topic Re: Best Lenses for Canon 80D Movemaking in EF & RF Lenses

Best Lenses for Canon 80D Movemaking

JWFilms21 — Sun, 18 Feb 2018 03:11:09 GMT

I am trying to figure out which lens to buy for my Canon 80D for a independent movie I'm making.

The Lenses That I Own

-Canon 50mm 1:1.18 Lens (lowlight)

-Canon 18 -135mm (standard)

I want a lens that is good when shooting 24 fps or 23.98 fps in low light areas and is compatible when shooting people (actors) and beautiful scenary. Also that can easily focus/unfocus and zoom.

Any suggestions?

Re: Best Lenses for Canon 80D Movemaking

shadowsports — Sun, 18 Feb 2018 12:08:23 GMT

Welcome to the forums,

Keep in mind those independent movies are only going to be 29:59 sec or less. The Digic 6 sensor and low ISO on the 80D isn't the absolute greatest for low light photography. Its a nice body, but does have some limitations.

EF-S 17-55 f2.8 is a hard lens to beat on APS-C. This will give good wide angle coverage for landscapes with some reach.

Re: Best Lenses for Canon 80D Movemaking

ebiggs1 — Sun, 18 Feb 2018 16:01:26 GMT

"Keep in mind those independent movies are only going to be 29:59 sec or less."

Or even less depending on file size.

Re: Best Lenses for Canon 80D Movemaking

Waddizzle — Sun, 18 Feb 2018 16:54:03 GMT

@JWFilms21 wrote:
I am trying to figure out which lens to buy for my Canon 80D for a independent movie I'm making.

The Lenses That I Own

-Canon 50mm 1:1.18 Lens (lowlight)

-Canon 18 -135mm (standard)

I want a lens that is good when shooting 24 fps or 23.98 fps in low light areas and is compatible when shooting people (actors) and beautiful scenary. Also that can easily focus/unfocus and zoom.

Any suggestions?

Those are great lenses to get you up and running. But, you may quickly find them just as useful as restrictive. You may wish to invest in a filter holder system, for ND filters, instead of screw on filters.

"Any suggestions?" No, your requirements suggest multiple lenses, not one.

If you are serious about independent movie making, then you probably would want a fully manual, cinema lens. While the lenses you cited would work great with the 80D for capturing short video clips, they will be less useful for serious movie making.

Combined with the 80D, you will have very good focus tracking in video mode. But, you will not have control of the aperture while recording. Those lenses have an electronically controlled aperture. Also, the aperture changes in discrete steps. Changing aperture will result in sudden small changes in exposure, not a smooth transistion.

A cinema lens has a "de-clicked" aperture, which smoothly changes the aperture, instead of in discrete steps like a photo lens would. I have bought a couple of Rokinon cinema lenses for my son, and myself. He uses them for video. I mostly use them for photography.

Re: Best Lenses for Canon 80D Movemaking

kvbarkley — Sun, 18 Feb 2018 19:32:53 GMT

If you google "lens rentals", you will find a company that will let you rent whatever lens you want, including cinema lenses.