Many cinema lenses feature an interchangeable mount, allowing you to swap mounts from PL to EF, for example. Some of Canon’s cine lenses can have their mounts changed by an approved service centre. Although some systems allow filmmakers to do their own mount changes, it can be challenging – and you may lack the correct tools. It’s LET CVP TAKE CARE OF YOUR EQUIPMENT ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE CVP
best to leave it to the technical experts, like CVP, to get it right.
It’s also far more important to have cinema lenses properly calibrated, than with stills lenses. Not having your lens calibrated correctly could result in issues such as focus scales being out, or zooms not being parfocal. CVP’s in-house ProRepairs team has a specialised lens department to service your lenses, making sure they are within manufacturer specification and fully accurate.
“The vastmajority of cinema lenses have amuch longer focus throw for smoother, more precise adjustments”
Image quality differences between stills and cine lenses can usually be quite obvious. However, there are a lot of optical similarities between Canon’s CN-E Primes and L-Series AF primes. But they are very different in mechanics. A big consideration, however, is the level of quality control when it comes to both the optical elements and the overall look of lenses across an entire set. Cine lenses are often bought as a partial or complete set, unlike stills glass. Factors like this contribute to giving cinema lenses a higher price tag. Tighter tolerances, higher quality materials, longer design and production times, as well as being part of a smaller market are all reasons why cine lenses are typically valued much higher to a stills equivalent. But invest in quality, and your work should reap the dividends.
feel. Stills lenses are often electronically driven with quick autofocus. The manual, mechanical focus of a cine lens is designed for precise, human operation. There are a few hybrid cinema lenses that feature electronic capabilities – such as Canon’s Cine Servo lenses which allow zoom, focus and iris to be controlled electronically – with some even having autofocus. The vast majority of cine lenses have a much longer focus throw for smoother, more precise adjustments. And the focus ring on cine lenses tends to have a hard stop at either end of the range, while most stills lenses will continue to rotate beyond close focus or infinity. While cine lenses can be usedmanually and by solo operators, they are designedmore for crew operation and performwell with focus motors, wireless controls, rangefinders and other focusing tools. If you work with a minimal crew, then a low-cost wireless focus solution like the Tilta Nucleus-M is ideal. Cine lenses are built to eliminate breathing, which is a slight focal length change when moving through the focus range. In stills it is not noticed when capturing a single frame, but with moving image it can be distracting. Similarly, another optical trait is that cine zooms are designed to be parfocal, so they maintain focus while being zoomed.
Light controlled to a T! Stills lenses use f/stops – a mathematical value calculated to represent the light hitting your sensor. Cine lenses use T stops, an actual measure of transmitted light being received by the sensor through the lens. This standard aims to keep consistent exposure across different lenses at the same T-stop values, helping tomatch exposure when usingmultiple cameras. You could also switch to a different focal length of the same T stop and exposure shouldn’t change. This is more accurate for lenses within the same set, as each manufacturer rates T-stop values slightly differently. With most stills lenses, aperture is controlled via the camera, with electronic adjustments in discreet steps. These can be noticeable both visually and audibly when recording. The manual control of a cine lens allows for continuous iris adjustments without any hard steps, meaning exposure changes are smooth while recording. And, with a long rotation of the aperture ring, you have more precision. A manual aperture can also be managed wirelessly by a motor and lens control system. Focus by feel One of the biggest differences between stills and cine lenses is with focusing, both in terms of the mechanics and the
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