Lenses advice

[RED ROBOT]

Okey so as some of you may or may not know I'm shooting my first short film soon.

Now I want to borrow some good lenses because I don't want to shoot the short with the 18-55 kit and 50mm 1.8 . I want better quality .

I was thinking of getting 24-105mm for all the tracking / dolly shots and use it as a wide angle lens .

However I want to get a prime lens as well . I was considering the 85mm 1.2 L lens . People told me it has amazing quality and its very sharp .

What do you think about that choice ? Going with 24-105mm and the 85mm 1.2 ?

For the most part I will be shooting outside . However I have one sequence inside a factory and having low light lens such as the 85mm would come in handy .

 

[chilipie]

Are you hiring or buying?

If you want a wide-angle lens, I'm not sure how 24mm is more useful to you than 18mm.

On a crop sensor, the 17-55mm f/2.8 IS would be my zoom of choice - a stop faster and arguably a more useful range for video than the 24-205 f/4 IS.

If you need to go longer, either of the 70-200mm IS models (choice of f/4 and f/2.8) would be ideal.

The 85mm f/1.2L is a stunning piece of glass but I'm not sure it would be your best choice. It's huge, very heavy and the fly-by-wire focusing doesn't make for easy focus pulling.

For a similar price, you could have the 28mm f/1.8, 50mm f/1.4 and the 85mm f/1.8 - all very solid lenses which would obviously give you much more range than the 85mm alone.

 

[RED ROBOT]

I'm hiring .

I don't want super wide and I know 24 would not be wider than the 18mm ,but the quality that the 24-105mm provides and it's sharpness is way better than the kit lens . As far as I know .


I don't wanna go cheap . I'm renting those lenses so there isn't huge difference at the prices anyway so I want to get the best quality possible .

Are you recommending me to get 70-200mm instead of the 85mm ?

 

[RED ROBOT]

There is a lot of movement in my short . A lot of dolly shots and quite long tracking shots . I was considering of using the 24-105mm for all these .


But as I have an action sequence / fight scene as well I think the 70-200mm could be the better choice .

The thing is that I have a lot of close ups and I want nice ,sharp image for all these .

But as I'm not a professional and I haven't used such expensive lenses before I don't know what to do exactly.

 

[jax_rox]

Normally, I'd rent a set of primes.. Do you have the kind of money to do so?

I'd rather a set of primes over any zoom, normally on a DSLR for narrative work I try and push for Zeiss Compact Primes.

 

[Lucky Hardwood]

The 85mm f1.2L is an awesome lens. I have it and it kicks ass. I would have to know specifically what you are shooting and how you want it to look to make any specific recommendations. I see that you already have a nifty50. What body are you shooting on? When you refer to the 28-105, I'm guessing that you mean the 28-105 f2.8L II? I do not own that lens, but have heard rave reviews about it from still photographers that I know. If you do choose a zoom, put a wide rubber band around the zoom ring to prevent zoom creep. If you were planning to purchase the 85mm lens, I would recommend the 85mm f1.8 II as an inexpensive starting point.