In this world of filmmaking lenses are believed to contain some of the magic of what is commonly referred to as “look”. But can you really tell different lenses apart by simply looking at the end result? Can you tell the difference between primes, cinema primes, and zooms? Sometimes the difference can be a couple hundred or thousands of dollars.
A quick note about what was used on the short film. Since the filming would take place at night in various lighting conditions and distances different focal lengths were used. This was extremely challenging considering all the other factors outside of my control in a live performance.
Here are some of the lenses that I use and each have been renowned for their “looks” but not all of them were used for this short film. I have the legendary photography prime Voigtlander 17.5mm f.95. The cinema prime SLR Magic 25mm f.95. And now enter the EF APS-C zooms: Tokina 10-20mm f2.8, Sigma 18-35mm f1.8, and finally the big guns Sigma 50-100mm f.18. The EF lenses are paired with the Viltrox EF-M2 .71x focal reducer.
The short was recorded in film, 24fps and 60 fps, 4k dci, raw 4:1 and fully edited in Davinci Resolve 15. The Moza Air 2 gimbal was used with handheld and a majority on a monopod.
So now let’s look at some stills and see if you can decipher which lens was used. Please comment below.
