Cine Lens Mania: How to “Cinemize” Your Lenses

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In an earlier article comparing cinema lenses and still photography lenses, I made the point that photography lenses could be modified with aftermarket accessories and procedures to make them more “video and cinema friendly.” Since DSLR and mirrorless cameras started to shoot video, there has been a massive interest in using the readily available photography-lens catalog for shooting video. Many of these lenses, optically speaking, are wonderful, and their optical qualities can certainly add to motion picture production values. However, the mechanical qualities of the majority of photography lenses leave much to be desired, an aspect often overlooked in favor of affordable pricing. Focus rings with infinite rotation and short, imprecise focus throws, plastic construction, and a host of other little issues such as non-uniform lens front diameter and lack of control ring gearing are common to production work with photography lenses. Can anything be done to negate these compromises? Read on and find out.

Perhaps the most pressing issue when using photography lenses for video or cinema is their focus mechanisms. To enable faster autofocus, many photography lenses have extremely short manual focus throws on focus rings that rotate indefinitely past the minimum focusing distance and infinity stops. Worse yet, these control rings don’t even have gearing for a follow focus. Luckily, many accessory companies have taken notice and started making cinema standard 0.8 MOD lens gears that can be applied to photography lenses, enabling follow focus control. Some are universal, like this one from Lanparte, in that they can be removed and resized to fit a different lens. The advantage of this kind of gear is that you only really need one of them to cover almost any lens that you would be using.


Lanparte Gear Ring with Pin-Lock Tightening Mechanism

The disadvantage is that they can be clumsy with smaller lenses, as the excess gearing can wrap around the lens. Other lens gears are intended to be more permanent, like Zacuto’s Zip Gears. The advantage of these gears is their low profile. They almost look like they belong there, and they won’t come off easily. Plus, they fit small lenses without looking too ridiculous. The disadvantage is that you must buy one gear for each lens. My personal favorite solution is the LuxGear from Cool-Lux. These sit somewhere in the middle. Each ring fits a specific lens diameter, and they are currently less expensive than the Zacuto Zip Gear solution, so buying multiple gears won’t dent your wallet as significantly. The LuxGears work best on manual focusing lenses like those from Zeiss, such as the Loxia (which I use mine with), Milvus, Classic, and Otus series. With a solid manual focus lens, it’s hard to go wrong with the LuxGears.


Zeiss Otus ZE Bundle

Tackling the issue of inconsistent front diameters is an easy one. Step-up rings are widely available, and for basically any kind of lens filter thread size. Be sure to get rings where the outer diameter is as large as the largest filter you want to use. Having consistent lens diameters also enables faster lens switching when using a matte box. Changing out lens donuts or otherwise resizing the opening into the matte box takes precious time on set, but if all your lenses use the same front diameter, it could be as simple as just swapping the lens itself.


Sensei Step-Up Ring

Another way to improve your photography lens’s video appeal is through modification. Photography lenses with manual iris rings have clicks in the rotation, making iris adjustments in the middle of a shot jarring for the viewer. With many vintage lenses that employ a manual iris, the clicking mechanism can be removed or disabled for a smooth iris rotation. In some cases, a lubricant will be applied inside to further smooth the iris adjustment. A more advanced modification is the removal of lens coatings. This requires specialized equipment, but some lens service centers do offer this option. Removing lens coatings changes the optical quality of the lens; generally reducing contrast and increasing the lens’s tendency to flare when bright light sources are in or around the frame. I cannot stress enough that any modifications should be carried out only by a professional lens technician; some of the inner workings of lenses can be very complex.

This article is by no means comprehensive. I’m sure there are many other tips and tricks out there that I haven’t heard of yet. Have any advice of your own? Be sure to submit a comment, below, and share your wisdom!

5 Comments

You're all nitpicking which is way more annoying than semantics. You sound like frustrated English teachers/wannabe phtographers. This article is a brief explanation of the mechanical differences between lenses specifically designed for still (film or dslr) cameras vs ones designed specifically for motion picture/video development. It accomplishes its purpose of being informative while marketing the listed products. Chill out grammar police I don't think this article will destabilize the English language as we know it as that has already been "accomplished".

True, it's annoying to be corrected, especially for having incorrectly used trivial, seldom used grammar.  Still, there are useage errors, which if perpetuated, serve to annoy and frustrate second language learners.  For example, iIncorrect verb forms are how irregular verbs become a part of the language, thereby angering those attempting to learn the language.  My Russian cousin's teenage granddaughter is learning English, calls it, "A evil language."

I'm a tech writer and logophile. You cannot imagine how irritated/upset I get when people needlessly coin new words, or create new usages for existing words, when perfectly good words already exist. This weakens English.

To call lenses for still images "photography lenses" is ludicrous. Video and motion pictures aren't forms of photography?.Since when?

If one wishes to make distinction, say "still lenses", "video lenses", and "motion picture lenses".

 

What's the need to separate "motion picture" lenses from "video" lenses, in this case? Why include this unnecessary distinction? 

“Cinemize” in the title gets a pass because it's in quotes?