Still Glass Lens flares vs Cinema

[Noah S]

I am used to Cinema Glass, mostly the RPP. I recently did a shoot with the C200 and a Canon 24-105. I was doing a documentary style interview with the sunset back lighting the subjest. Typically I get nice lens flares with my Cinema glass BUT after looking at this in post i was unhappy with the results. It was washed out and ugly. Is this normal for still glass or is it unrelated?

Another realted quetion....I know the Glass in the Sigma Cinema primes is the same as the still lens. Doesn this mean they would perform the excact same and get the same lens flares? Does the housing effect it at all?

 

[Nick Gardner]

Kind of depends on the stills glass, but I never liked that series of canon lenses.

Nick

 

[John David Pope]

Consider that you are comparing the flare of a prime lens to that of a zoom lens. Because of all the glass elements in a zoom lens, zooms generally do not produce flare in the way that fixed focal length lenses produce flare. All those elements in a zoom more muck things up.

I am not well-versed in Canon L glass, but I do know that the 24-105mm is widely considered to be one of the less remarkable L zooms and considered inferior to both the 24-70mm and the 70-200mm. But yeah, I rarely like the flare that is produced by any of my still-photography origin zooms. Not even with the much-vaunted Sigma 18-35mm.

 

[sander kamp]

I like lens flares and I don't mind pointing a lens towards the sun but the Canon 24-105 has about the ugliest lens flare I have ever come across in any kind of lens. I gets a washed out spot right in the middle of the frame and it is impossible to control. I don't agree that it is a feature of zoom lenses, some zooms have really nice flares such as the Canon 70-200 2.8. It's a shame because, although the 24-105 is not a great lens in sharpness, it is a really useful lens for run and gun situations.

I also don't think you can say something in general about what kind of lenses produce better lens flares, some still lenses are good some are bad and some cine lenses are good and some are bad. In general older lenses tend to give more and more interesting flares but it is something you have to try before you shoot.

 

[John David Pope]

I don't agree that it is a feature of zoom lenses, some zooms have really nice flares such as the Canon 70-200 2.8.

.

Well, "flare" as I think the OP is using the word, is a reflection off the elements within the lens. And being that zooms typically have many more elements the "flare" of zooms is usually of a nature different than that of lenses with far fewer elements. "better" lens flare is subjective. So yeah, you can't really generalize that some makes of lenses produce "better" flare. But you can generalize that zooms flare in a manner different than do primes. Zooms and primes are two different types of lenses, after all. Each with characteristics unique to the type of lens that they constitute. Mechanically they are different beasts designed to do different things. And as a result flare differently. The differences in the flare produced by two different prime lenses is apples to apples. The differences in the flare produced by a zoom lens and that of a prime lens is apples to oranges.

Compare the flare of a Canon 50mm lens to the flare of a Canon 70-200mm lens. The flare of the zoom consists of multiple reflections and is of a very different nature than is the flare from a fixed focal length lens:

https://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Lens-Flare.aspx?Lens=403&Camera=453&FLIComp=0&APIComp=0&LensComp=0&CameraComp=0&FLI=0&API=6

https://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Lens-Flare.aspx?Lens=687&Camera=453&FLIComp=0&APIComp=0&LensComp=0&CameraComp=0&FLI=0&API=4

 

[Noah S]

Thanks guys, that makes sense with zoom lenses as they have more components to reflect. So something like a Sigma Cinema 35mm and a Sigma Still 35mm. Should have the same flare right? Doesn't seem like the housing would effect it.

Either way I am going to remember not to count on the flare for the 24-105. Thx!

 

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Try the Canon CN-E 18-80 instead of the EF 24-105. You will get better results.

 

[Marc Wielage]

The lens coating also has an effect. I find it interesting that (as one example) the new Jessica Jones season on Netflix is using "vintage" Panavision glass in new housings, because they want a specific kind of "dirty" effect. You can make a good argument that lenses like this take the edge off the the digital pickup to some degree.