14x manual lens

[Tom Schan]

I need advice, i'm looking to purchase the 14x manual Lens, but i wanted to know:

Can you use it to film the foreground in focus, while the background it out of focus?

If you can, can you

Then bring the background into focus?

Please advise if this can actually be done with the normal canon lens.

Cheers

Appologies for my ignorance... no excuses.

Tom

[Ken Tanaka]

Welcome Tom,
What you refer to is "Depth of Field" (DOF). See Jeff Donald's article on the main site for full coverage of the fundamentals of this topic. In brief, yes you can but the relatively small rear aperture of video cameras (such as the 1/3" of the XL1s) presents limitations to shallow DOF.

[Tom Schan]

Cheers Ken

Most appreciated.

So i know now it is worth purchasing.

Tom

[Ken Tanaka]

It's an excellent lens. ( See my 16x review for photos and comparisons with the 14x.) I think its iris mechanism is the best that Canon has produced.

But, in itself, it will not deliver greater DOF control than your 16x standard lense, per se. It will, however, enable you handier control of that iris.

[Dylan Couper]

It will have the same depth of field as the stock lense.
The focus shifting technique you describe from front to back is called "rack focus".
It can be done with both lenses, but is much easier to do on the 14x manual lens.

[Mark Argerake]

I was under the impression that the manual 14x and manual servo 16x could both do a rack focus and the only basic diffenences where the 2x and the servo. Am I wrong?

[Ken Tanaka]

Yes, they both "rack focus" easily. The focus ring on both is completely manual and the black lens barrels of each are easy to mark with a white pencil if needed.

Mark, see my 16x review page (linked above) for complete notes on the 16x and 14x manual lens differences.

[Charles King]

Ken, Your link doesn't work

[Ken Tanaka]

Charles,
Hmmm...it works for me...it must be biased <g>. Here's the link:

http://www.dvinfo.net/canon/articles/article82.php

[Stephen Birdsong]

I recently bought a 14x manual for my xl1s, and I read that I wont be able to use a matte box with it. The end of the lens rotates, and this obviously would cause problems. Has anyone a solution to this problem? I do not have the auto lens.

stephen

[Rob Lohman]

If you have a mattebox then simply try it out and see what
happens. If you don't I know there are matteboxes out there
with support rods that allow the lens to rotate. I don't know
where I saw this so I hope someone else will chime in with
more info on this!

[Stephen Birdsong]

No, I dont have a matte box. Im looking to invest in one.

Stephen

[Adrian Douglas]

Basically matteboxes for the XL1 come in two styles:

1. Clamp-on, which mount to the front off the lens and cannot be used with either the Fujinon or Canon 14x lenses as their front elements rotate.

2. Rail mount. The mattebox is supported by rails that are fixed to a plate that mounts to the underside of the camera via the tripod mounting hole. This can be used with lenses with rotating front elements like the Fujinon and Canon 14x lenses.

[Stephen Birdsong]

Ok, Thanks Adrian.

The only Matte Box I know of for the Xl1s is the century optics. Does anyone have any suggestions about which Matte Box to use?

[Adrian Douglas]

Stephen,

As well as the Century Optics mattebox, the Cavision Mattebox also has rails for use with the 14x lens