Lens for Documentary Film - Canon 5D mark ii

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Hi Guys

Just wondering if anyone has any lenses they could recommend to me for making a documentary film. I have the Canon 5D mark ii so they must be EF lenses.

I asked a friend today what he thought of the Canon 50mm f1.4 and he said it would have a "tight pinch". Dont understand quite what he meant, as I thought that lens would have been a pretty good lens to make a documentary with.

Shots I'll be including are sort of interview types with a darker backdrop.. softbox lighting. Also, "a day in the life of....." will be included in this same documentary. I have the 28-135mm lens at the moment. It's not a bad lens but I can see the draw backs of it already. Im very new to DSLR and video.. so please bear with my ignorance.

Thanks

Chris
 
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I've never heard the term before. On a full frame camera, like the 5D series, a 50mm lens is considered "normal", meaning that it it is similar in field of view to how a normal human sees. Many will tell you that a normal lens gives a boring or flat look to the shot. I disagree. It's all about the lighting. As long as your lightscape separates the subject from the background and provides the proper amount of contrast for the look that you are going after, there is no reason that a normal lens shouldn't give you a beautiful capture. I generally use a 35mm or 85mm for interviews because I prefer the look of those lenses for portraits and transfer that prejudice to video. It's all a matter of personal taste.
 
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Lucky Hardwood said:
I've never heard the term before. On a full frame camera, like the 5D series, a 50mm lens is considered "normal", meaning that it it is similar in field of view to how a normal human sees. Many will tell you that a normal lens gives a boring or flat look to the shot. I disagree. It's all about the lighting. As long as your lightscape separates the subject from the background and provides the proper amount of contrast for the look that you are going after, there is no reason that a normal lens shouldn't give you a beautiful capture. I generally use a 35mm or 85mm for interviews because I prefer the look of those lenses for portraits and transfer that prejudice to video. It's all a matter of personal taste.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I too thought of the 50mm lens in such a way also! It threw me off a lot when he said that to me. So.. with the 35mm I did come across a fairly cool looking lens. Its the Samyang 35mm T1.5 Cine and I was wondering what you thought of that? I saw some footage from it on a 5D mark ii and it looked really nice.

http://www.ukdigital.co.uk/samyang-35mm-t15-as-umc-lens-canon-vdslr-cine.html

Chris
 
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I like using an 85mm on interview subjects, 50mm is just a little wide for me (and that's on S35, let alone FF!).

But, it depends what you're looking for. I think you should get your friend to clarify exactly what he means by a 'tight pinch'?

The lens is fine, but it also depends on what you want. If I'm doing talking heads, I like to have at least two angles in it if it goes for more than a couple minutes or so, and generally two different focal lengths.. I find only one focal length can be very limiting, but you may not.
 
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I find using the 24-105 mm L series really versatile for doc type stuff. Although it is slow (f4) it has image stabilisation and weather sealing so you can pretty much use it anywhere that has reasonable lighting and you dont have to waste time changing glass. For the 'day in the life of' part it may be a more usefull one....
 
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Be warned that zoom lenses tend to show a lot more barrel distortion compared to primes at the same focal length (especially at the wider end of the spectrum). Although is is probably less of a big deal on documentaries, but you should be aware of it.
 
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I haven't used any of the Samyang glass, so I can't help you with any type of a review on it. If you've seen images that you like taken with it and the reviews of people that actually have that particular lens are good, then go for it. Try to find out all of the exact settings that the images you like used so that you can try to replicate them. Good luck.
 
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I also like the 24-105 f/4 for general doc work, run-n-gun type stuff. The 24-70 f/2.8 is a sharper lens, and faster by probably 1.5 stops, but it's also noticeably heaver, more expensive and doesn't have IS. I find the IS useful, although it's not as good as a dedicated video camera IS - it tends to snap back to center when the correction drifts too far, which can be an issue in relatively still handheld use - of course it can always be turned off. For doc work I tend to use primes only for interviews or in very low-light situations.
 
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