoot away from the scene, and into a mirror or two, artificially increasing the distance from lens to subject.
 
I'd try mirror(s).
Or a new location.

Also consider just how much space you really need?


I recall in BOURNE ULTIMATUM the fight sequence with the Desh character seemed to be in some pretty tight spaces... so I did some homework for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBRE1k17d3Y&feature=player_detailpage#t=72s

Five loonies says you can get your camera and actors that close to the wall.
Look at the size of that room from left to right.
At most it's ten feet/three meters.

Another cheat would be to have a window behind the characters to give the "sense" of more depth/less cramped (of course this'll FUBAR your auto contrast so you'll likely need a ton of interior lighting to compete with the sunlight outside).

Also consider shooting from room doorways, or out in the hallway just a bit and zoom into the tight space where the action is happening, and from closet spaces.

SOME dutch angle shots where your camera is in the lower or upper corners of the room might be nice, but you'll need to be consistent in applying those across other action sequences or else it'll DEFINITELY look like cheats for that sequence only.

GL
 
You can rent a 5D or other camera with a full frame sensor too, you'll have a much wider focal length that way. a 5D with the Tokina 11-16mm Lens at 11mm is almost 3 times wider than your t2i with an 18mm.
 
You can rent a 5D or other camera with a full frame sensor too, you'll have a much wider focal length that way. a 5D with the Tokina 11-16mm Lens at 11mm is almost 3 times wider than your t2i with an 18mm.

It'll vignette (as in completely black corners) until about 14/15mm on the 5D though… you can't get much wider than the Tokina on the T2i without going into fisheye territory (I have always really wanted to try the non-fisheye ARRI Ultra Prime 8R).
 
You can rent a 5D or other camera with a full frame sensor too, you'll have a much wider focal length that way. a 5D with the Tokina 11-16mm Lens at 11mm is almost 3 times wider than your t2i with an 18mm.

14mm on 5D will be tasty. Pretty much looking at what you'd see using an 8-10mm on APS-C/S35ish sized film planes.

Good suggestion. And one of the reasons why the 5D is pretty useful for no-budgets.

It'll vignette (as in completely black corners) until about 14/15mm on the 5D though… you can't get much wider than the Tokina on the T2i without going into fisheye territory (I have always really wanted to try the non-fisheye ARRI Ultra Prime 8R).


Have used the 8 and 10, actually prefer the 10 but they're both pretty sweet on Epic.
 
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I can vouch for the Tokina 11-16.

Pay attention to the camera angles, particularly on a wide. For fight scenes, telephoto lenses are really good at compressing distance, thus lending realism to a fist making contact. I think on a wide you'd have to be a even more careful with choreography and camera location.
 
Oh okay thanks. Since I am using the T2i, could any of those lenses be adapted to that?

To be more specific, my fight scene is in a bathroom. One character is choking another on the floor, next to the tub. I want the camera right on the floor, with both of their heads in the shot. But since the toilet is there, it will be real tight, and the lens does not go far enough back. But I can see about using mirrors if I can't get a lens for it.
 
How about have them fall into the tub choking each other.
During the struggle one turns on the water and tries drowning the other.

Would save you some of this space/lens hassle. :)
 
Okay I tried a location with more space but I still wasn't able to get an angle that is far away enough. Basically when I put a camera on the floor and point it up, at the person being choked, it it still too close, and almost incomprehensible. This is with an 18mm lens. The stores where I live don't see anything under. I tried shooting it in a mirror like I was suggested, but the problem with that is, the mirror reverses the image. Which doesn't work well when cutting back and forth between shots, during the action. I tried with the mirror at different angles, but the image is still reversed, just at different angles.
 
Really? Wow! I new you could rotate an image upside, down, but I did not know that there were "reverse negatives" in the digital world. I didn't know you could do that with a digital photo, since the photo only appears to have one side.

So when it comes lenses that are wider than 18mm I want to decide how far below I should go. At was mm does the lens become fish eyed? If you put an 18 mm on the floor during the choking scene, I want to do, the lens will show the actors shoulders, as the actor has his hands on the floor, with his arms straight. But I want a lens that will go as far down as the actors wrists, like in some movies. Maybe I don't need to reshoot it though. Is it okay with the actors face being that close up in the camera, from the floor, and coming off as stylistic during a fight, rather than just way too close?
 
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Okay this mirror thing isn't working as well for me. I think I want to spend the extra cash on a wide angle lens in the future for shooting wide, from the floor. Right now I have the Canon T2i. I was thinking of getting a bigger DSLR, like the 5D or something like that. But that one seems to have bigger lenses, so is it okay to put T2i lenses on a bigger camera, with adapters? Or do bigger lenses work better with bigger sensors?
 
EF lenses work on the 5D and the crop sensor T2i, t3i etc.

EF-S lenses work only on crop cameras.

This is a readily known thing with a little bit of research, the research you need to be doing before spending that kind of money.
 
Oh I did not know that bigger DSLR's have EF bodies, if that's the case. I thought they were still EF-S. I'll just wait till a couple of years and see what's new, coming out I guess. This is the problem with lenses, if you want to buy a bigger DSLR, they don't work, even with an adapter.
 
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