Which Lens to buy? Prime vs. Zoom

Let’s just start by saying that I’m no expert at lenses. Let’s just say that I’m no expert on anything. Now, I mingle with filmmakers all the time as so many of them seem to know so much that I don’t know. So as someone who does purchase filmmaking equipment such as cameras and lenses, I seek out advice all the time. Everyone sings the same song: Buy good prime lenses.

I’ve bought one good prime lens. But I don’t get to use it much. Maybe it’s my fault but I love using zoom lenses. So recently I just thought I’d do some research on the differences between the two in terms of quality and price. The following is my conclusion. The experts may disagree but this is what I’ve come to believe after my brief Google excursion into the matter.

1. Historically, prime lenses were made as they are easy to manufacture.
2. Zoom lenses started to be in higher demand because of the flexibility ( you don’t have to move your setup every time you want to move in or out).
3. As manufacturing became geared for zoom lenses, production cost of lower demand prime lenses went up and thus the prices of prime lenses went up. The prices of prime lenses is therefore a result of a lack of demand AND the type of glass used, not just a result of the quality of the lens.

So this whole idea that prime lenses are always better has a little bs in it, IMHO, although it seems that some experts vehemently disagree. Who am I to challenge them anyway? All I can say is that my expensive Canon 50mm 1.4 hardly ever gets used. I find a lot more pleasure fiddling around with my Zoom lenses.

Again, don’t listen to me. I’m no expert. But I’m happy with my zooms. And unless you are strictly a photographer, there is no need, in my opinion to restrict yourself to prime lenses only. Even if your video image is not quite as sharp with your zoom lens as it would be with an equivalent prime, at 24 frames per second, nobody will notice. So save your money.

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Tim Harwill – Spinner of Tales

The song below is one of my favorite tracks from Tim Harwill. It’s a catchy tune. You may find out more about yourself than the songwriter himself from this one.

Enjoy the music. Replay it. Come back and play it again.

Check out more of Tim’s work at www.timharwill.com

Production Team –
Directors of Photography: Jonathan Duder & Jonathan Krimer
Audio: Guy McLoughlin
Director/Editor: Aveek Mansur
Co-Producer: Jonathan Krimer
Producer: Toronto Picture Company
 

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Tim Harwill – On These Roads

Tim Harwill is a singer of Country Music, from Alberta, Canada. He is a solo artist and is currently on tour, singing at pubs, clubs and coffee joints across Canada. He was passing through Toronto and stopped by for a chat.

We will post some of the conversations in the coming days. For now, Here is a song called “On These Roads” from a new album he is working on.

(Director’s Note: There is some experimentation going on in this little film. We’re playing with the angles and the colors, and trying to learn a bit as we do it too. Also, the Sennheiser Lav, which I bought cause everybody says its so bloody fantastic, constantly kept picking up frequency static, although all the cell phones were off, to the best of my knowledge. Also, since I don’t have a sound proof studio, if you have really good speakers, you might hear police sirens outside your window)
 

Check out more of Tim’s work at www.timharwill.com

Production Team –
Directors of Photography: Jonathan Duder & Jonathan Krimer
Audio: Guy McLoughlin
Director/Editor: Aveek Mansur
Co-Producer: Jonathan Krimer
Producer: Toronto Picture Company
 

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The Parking Lot Movie – Hope for Independent Filmmakers

I recently watched The Parking Lot. It’s a simple documentary about a parking lot and the musings of the attendants, past and present.

What’s brilliant about it is its total lack of scope. The entire documentary takes place inside the parking lot and the living rooms of a few of the people who work there. The brilliance of the film is how the director, Meghan Eckman, pulled a story out of this tiny little hat.

As I finished watching it, I was full of hope. It made me feel good to be a filmmaker. It told me that it still is possible to tell stories with absolutely no budget. That’s what I got out of this movie.

I got other things out of this movie as well, don’t get me wrong. You should see it. It’s a human story, meant for those of us who are looking for these stories that are not often told by Hollywood. It leaves you feeling satisfied. There’s not much else to tell really. It’s just interviews with the employees of one parking lot. The employees philosophize about being a parking lot attendant and about the people who go through the lot. It’s beautiful. You should watch it. If you are an independent filmmaker, it will give you hope. Hope that will get you started on that project buzzing around between your ears. All you have to do is pick up that camera.

Watch the movie!! For an independent filmmaker, this movie is bloody therapy!!

You can download it for $3.99 at Amazon.com: The Parking Lot Movie

Or you can get the DVD for $14.99: The Parking Lot Movie (Independent Lens)
 
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Free Bokeh Loop – Gold

This is another installment of a free background. It’s one of those highly desired bokeh loop backgrounds. And it’s FREE. I’m calling it GOLD.
 

 
You can use this background free of charge, IN YOUR VIDEO PRODUCTION ONLY, royalty free for as many reproductions and in any media you feel like, provided:

you are subscribed to the trueindieproject channel on youtube and acknowledge trueindieproject.com in your credits.

To download the original 720p file, please go the link below. The zipped file is about 258MB. Unzipped, the file is 1.83gb, 24fps.
Download ZIP AVI file: http://uploading.com/files/ecb4b848/Bokehgold_30.zip/
 
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Sony NEX-FS 100 – The Perfect Camera for the Independent Filmmaker

This is not a review of the Sony NEX-FS 100

I make short films that typically cost under $1500 to make. They’re usually one day shoots. Recently another filmmaker friend of mine told me that if I were to make a higher budget film, I could count her in as an investor up to the tune of $10,000.

This got me intrigued. If she put in 10K, and I put in 10K, that’s already 20,000, and not bad for an indie budget. So now the idea is, can we get some more people with disposable income to become investors to take the budget up to say 50 or $60,000?

You’re wondering what this has to do with the Sony NEX-FS 100. I’ll tell you what it has to do with it. If the budget for the film is say $50,000, then we can easily set aside $20,000 for equipment and have $30,000 to pay the crew. $30,000 would get us a decent crew indeed; decent enough to make the final product look bloody professional.

So the question now is what do you spend the $20,000 on? Do you buy a camera system or do you rent an even better one? The problem is that with a system like the Red, which everyone wants to use for his/her film, I’m not sure everyone knows how to use it quite as well as s/he should. I’m not sure the final output will be what the DP desires, if the DP doesn’t really know how to use it.

From conversations I’ve had with people who’ve worked on projects that involved the Red Camera, it seems that a lot of people using it don’t really know how to use it.

So I started looking around the web to figure out if there was an alternative, that could be learned easily and used effectively. The Sony NEX-FS100, at this moment, seems like the answer. Including the lens kit it appears to be under $6,000 in the US.

So here are some notable features about the Sony NEX-FS100 that caught my eye:

1. Slow motion: You can capture 60 fps at 1080p. Now that’s fantastic

2. Super 35mm Exmor CMOS Image Sensor (23.6 x 13.3 mm)

3. Peaking control to help with focusing

4. 10 hours of continuous recording (as well as simultaneous recording to SD card)

5. Uncompressed 4:2:2 HDMI output with embedded timecoding.

6. Tons of buttons for tons or functionalities

It also has a bunch of other nice features such as white balance, headphone output to monitor audio, touch screen controls, etc.

So my conclusion after this preliminary internet research for a “good enough” camera for an actual feature length indie film is that the Sony NEX-FS 100 is a game changer. My opinion is based more on my approach to filmmaking as someone who finances his own affordable projects, as opposed to a technology enthusiast. This is probably not the best camera out there, but it is ideal for someone like myself.

Quick note for Canadians: It appears that the ideal operating temperatures for this camera is between 0 to 40°C (32° to 104°F). So if you’re planning to do a remake of Fargo, this is not the camera to go with.
 
Here is an informative video on the Sony NEX-FS 100.
 

 
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