I have only recently gained an interest in photography and as a beginner I have treated myself to a Canon 600D. Its mainly used for family photos however I have also been impressed with the video capabilities when I been away on holiday. Does anyone have any suggestions for the best lens set up for when recording. Preferably something that requires minimal focus and ease of use would be a benefit. Cheers
Honestly? There are 2 answers here, neither of which sound very nice, but are true. 1. The best lens is the one you have. 2. If you have to ask, then chances are #1 is true. Long answer: What are you shooting, in what lighting, and in what style? is it outdoor documentary style? is it fast paced action? low light? people? set scenes where you can prefocus? are you using a focus pulling rig? are you recording sound separately so that the lens noise isn't noticeable? If those sorts of questions make no sense to you, then #1 is the correct and most useful answer.
Cheers for the honesty johny, exactly the type of answer I was looking for. I will just mess around with the current set up for now.
Personally (being someone who makes money from shooting video on a DSLR) I would say very few of those questions actually matter, apart from the lens noise one perhaps but that's only if you plan on autofocusing, protip: don't. Your first point is the most accurate, video is a lot more flexible than photography in some senses. The difference between a 2.8 and a 3.5 won't make much practical difference unless you only shoot at night time, in which case even a 1.8 won't cut it unaided anyway. The only thing that would be an instant turn off for me in a lens is the lack of a dedicated focus ring, the last thing you want is visible lens wobble while you focus. It's the only reason I've yet to pick up a 50 1.8, gorgeous lens for the money but you want to never be pulling focus mid-shot with it, very rarely a practical option. A slightly less important consideration is the length of pull for focusing, I was using a friends Tamron 18-50 for a shoot a while back and it was lovely and short, with hard stops. Another friend has a Sigma 30mm, lovely lens except the focus ring travels. The end of a pull is noticeable but I found it annoying nonetheless. That turned into a bit of an essay, apologies. TL;DR: the one on the end of your camera.
One thing with a crop sensor to keep in mind is that you want wide. I use 10-24mm a lot for video & love it. 30mm is great too. 50 and above is not usable handheld. Just too damn shaky when on a crop sensor. My personal fav for dSLR video is 30mm 1.8 Just remember, if you see any shakiness on few inch LCD, imagine how shaky it will be on a 42" screen. Don't make friends/family vomit... Keep it steady And have fun!
That's generally why you buy even a basic shoulder rig when using a dSLR for video. The next step up is a basic shoulder rig with a mic, eye piece, and a focus puller. And from there, you can go bananas.
Video? A range of fast, manual Nikkors. The focus range is more linear than most, so it's easy to pull. Fast for low light shooting, and there are adaptors available to fit 5D MKIIs if that's your thing. Due to their renewed popularity due to the whole 5D MKII "They shot House on it" effect, these classic old Nikkors are now fetching STUPID money on Ebay.
I'm impressed that that's a basic rig to you Personally wouldn't go down the Zacuto/Red Rock Micro route, it's like Mac vs PC. Shiny, but can be done cheaper. But agreed, steadiness is definitely an issue. I recommend a tripod to start with, there are some excellent ones available for ~£40 on ebay. Don't worry about it being a specifically "video" tripod, the main difference is the weight they can support. Photography tripods can handle a DSLR just fine and most heads have a certain amount of drag to allow for panning shots anyway. For handheld an eyepiece will make a massive difference, shoulder rigs are more tricky. You can get cheap ones but it's not really worthwhile, most of them rely on resting on your stomach for support which leaves them anything but smooth if you plan on moving during a shot. Ideally you want some counterweights over your shoulder but that's when it starts getting expensive. As mentioned, a short lens will help a lot.
All the answers above are pretty useless tbh, your either nit picking or toffing or making yourself look big. You've just started, You want to learn how to do videography & you don't quite know what you want to shoot yet. There is a great tutorial on the Digitalrev channel on youtube as they do all the shooting of there videos with a DSLR & a 24-105 mainly because they have access to it but also its a good focal range and it has 2stop IS which will help if you do not have any sort of stability rig or if your moving around. Check out the digitalrev youtube channel other then that get something with stabilization and it will make your life alot easier, 28-135 is a good lens and it has IS.
Yes making myself look big was my sole aim here I fail to see how a £200 lens is better advice than a £40 tripod for someone just starting to experiment with video. Not to mention both AF and IS have a fairly big (detrimental) impact on audio recorded by the camera, and therefore should be avoided if at all possible. Honestly even one of these would even help with handheld stability as it transfers the weight of the camera from your fingers, more like holding a camcorder.
I told him to use the lens he had. I'm not sure what was useless about that. He's not a budding film maker, so he's not interested in the technical side; the lens he has is the best one to use. I'm not sure what more practical advise there is. Granted, the thread did drift, but then they always do.
What is it about this particular forum that brings out all manner of asshattery? Guy asks question... people with relevant experience answer... people answering get accused of making themselves look big. Just LOL. Yeah.. ignore us all.... go to a Chinese retailer's website instead.
even though i don't shoot much video, from my little experience, the most important thing in a good video lens is a wide, smooth focus ring based on that, there are lots of OLD (pre EOS) lenses, fully manual, built like tanks and with dampened focus rings which might be very fun to use for video. you can also get them very cheap i occasionally shoot film and own several pentax SMC takumars which have great optics, very smooth and reliable and can be easily adapted to EOS systems via 5$ adapter. if you want something modern and still affordable, check out samyang/rokinon lineup. their recent 35mm 1.4 as well as the 85mm 1.4 should be a real joy to shoot videos with and they get great reviews (i will get a copy of 35mm from a local supplier for a review as soon as i have some spare time)
