GEAR
COOL LENSES
GLORIOUS GLASS!
Try some very different lenses to give your work a more expressive, cinematic look OPTICALOPTIONS
WORDS ADAM DUCKWORTH
I t might go against what lots of filmmakers strive for, but a perfectly colour-corrected, razor-sharp lens that controls flare is sometimes not the best option for a creative-looking film. A bit of softening, some vignetting, wayward flare and muted colours can give your films a unique look that you can’t replicate in post, however hard you might try. Big-deal Hollywood DOPs choose their lens sets based on the look they want the finished film to have, and with multiple cameras on lots of different shoots over a long period of time, they want everything to have a consistent look, which is why lenses like Cooke’s Special Flare series have a cult following. Leica Thalias offer many of the characteristics that have led many cinematographers to pair older lenses with digital sensors; they are smooth, forgiving and clear without being overly sharp. Of course, even renting a set of Cookes or Leicas is a massive cost that puts themwell out of the budget of most filmmakers, and
buying them can cost as much as a house! A slightly more affordable option is from Sigma, with the full-frame Classic Prime range. Based on the range of Sigma primes, the Classic range has some non-coated elements that give a truly unique combination of low-contrast, artistic flare and ghosting effects, and with nine rounded iris blades, the bokeh is very smooth. There is a set of ten lenses, from 14mm T3.2 to 135mm T3.2, and we tried the 40mm T2.5 version. A matching set costs £41,499/$44,000, so really is a rental option. They only come with a PL mount, so we used a Sigma converter to fit them to the L-Mount on a Panasonic S1H. The soft look of the image means it can be difficult to focus using the camera screen, so it’s best to use an external monitor. Using different apertures really affects the image significantly, with wider apertures giving a more obvious soft spot in the centre of the frame. And you can really see the soft look in the image compared
ABOVE The Sigma Classic with a PL mount converter on a Panasonic S1H RIGHT The look is very different between the Classic lens shot wide open (top) and a standard Panasonic lens (bottom)
to a shot taken with a Panasonic zoom lens. Both images were shot in V-Log and a LUT applied, with no further grading. Using a 10-bit 4:2:2 file like the Panasonic means you can easily dial in more contrast to the shot with the Classic lens if you want to. But using specially produced classic-look lenses is not the only way to get a cool look for your movies. So, here we take a look at several different options – at very different price levels – to see what’s possible nowadays.
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