"Vintage-warm-retro" video: Which lense?
 

I am planning to buy a 5d mark II and intend to use it for filming music videos.

I am sooooo confused on the lense selection... The Canon lenses videos look great: Vivid and sharp but I really loved the Lomo anamorphic videos, they looked like a great independent-vintage looking production.

I am having a hard time finding Lomo lenses and all the conversion tools, pfffff...

Which current produstion lenses would you use for that "real-film-retro-quality" on a 5d mark II? What about Nikon or Leica lenses?

Vintage Nikon glass is the direction I am going, and I've already started on that path. It's probably going to be the cheapest way to get there. Maybe some early AI glass.

Sounds interesting... I am thinking about a 50mm lense to start with. Any ideas on their compatibility with the 5d?

Hi Mark
I would go for the Nikon too.
Take a look at this thread:
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/canon-eo...non-5dmk2.html

A great inexpensive lens in the short telephoto/portrait format is the Nikon Series E 100mm, F2.8. It is compact, light weight. Back when I first got the camera, I tested it here, shooting hand held. See below. I think this is as long as you want to go hand held.

Here's something I did with a nikon ai 50mm 1:1.2. I think the crowd shots are wide open and the stage stuff is at about f/2.0-4

YouTube - Ga-Pi - Original Thai Rasta (Live) Official Video

Liam

isnt the 'lomo effect' something that would be created in post rather than by the lens choice?? (lots of saturation, vignette etc..?)

if you want vintage retro looking results, maybe using vintage retro lenses in the first place might help.
post production is nice but the optical stage is really important too so check your 2nd hand shop & look around for some cheap glass from the seventies...
here's a little example done using just older russian glass and a few old M42 japanese too...

Here is a bit of retro / vintage / nostalgia

Straight from the camera and shot with the plastic Minolta MD Zoom 28-70mm.
No external grading but "WB SHIFT/BKT" set at "B5,G5/+-0"


or an old Sigma 50mm 2.8 Macro

Is all that flare coming from the lens or in post?

Yes gents, none of this makes any sense unless you are forthcoming about any effects, either in-camera or in post, that are applied to the footage. James' notes about the color adjustments are a good start. Otherwise you may inspire someone to go and seek the lenses you are describing and end up disappointed that they can't reproduce the same look in-camera.

I've shot music videos completely clean on modern lenses and seen them manipulated in post to the point where it would be anyone's guess what we used (like this one).

I'm with Charles on this one...shooting as clean as possible is the best strategy.

What I see in most of the shots that are pointed out to me as 'retro' can be done in post easily... Milky black levels, some obvious grain...all the defective film tracking through the projector traits if that trips your trigger...glare that seems to indicate that polarizers and matte boxes weren't invented yet...

The advantage to having a clean plate to begin with is that you gain the ability to work in post with much more nuance and apply slightly different settings to different shots to achieve constant results.

Yeah, but wheres the fun in that.

Sure you can shoot clean but you won't get that spontaneous creative look of that of a clean recording. Of course you can add this in post but it will never feel quite the same.

It may not be your job to interpret the emotional feeling in a shot and with these limitations the safety of shooting clean has to happen most of the time, but outside a commercial world thats a different story.

I find myself recording creative shots and clean shots, but tend to always pick the retro style shots in post or at least have more pleasure viewing them.

I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder and whilst my retro look gives me the same emotional feeling as looking back on my childhood 8mm films, my sons retro look might well be that of a VHS / DV look.

It's the current trend at the moment well at least here in the UK as half of all the adverts broadcast have lots lens flare blue/green blacks, yellow whites and shallow dop. My current favorite advert is the John Lewis "Always a Woman" YouTube - John Lewis TV Ad Never Knowingly Undersold / Blink Productions - View Dougal Wilson Work

I have had so much fun with old lenses and odd filters left over from yesteryear, heck on the clip "Reflections of Light" the lens isn't even attached to the body. What ever works for you, it doesn't have to cost much.

i think use of filters is definitely a way to get a vintage look..

seemed like (as charles said) there was a little confusion that using old manual lenses alone will give you some of these more extreme results related to saturation, gamma and colour balance (ive never heard of any lenses that can do that..)

I just got my first alt glass lens and I'd say it's pretty easy to get a retro look with this lens. It's an Asahi SMC Pentax-M 50mm f1.4 and it's awesome. $130 on eBay plus a $15 adapter. When I got it I went out in the front yard and shot this video footage with it. No color correction in post.


Check the description and posts on Vimeo for more info.

Looks like a nice/fun lens -- the only problem I have with it (the same with all Nikkor glass) is its backwards focus pull. It's like you suddenly have to drive in England... with a British stick shifter.

-- peer

I have a lot of alt glass, including pre WWII. The problem is creating specific effects. Many/Most DPs seem to own a lensbaby kit. This is an inexpensive way to create all kinds of looks. Color really doesn't matter, as that's done in software (in camera or post).
The most expensive lensbaby was made for video/film, and allows the setting to be locked in. I don't know if that model is necessary for most people, but for video I suggest at least the $150 base unit. The least expensive unit seems to be designed to be held in place by hand.
Personally I'm not capable of creating a great many effects in post. As I improve I'm sure I will do more. But there's something kinda sad about doing it all on the computer. If I were paying union wages I might find shooting clean a lot more attractive.

I just got a chance to play with a lensbaby 2.0 (older model, I think it's what they call the 'muse' now) and it's a very cool lens, almost a must have for the price. You tilt and push/pull it to focus and adjust the effect - but it really is an 'effect' more than a look, too extreme if you're just trying to get a 'vintage' look.

This is a great example though - I've got that lens, I'm actually using it more than any of my other lenses lately. I have yet to shoot anything with it though that I would consider 'vintage' - with a standard color profile and proper white balance you get very clean, sharp video with good contrast (microcontrast breaks down a bit at f/1.4) and nice shallow DOF. To me what makes that video look 'retro' is the combination of white balance (very warm look overall),handheld movement and lens flare which also flattens out the contrast significantly. The flare might be harder to duplicate with a modern lens with better coatings, but otherwise I'm not sure it's the lens that contributes primarily to the vintage look.

I got their "Composer" model that you can lock the angle and hence how much of an effect you want. It's actually a quite nice little thingee.

-- peer

It has a nice vintage look certainly.. as evan said i think its mostly the yellowish colour cast giving it the look though.. did you set the colour up like that intentionally or was it some kind of unexpected cast coming from the ND filter??

I intentionally set the white balance warm by manually selecting a WB preset.

check out these cheap russian lenses. Im sure you could get some artsy vintage looking shots with these. They make eos mounts for them. Im thinking about ordering the fisheye

Diana+ 20mm Fisheye Lens - Lomography Shop

I love my lensbaby composer, I had a 2.0 before that and while the optics are similar the composer is LEAPS AND BOUNDS better in terms of user friendliness, consistency, etc.

I'm trying some Nikkor glass, I like it an they have a lot easier time manually focusing, the only problem is that the backfocus is a bit off and they will roll past infinity as a result. other than that I like the aperture ring because you can fine tune it instead of being stuck with 1/3 stop increments and the focus mechanism is really nice with my redrock follow focus, I like the optics of my Canon 85mm 1.8 a lot better but I like the operation of the Nikon equivalent a lot. There is also a little bit of play in the adapter but I am thinking of gluing it on or maybe some real small screws.

Nikons will be your best bet for vintage looks since they are available all day everyday, if you try one and don't like it you can probably sell it for the same price you paid, etc.

you can also try something like 1/8 black promists and 812 warming filters, that might get you where you're trying to go.