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Lens recommendation for VFX / Green Screen / CGI

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Bernhard Pusch

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Hello!

We are looking to invest in to a new set of lenses.
Our main focus is studio work and green screen.

We are looking into lenses, which support cooke iTechnology.
For now we would go with a set of Zeiss CP3 XD - because of the extended meta data option.

Its less about the charactaristics of the lenses "look", more about the work flow for CGI to take our shots into their 3D program.
Barrel Correction, Sharpness, Vignetting, Distortion...)

What would be your remommendations?

Thank you very much for any input!

Best
Bernhard


Ps.
Used the Forum Search -- if i missed a post about that, i am sorry and please link me up there.
 
As a nuke compositor and supervisor my advice to you is to look for primes that don't have fringing/chromatic aberration as it will be the main culprit of "fixing edges" on any kind of green screen work.

With that said, I haven't used the CP.3 but I own a set of CP.2's that have been used on a GS shoot and they worked great. Specifically the 18.

I recently supervised on a shoot with Cooke S4's and they were perfect.

Hope that helps.
 
Thank you Maciek S!
May i ask if your projects where more towards green screen (keying heavy) or/and match moving/camera tracking?
 
The Leica Summicron-C cine lenses would probably be a good option for your project. They are not my first choice when I'm going for a "look" but "technical" they are superb lenses. Obviously you don't want to shoot wide open for a number of reasons but even close to wide open they hold up pretty good.

Good luck,

- Jan
 
@ Maciek S: Thank you! Impressive work! Is there a making of docu around?
@ Jan Balster: Thank you! I think this video shows exactly what you are pointing at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkgTT6vT1Ns
@ Michael Lindsay: max 50k Euros for a set of 4 or 5 - right now we have 35k Euros for a set of 5 Zeiss CP3 XD in the shopping list. Camera would be either a Red Helium or Red Monstero.


Anyone close to a VFX/CGI Artist?
What Lens/Meta data does the VFX/CGI department prefer?

Thank you!
 
IMHO i'd be cautious about the Zeiss if you shoot wide open a lot. They do have quite substantial CA especially in high contrast situations. Personally i'm a fan of the SLR APOs which i started a thread about before, the whole point of APO is reduction of that colour fringing. I have no connection to them other than being a happy customer.

As a nuke guy i have plenty of experience of shitty lenses and the wide variety of awfulness you can get...

What i would say those is that the APOs aren't clinical, they have some character which perhaps isn't what you're looking for. Maybe the sigma or tokina options are a better bet?

cheers
Paul
 
We tested the sigmas this week and you get a lot of clean (ish) lens for the momey... they also have really nice cam driven focus, especially for a single operator... However the PL mount is weird and the guy who serives our lenses was not impressed by it... they also projected well but most have the usual green flares (I dislike working with green flares).. they project quite well, they are a little boreing, bit too crisp, but amazing value for money... not sure what I would do with the 14mm (it is difficult to accommodate a MB and ND with a monstro and the 14mm)... Min focus was pretty good!

they do have some CA if you force them .. (I didn't test all focal lenghts for CA only the 20 and 135..)...

Tokinas seem to have a nicer picture ( less obvously punchy and photographic)
 
@paulcurtis: For green screen, i always try to avoid shotting wide open. I agree, the CA is a big concern to me at the moment. Using Zeiss ZE and Contax (still lenses) i do have experience more CA then i would have expected. It was very visible shooting while shooting metallic, reflecting products in front of a white screen/studio (strong contrast). Thank you for under lining that.
I will research on the APOs.

@Michael Lindsay: Sigmas look appealing. There is one think that worries me: focus breathing. I could imagen that focus breathing can be painfull when it comes to trackers and match moving. See here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaA0Ol3sFsg
I will research on the Tokina Cine line.

Thank you guys!
 
Jan Balster said:
The Leica Summicron-C cine lenses would probably be a good option for your project. They are not my first choice when I'm going for a "look" but "technical" they are superb lenses. Obviously you don't want to shoot wide open for a number of reasons but even close to wide open they hold up pretty good.

Good luck,

- Jan
Click to expand...

+1
Got nice falloff but it extremly clean and edge to edge sharp in s35.
 
@Björn. Thank you! I checked your work/background and it looks like you have a very fitting background to answer my question!

@at the topic: I guess glass that renders more neutral or even "colder", is better for green screen work. You want to keep out any warm wave length right?
 
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