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Post by Tbone81 on Mar 10, 2022 12:28:57 GMT -6
Hey guys, quick update. We just purchased a Sony a7 iii, we've had it less than a week and we're both very happy with the purchase. We'll mostly likely buy a second one soon, but we wanted to have the camera in our hands, play with it a bit, see what we wanted/needed as far as accessories etc before we bought another one. Right now we just have one of the stock kit zoom lenses. We leads to me to my next question:
Any recommendations for good prime lenses that wont break the bank? Budget would be <$1000 We had a 50mm f/1.8 on our canon that we liked so I was thinking of getting something similar for the Sony. We also need a good lens for wide shots, something with a better depth of field that'll keep a whole band in focus. Keep in mind I'm barely wrapping my brain around the camera specs and now I'm starting to learn more about the glass. I understand F-stop, but don't have a lot of practical knowledge/experience with different focal lengths and aperatures and how it all plays out in real life. If you had to choose 2 prime lenses to cover all your needs (in this scenario) what would they be?
Thanks in advance.
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Post by svart on Mar 11, 2022 10:18:03 GMT -6
Hey guys, quick update. We just purchased a Sony a7 iii, we've had it less than a week and we're both very happy with the purchase. We'll mostly likely buy a second one soon, but we wanted to have the camera in our hands, play with it a bit, see what we wanted/needed as far as accessories etc before we bought another one. Right now we just have one of the stock kit zoom lenses. We leads to me to my next question: Any recommendations for good prime lenses that wont break the bank? Budget would be <$1000 We had a 50mm f/1.8 on our canon that we liked so I was thinking of getting something similar for the Sony. We also need a good lens for wide shots, something with a better depth of field that'll keep a whole band in focus. Keep in mind I'm barely wrapping my brain around the camera specs and now I'm starting to learn more about the glass. I understand F-stop, but don't have a lot of practical knowledge/experience with different focal lengths and aperatures and how it all plays out in real life. If you had to choose 2 prime lenses to cover all your needs (in this scenario) what would they be? Thanks in advance. Depth of field (DOF) is a product of the F/T stop and the geometry of the glass. Some lenses can hold better deep focus than others at more open apertures, but almost all lenses will reduce depth of field as the aperture opens up (F/T stop value reduces). Most lenses will have their optimum balance of DOF and light falloff around the edges of the picture around f5.6-f11. Above around f7 (and sometimes below f2) some lenses will start to have a slight darkening of the edges of the pictures referred to as vignetting. I only know older Nikon manual primes and modern Panasonic lenses anyway. I'm not a fan of Canon glass (way overpriced due to Name) and have never used Sony glass. However, another piece you might not realize is more artistic. Since you might have a lot of stage/effect lighting to deal with, older glass and their lack of anti-glare coatings will give you much stronger lens flares. Older glass also has different bokeh and generally softer (less sharp) image, which can look really good in some situations. Chromatic aberration is higher in older glass due to impurities in the glass that create a slight prismatic effect as well as general distortions. So some of these things will need to be decided upon, whether you want purity or a more artistic look. Unfortunately, you've bought into a very specific lens mount (Sony E) and sensor size (Full frame) so your choice of usable lenses will likely be much smaller than having chosen something like M4/3 which can adapt many different styles/mounts of lenses. The lower adoption rate of Sony cameras will also mean some lenses will cost comparatively more than other brand lenses, say from Nikon or Panasonic. While it used to be almost taboo for professionals to use "zoom" lenses as primary work lenses, modern designs have really reduced any difference in quality between zooms and primes. Also of note is that a lot of these cameras now have built-in distortion correction for like-branded lenses. I know that Panasonic have both distortion correction as well as multi-axis stabilization in the lenses themselves that pair with the sensor stabilizers to create almost shake-free motion while handheld. I can't find much info about Sony lens stabilization, but it looks like they've developed a digital stabilization that's applied to the video output instead in some of their cameras. So to that end, my suggestion would be to find a Sony brand zoom with the lowest F stop you can afford to start out. It looks like f2.8 is the lowest easily available which is a good start. When you're ready you'll probably want to also purchase an ultra-wide rectilinear (non-fisheye) lens. I currently carry a Laowa 7.5mm rectilinear lens and it's been great for how cheap it is, similar to this: www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1399998-REG/venus_optics_ve928se_laowa_9mm_f_2_8_zero_d.html |
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Post by the other mark williams on Mar 16, 2022 19:32:06 GMT -6
Hey guys, quick update. We just purchased a Sony a7 iii, we've had it less than a week and we're both very happy with the purchase. We'll mostly likely buy a second one soon, but we wanted to have the camera in our hands, play with it a bit, see what we wanted/needed as far as accessories etc before we bought another one. Right now we just have one of the stock kit zoom lenses. We leads to me to my next question: Any recommendations for good prime lenses that wont break the bank? Budget would be <$1000 We had a 50mm f/1.8 on our canon that we liked so I was thinking of getting something similar for the Sony. We also need a good lens for wide shots, something with a better depth of field that'll keep a whole band in focus. Keep in mind I'm barely wrapping my brain around the camera specs and now I'm starting to learn more about the glass. I understand F-stop, but don't have a lot of practical knowledge/experience with different focal lengths and aperatures and how it all plays out in real life. If you had to choose 2 prime lenses to cover all your needs (in this scenario) what would they be? Thanks in advance. Sorry it's taken me awhile to get back to you on this. Congrats on the Sony! I think you'll continue to be really happy with it. The so called "holy trinity" of prime lenses are often considered to be a 35mm, a 50mm, and an 85mm. And if you're going for those focal lengths in primes, I would want a lens that is at least an f/1.8. You can get those quite inexpensively at that f-stop. You're in a Sony E-mount, so your best bet may be going to a third party, like a Sigma or a Tamron. But the Sony branded lenses are great. The Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 is like $250 new. Their 85mm f/1.8 is like $600 new. But don't be afraid to look used on your local Craigslist. You'll find a lot in the PNW. I'm sure you know this, but if a prime lens will shoot at f/1.8, it will also shoot at everything smaller than that, too. So, f/2.8, f/4, f/8, f/11, etc. will all be possibilities with that same prime lens. If you're shooting a two-camera multicam of a live band scenario, you generally want one angle to be wide enough to get the whole band, and the other angle to be for close-ups. On the wide end, you'll be affected by your room size. With a large enough room, a 35mm can work b/c you can always back up more with the camera. But if it's a smaller room, you might need the wide angle to be a 24mm, or even a 15/16mm. I don't like to go wider than 15mm, personally, because at 16mm it's already distorting your image at the edges. I don't really like shooting wider than 20mm when people are in the shot, honestly. But as svart mentioned, I would consider other options besides just primes. I'll explain in due course. There are two main reasons to choose a prime these days: - Primes usually offer wider apertures, meaning they let in more light. Which means you can get away with shooting in darker situations. This is a technical superiority for primes.
- Primes, shooting at a wider aperture, offer more bokeh (or blurred-out background). The wider your aperture, the shallower you depth-of-field (DOF). She shallower your DOF, the more blurry you can get that background. This is an artistic superiority for primes.
Those two things are great - seriously, I love shooting with primes for those reasons. But they can be negated in certain circumstances. If you're going for a wide shot of the whole band playing together ("wide shot" meaning how far back or how many subjects you're trying to fit in the frame), you can't shoot at a wide aperture (that would be a small f/stop, like f/1.4 or something) because only like one person in the band will end up being in focus. You might have to stop down to like f/4 for everyone to be in focus. And if you have to stop down for that shot, well, it turns out that it didn't matter that your lens could've shot at an aperture of f/1.2, because that wouldn't have worked in that circumstance anyway.
I would consider having at least one of your lenses be a zoom. Something that covers a nice, broad range. The most popular (when shooting people) is 24-70mm. At 24mm, you can zoom out and fit the whole band in. At 70mm, you can get that close up of the singer's face while s/he is really emoting that chorus. It's a super nice range to have. Then you'd be trying to decide whether you need that zoom to be an f/2.8 or if you could get away with it being an f/4. Broadly speaking, those are the two expense classes of zooms. (The cheapest expense class of zooms is a zoom that does not have the option of a constant aperture. IMO, these are not worth the $ saved.) A good zoom is usually going to be more expensive than a good prime, because there's more glass and more technology involved. So that's also a consideration.
The main thing here is that you'll be able to get great looking images whether using zooms or primes (or a mixture of the two) fits your workflow best.
But my biggest piece of advice in this scenario at this point is to spend some money on lighting. You can get totally competent lighting for very, very, very cheap these days, and more light will make your camera and lenses look better than they are. Inexpensive panel LED lights off of Amazon or B&H have come a long, loooooong way in the past 5 years. Spending $300 to get 3 multicolored LED panels will take your image way, waaaaaay further than the extra $500 between an f/1.8 prime vs. f/1.4 prime.
Hope this helps, brother.
Ask anything else you might need to know...
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Post by svart on Mar 17, 2022 8:57:42 GMT -6
Hey guys, quick update. We just purchased a Sony a7 iii, we've had it less than a week and we're both very happy with the purchase. We'll mostly likely buy a second one soon, but we wanted to have the camera in our hands, play with it a bit, see what we wanted/needed as far as accessories etc before we bought another one. Right now we just have one of the stock kit zoom lenses. We leads to me to my next question: Any recommendations for good prime lenses that wont break the bank? Budget would be <$1000 We had a 50mm f/1.8 on our canon that we liked so I was thinking of getting something similar for the Sony. We also need a good lens for wide shots, something with a better depth of field that'll keep a whole band in focus. Keep in mind I'm barely wrapping my brain around the camera specs and now I'm starting to learn more about the glass. I understand F-stop, but don't have a lot of practical knowledge/experience with different focal lengths and aperatures and how it all plays out in real life. If you had to choose 2 prime lenses to cover all your needs (in this scenario) what would they be? Thanks in advance. Sorry it's taken me awhile to get back to you on this. Congrats on the Sony! I think you'll continue to be really happy with it. The so called "holy trinity" of prime lenses are often considered to be a 35mm, a 50mm, and an 85mm. And if you're going for those focal lengths in primes, I would want a lens that is at least an f/1.8. You can get those quite inexpensively at that f-stop. You're in a Sony E-mount, so your best bet may be going to a third party, like a Sigma or a Tamron. But the Sony branded lenses are great. The Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 is like $250 new. Their 85mm f/1.8 is like $600 new. But don't be afraid to look used on your local Craigslist. You'll find a lot in the PNW. I'm sure you know this, but if a prime lens will shoot at f/1.8, it will also shoot at everything smaller than that, too. So, f/2.8, f/4, f/8, f/11, etc. will all be possibilities with that same prime lens. If you're shooting a two-camera multicam of a live band scenario, you generally want one angle to be wide enough to get the whole band, and the other angle to be for close-ups. On the wide end, you'll be affected by your room size. With a large enough room, a 35mm can work b/c you can always back up more with the camera. But if it's a smaller room, you might need the wide angle to be a 24mm, or even a 15/16mm. I don't like to go wider than 15mm, personally, because at 16mm it's already distorting your image at the edges. I don't really like shooting wider than 20mm when people are in the shot, honestly. But as svart mentioned, I would consider other options besides just primes. I'll explain in due course. There are two main reasons to choose a prime these days: - Primes usually offer wider apertures, meaning they let in more light. Which means you can get away with shooting in darker situations. This is a technical superiority for primes.
- Primes, shooting at a wider aperture, offer more bokeh (or blurred-out background). The wider your aperture, the shallower you depth-of-field (DOF). She shallower your DOF, the more blurry you can get that background. This is an artistic superiority for primes.
Those two things are great - seriously, I love shooting with primes for those reasons. But they can be negated in certain circumstances. If you're going for a wide shot of the whole band playing together ("wide shot" meaning how far back or how many subjects you're trying to fit in the frame), you can't shoot at a wide aperture (that would be a small f/stop, like f/1.4 or something) because only like one person in the band will end up being in focus. You might have to stop down to like f/4 for everyone to be in focus. And if you have to stop down for that shot, well, it turns out that it didn't matter that your lens could've shot at an aperture of f/1.2, because that wouldn't have worked in that circumstance anyway.
I would consider having at least one of your lenses be a zoom. Something that covers a nice, broad range. The most popular (when shooting people) is 24-70mm. At 24mm, you can zoom out and fit the whole band in. At 70mm, you can get that close up of the singer's face while s/he is really emoting that chorus. It's a super nice range to have. Then you'd be trying to decide whether you need that zoom to be an f/2.8 or if you could get away with it being an f/4. Broadly speaking, those are the two expense classes of zooms. (The cheapest expense class of zooms is a zoom that does not have the option of a constant aperture. IMO, these are not worth the $ saved.) A good zoom is usually going to be more expensive than a good prime, because there's more glass and more technology involved. So that's also a consideration.
The main thing here is that you'll be able to get great looking images whether using zooms or primes (or a mixture of the two) fits your workflow best.
But my biggest piece of advice in this scenario at this point is to spend some money on lighting. You can get totally competent lighting for very, very, very cheap these days, and more light will make your camera and lenses look better than they are. Inexpensive panel LED lights off of Amazon or B&H have come a long, loooooong way in the past 5 years. Spending $300 to get 3 multicolored LED panels will take your image way, waaaaaay further than the extra $500 between an f/1.8 prime vs. f/1.4 prime.
Hope this helps, brother.
Ask anything else you might need to know...
Lighting is everything. You can make just about any camera look amazing with the right lighting. One thing that's being lost in the new school way of shooting is proper lighting. Cameras can see into the dark much better than they used to be able to so people are just not lighting things anymore. If you've ever been on a real movie set, things are much, much brighter in person than what it ends up looking like on the big screen. |
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Post by Tbone81 on Mar 17, 2022 11:27:07 GMT -6
Thanks guys, and yes I totally agree on lighting. We already have a more than decent lighting setup. In fact at this point just getting better at using the lighting is the bottleneck.
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Post by Tbone81 on Mar 17, 2022 11:28:12 GMT -6
Hey guys, quick update. We just purchased a Sony a7 iii, we've had it less than a week and we're both very happy with the purchase. We'll mostly likely buy a second one soon, but we wanted to have the camera in our hands, play with it a bit, see what we wanted/needed as far as accessories etc before we bought another one. Right now we just have one of the stock kit zoom lenses. We leads to me to my next question: Any recommendations for good prime lenses that wont break the bank? Budget would be <$1000 We had a 50mm f/1.8 on our canon that we liked so I was thinking of getting something similar for the Sony. We also need a good lens for wide shots, something with a better depth of field that'll keep a whole band in focus. Keep in mind I'm barely wrapping my brain around the camera specs and now I'm starting to learn more about the glass. I understand F-stop, but don't have a lot of practical knowledge/experience with different focal lengths and aperatures and how it all plays out in real life. If you had to choose 2 prime lenses to cover all your needs (in this scenario) what would they be? Thanks in advance. Sorry it's taken me awhile to get back to you on this. Congrats on the Sony! I think you'll continue to be really happy with it. The so called "holy trinity" of prime lenses are often considered to be a 35mm, a 50mm, and an 85mm. And if you're going for those focal lengths in primes, I would want a lens that is at least an f/1.8. You can get those quite inexpensively at that f-stop. You're in a Sony E-mount, so your best bet may be going to a third party, like a Sigma or a Tamron. But the Sony branded lenses are great. The Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 is like $250 new. Their 85mm f/1.8 is like $600 new. But don't be afraid to look used on your local Craigslist. You'll find a lot in the PNW. I'm sure you know this, but if a prime lens will shoot at f/1.8, it will also shoot at everything smaller than that, too. So, f/2.8, f/4, f/8, f/11, etc. will all be possibilities with that same prime lens. If you're shooting a two-camera multicam of a live band scenario, you generally want one angle to be wide enough to get the whole band, and the other angle to be for close-ups. On the wide end, you'll be affected by your room size. With a large enough room, a 35mm can work b/c you can always back up more with the camera. But if it's a smaller room, you might need the wide angle to be a 24mm, or even a 15/16mm. I don't like to go wider than 15mm, personally, because at 16mm it's already distorting your image at the edges. I don't really like shooting wider than 20mm when people are in the shot, honestly. But as svart mentioned, I would consider other options besides just primes. I'll explain in due course. There are two main reasons to choose a prime these days: - Primes usually offer wider apertures, meaning they let in more light. Which means you can get away with shooting in darker situations. This is a technical superiority for primes.
- Primes, shooting at a wider aperture, offer more bokeh (or blurred-out background). The wider your aperture, the shallower you depth-of-field (DOF). She shallower your DOF, the more blurry you can get that background. This is an artistic superiority for primes.
Those two things are great - seriously, I love shooting with primes for those reasons. But they can be negated in certain circumstances. If you're going for a wide shot of the whole band playing together ("wide shot" meaning how far back or how many subjects you're trying to fit in the frame), you can't shoot at a wide aperture (that would be a small f/stop, like f/1.4 or something) because only like one person in the band will end up being in focus. You might have to stop down to like f/4 for everyone to be in focus. And if you have to stop down for that shot, well, it turns out that it didn't matter that your lens could've shot at an aperture of f/1.2, because that wouldn't have worked in that circumstance anyway.
I would consider having at least one of your lenses be a zoom. Something that covers a nice, broad range. The most popular (when shooting people) is 24-70mm. At 24mm, you can zoom out and fit the whole band in. At 70mm, you can get that close up of the singer's face while s/he is really emoting that chorus. It's a super nice range to have. Then you'd be trying to decide whether you need that zoom to be an f/2.8 or if you could get away with it being an f/4. Broadly speaking, those are the two expense classes of zooms. (The cheapest expense class of zooms is a zoom that does not have the option of a constant aperture. IMO, these are not worth the $ saved.) A good zoom is usually going to be more expensive than a good prime, because there's more glass and more technology involved. So that's also a consideration.
The main thing here is that you'll be able to get great looking images whether using zooms or primes (or a mixture of the two) fits your workflow best.
But my biggest piece of advice in this scenario at this point is to spend some money on lighting. You can get totally competent lighting for very, very, very cheap these days, and more light will make your camera and lenses look better than they are. Inexpensive panel LED lights off of Amazon or B&H have come a long, loooooong way in the past 5 years. Spending $300 to get 3 multicolored LED panels will take your image way, waaaaaay further than the extra $500 between an f/1.8 prime vs. f/1.4 prime.
Hope this helps, brother.
Ask anything else you might need to know...
Thats solid gold brotha. I’m going to have to read that a few times to really absorb everything but that’s incredibly helpful! 🙏 |
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