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Wide Angle or Prime Lens

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chris.G
Posts: 301 - Karma: 73
Getting ready for another winter, I'm planning out some shots and edits I want to get together. I was wondering what your guys' opinion/experience is with different lenses.

Do you film mostly with prime lenses or do you get most of your shots with wide angles?

I like using primes for film in general because it uses the normal human vision, but then its hard to get all of the skier without being too far away.

What are your thoughts?
Sep 14 2013 3:58PM
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Jiberfish
Posts: 1041 - Karma: 310
Prime just means that it doesn't zoom. They can be any focal length.

there are 14mm primes that supposedly don't distort that much so you could check out those. I got a tokina 11-16 a few weeks ago and I've been loving it! It is perfect for filming skiing.
Sep 14 2013 4:07PM
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cydwhit
Posts: 5070 - Karma: 43,008
Jiberfish is right, I think you mean 50mm which on a full frame is supposed to be about the same as human vision, that is also one of the most popular primes, that is a focal length though and has nothing to do with it being prime. Vintage primes can be cheap though. Good Luck!
Sep 14 2013 5:50PM
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chris.G
Posts: 301 - Karma: 73
Thanks for the replies! Yeah, I have a 50mm on a 5d, so I was think of it as my "human vision" lens, its perfect for film in most cases. Sometimes with skiing tho its hard to get the full skier when I want to. I also don't own a glidecam yet, but I'll be buying one soon so I think it'll be easier to work the camera without getting that shake.

I always just notice a bunch of people using super wide-angles with a lot of distortion, and I'm wondering if that really helps get more in the shot?

Sep 15 2013 1:31AM
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cydwhit
Posts: 5070 - Karma: 43,008
A wide angle will help you get more in the shot but if you buy a nice, non fisheye wide angle distortion shouldn't be awefull
Sep 15 2013 11:14AM
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chris.G
Posts: 301 - Karma: 73
Word, thanks man. I'll probably look into getting a wide angle to add to the collection.
Sep 15 2013 2:40PM
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