Wedding Videography has only gotten extremely popular in just the past few years. In Atlantic Canada its still reaching its growth stages as many people here in the Maritimes still vision a large videocamera perched on a stage filming their wedding. Most of those old school videographers are no longer in the wedding business, because there’s a new demand for the creative types, the artists if you will, that take filming your wedding day to an entire new level. To do this, it takes specialized mobile equipment, and in most cases are filmed with a DSLR. The high-end DSLR’s such as the Canon 5D Mark iii, which I currently shoot with, shoots amazing video but you also need amazing lenses with the Mark iii body to make magic happen. (Of course equipment isn’t the main thing that makes the magic happen, but it does’t hurt!).
The guys over at StillMotion are the one’s who first inspired me into wedding videography. I’ve taken some of their classes, I’ve watched every film they’ve ever produced, and used many of their suggested resources to get where I am today. They even put out the film below which shows the top 5 lenses they use for weddings. I may have watched this video 15 times by now, and I’m still torn about what lenses I should buy. It’s no secret that prime lenses (prime lenses are one’s that don’t zoom in and out, they only have one focal length) have the best glass in them and produce the best photos and video you can get on a DSLR. However, when you’re in certain situations filming a wedding you really need the zoom capabilities, such as when you’re in a tight church and the bride and groom have requested that you don’t move during most of the ceremony. If you’re filming alone this can be a challenge and you really need to have a variety of lenses on hand that provide what you need no matter what situation you’re in. I think StillMotion thought of that before making this video [bottom] and from the lenses currently available today, I mainly agree with them. But that’s where the problem for me still exists. There’s lenses that I would love to have, that simply do not exist. The two lenses below would become a weapon in every wedding videographers bag and whomever comes out with either or both of these will be filling up on orders.
1. 24-105mm f/2.8L IS Lens – Everyone in the wedding video insdustry probably notices that this is incredibly close to Canon’s 24-105 f/4 IS kit lens that comes with many of Canon’s pro camera kits these days. I have thought about purchasing this lens multiple times but there’s two giant things missing from this lens that need to be addressed. The first is it needs the f/2.8. That extra light is required by a wedding videographer who get’s stuck in a low lit church where he has very little room to move in. The second is the fact that most owners of this lens leave reviews that they see strong vignetting at f/4. Well most videographers are going to be shooting at f/4 if that’s the lowest stop of light they have. Back to the drawing board for a pro level zoom that shoots well in the dark and hence the need for my suggested lens. This lens must not show any or very little vignetting at f/2.8 and needs IS (Image Stabilization). I know this is a tall order for a back-up lens but I could also see some low budget videographers using this lens as their go-to if they cannot afford many of the primes seen in StillMotions video below.
2. 14-24mm f/2.8 Lens – A quality wide angle lens on full frame camera seems scarce or crazy expensive in today’s age. After reviewing every single wide angle lens out there for a Canon mount, I’ve come to the conclusion that I have to either shell out roughly $2600 for the 14mm f2.8L ll or simply not carry a wide angle lens. Every other wide angle lens out there either shows terrible vignetting or has major distortion in the corner of the video. There’s a big hole to fill for companies like Sigma, Tamron, and Canon to fill. I even sent an email to Sigma checking if they are planning on coming out with a wide angle lens for full frame camera’s in the near future and they reported that there’s nothing in the current 2 week sales pipeline. I wrote to Sigma because they have a beautiful new line called “Art Series” that are getting rave reviews from everyone who has one. They currently have a wide angle for crop censor camera’s, but nothing yet for full frame. If someone comes out with a $1000 wide angle lens for full frame that produces no vignetting and very little distortion then I will be one of their first customers.
Check out StillMotion’s review on their guide to lenses for weddings below. Hopefully this will change soon if one of the lens companies adhere’s to my advice!
stillmotion’s guide to lenses for weddings and events // a cinema caravan tutorial from stillmotion on Vimeo.