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What Are Your MUST HAVE Focal Lengths?

Peter Moretti

Peter Moretti

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Just wondering what focal lengths do you find the most indispensible?

Feel free to riff on this as much as you want ;).
 
For me, I'm building my lens kit starting with a 50mm and then working outward from there. 50mm on a full frame sensor is roughly the way your eye sees things. You can shoot a lot (and I mean, a *lot*) with only a 50mm prime. Of course there are things that lens can't do, and looks you can't get, but there are also entire shorts shot entirely or almost entirely on a 50mm prime.

Granted, at 4k that 50mm is closer to a 80mm look. So my next lens is a 35mm (which is roughly 56mm after crop factor). I found on a recent shoot that I love the way 48fps at 3k looks, but the 35mm wasn't wide enough (at that crop factor, it's closer to a 80mm). So my next lens, hopefully, will be a 24mm or wider. After that, 85mm is next on the list. And then a few good zooms lenses.

All of these lens choices are meant to be as versatile and broad as possible. I have some extension tubes so I can do macro stuff in a pinch. I don't have, or plan on getting in the near future, any lens that has limited uses. Don't get me wrong: I LOVE oddball gear. But I don't have the cash flow currently that warrants pursuit of lenses that are only useful in very specific instances. Hopefully, in those cases, I'll have the time to setup a rental.
 
For me, there will be the obvious factors going through my mind when i choose lenses for a shoot:
- do i rent or use my own set
- what type of project
- do i know what to expect, or do i rent more to be sure
- framerates
- esthetics, different lenses provoke different moods
- in the action or observing
- what is my lighting choice
- what's the setting, indoor, outdoor, tight spaces, depth of field, etc

i think as an all-round prime lens set to own and bring to a shoot, to be safe i would take as a bare minimum:

18mm, 21mm, 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm

then i have done shoots, where i'd just take my 85mm as a portrait lens.
I've experienced bigger productions as focus puller, where it isn't out of the question to take a couple of sets (in case), even an additional full set of 16mm lenses for any framerate changes, and the dp just sticking to one or two lenses, usually around 35/40/50mm.
 
You could shoot an entirely decent movie with the standard focal lengths of approximately 24, 35, 50, 80, 135, ideally in superspeed max apertures. Maybe an 18mm in addition.

If I had to choose three then 24, 50, 135mm

If I had to choose two, then two zooms 18-50, 50-150mm ish in the fastest aperture I could afford.

If I could only have one then 18-50mm.
 
Hmmm... Too much depends on what I'm shooting and for what purpose. With a S35 / APS-C / DX format sensor, the usual focal lengths of 25 thru 100 or thereabouts are what gets used most for corporate, commercials, that sort of thing. The stuff I tend to shoot the most.

If I have more creative freedom and the production can benefit, I have a bit of an affinity for shooting with wider lenses, but still remaining aspherical or rectilinear. I also like using long focal lengths, like 300 to 800 mm at times for some of what those options can do.

It's difficult to take others' opinions on this if you're trying to decide on lenses for yourself. It's all very personal, very subjective and at times very dependent on the task at hand. If I could only pick a lens or two, I would go with zooms. Give myself more options that way. If I felt I just had to have primes, my ideal focal lengths for my own tastes and how I like to compose and shoot would be: 14, 21, 32, 40, 65, 85, 120, 300. That said, I don't personally own any primes with focal lengths of 14, 21, 32, 40, or 65mm... I did when I had a set of Zeiss T2 "standards", but I unloaded those when I downsized my equipment collection and stopped renting to others. Now I just have the RPP's 18 thru 100 plus the 300, A 120mm Nikon remounted as PL. The Tokina 11-16 PL converted by Duclos and the Angenieux DP zooms 16-42 and 30-80. I shoot 90% of everything with the zooms it seems. Or at least that has been the situation since I completed that two lens kit. And the 11-16 is still a favorite of mine. I guess I also have a Peleng 8mm fisheye -- turd of a lens, but works well for some things. Have it in PL mount with the option to convert to Nikon F. I also have a 4mm fisheye in F mount and it's nice because it can fit the entire image circle into a DX or S35 frame if we want that effect in-camera.

I really like 40mm and 65mm focal lengths for a lot of generalized shooting, both still and motion use. They will be the focal lengths I acquire next if I decide to purchase more primes. Then again, the only primes I'm interested in acquiring at this point are probably the Leica Summilux-C's. But I don't rent anymore and the rental market around here couldn't support such a lens set anyway, so that's too spendy to justify as a self-indulgent purchase. And that's what it would be, just to shoot my own projects. ...As that's all I'm doing moving forward now, starting in 2013...
 
Jeff and I, as usual, are on the same page here. I own the RPP set and the Duclos 11-16 plus the RED 18-50 and Gibby's old Canon 150-600 PL conv. When I can, I rent Evin's Angie DP set (16-42, 30-80) because as Jeff noted, you can live on those 2 zooms all day for a lot of stuff.

If I was starting a prime set, the 25, 50 & 85mm are the essential focal lengths for narrative. Some shooters feel like they need a bit wider glass for crop factor/windowing so you could maybe go 21, 40 and 65 but I wouldn't - especially as active sensor areas continue to increase in size.

Cheers - #19
 
28, 50, 100. I go by the rule that a basic lens set should have 3 pieces that are each roughly double the focal length of the one before it.
 
i love 40mm lenses...but if i had to choose 3 focal lengths to do a job with id say 28, 50, 100 and your covered.
 
We do mostly interviews, and for that nothing beats a 35, 50 and 85 1.4. These are BY FAR our most used focal lengths for that kind of work.

But it's also good to shake things up (we work in promo), so extreme wides (like a Peleng 8mm) and extreme teles (a 300mm) also get used quite a lot.

The 21mm is currently my favorite NARRATIVE fov though. I think it gives everything a very "epic" grandeur w/out being as extreme as an 18.

I much prefer a 25 to 28. The 25 "feels" wide. You notice the distortion. The 28 is still a bit safe, it's the widest focal length I have that doesn't advertise it's distortion. Because of that, I tend to leave it at home.

My favorite focal lengt that I never get to use at all is the 135mm. I think its fab for portraits, but for some reason we never get time to use it!
 
if i was stuck on a plane that was crashing on a remote island where i could broadcast my filmmaking as long as it didn't give away my location and i had to demand a flight attendant go into the cargo hold and grab only the lenses she could carry but had to be very specific that she didn't just grab the whole damn bag i'd shout to her, as we float weightlessly towards the ocean because we've hit a zero-gravity situation, "get my 11-16, 28, 50, 85, and if you can manage it find a spot to stick my 135! that's the long one ;)"
 
Good thread. Appreciate all those who've added to the conversation.

I wish they made a Super Speed Zoom!
 
Will Keir said:
Good thread. Appreciate all those who've added to the conversation.

I wish they made a Super Speed Zoom!
Click to expand...

They did, it just doesn't cover 4k ;)

Zeiss made the 10-100 T2 (1.8) Zoom for 16mm. AWESOME lens. Tiny image circle. :cryin:
It has Super Speed era T* coating and everything!

It was designed to compliment 16mm Super Speeds, so presumably it has that look. OHH WELL.
 
35mm and 85mm is my 2 favorite lenses. But I can't live without a 50mm.

So 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm.
 
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