Camera Lens Testing

When we had one of our meetings we decided that we'd like the film to be shot on DSLR. Personally I have never really properly used a DSLR so I booked out a Canon EOS 60D and played around with a 50mm, 85mm and 18-55mm lens that came with it to get an idea of what they look like and what is different and what is best for what type of shot.

For each lens I did a close-up, extreme close-up, long shot and mid shot to compare, all from roughly the same distances.

18-55mm Lens:

This is the standard lens that came with the camera. For these test photos I just kept it at the 18mm setting to get a full idea of the difference. This lens seems to be best in mid and long shots, this is because it shows a lot of surrounding space of the subject, this could be useful if I wanted to establish a space but not waste time with an unnecessary establishing shot. Here we could just open from a wide angle to show the space with the subject in then move in to get more close and detailed to the events. The hall I used for this example is not very good at showing the kind of breadth I could have got with this wide angle, I could probably exploit this idea more in an open area.

The amount of space around the subject becomes a problem in the close-up. Since there is so much extra space around the face it makes the face pop out and almost look slightly distorted. It would work better zoomed in, but the experiment of 18mm here confirms that's not the most natural way to show a face close up.

Since it's zoom is obviously not great at 18mm the extreme close up is very dark because I had to get close to the subject to get it, thus rendering it pretty useless for that type of shot too.

18mm Close-Up

18mm Extreme Close-Up

18mm Long Shot

18mm Mid Shot

50mm Lens:

What's different about this lens is its set length, so the wheel on the lens its self is purely for focus, this I immediately found was a lot easier for pulling focus quickly and adjusting, it felt more natural.
Also immediately from putting the lens on I saw this was very good for close ups, it looks a lot more natural and the proportions don't look as strange as they did using the 18mm for close ups. Since the focus is so key the depth of field is very good too, maybe a bit small if anything, but still very good. This means the background is blurred to a good degree and focus is clearly where it is meant to be.
As you can see in the examples it's also good for mid shots, again the depth of focus is shown off very well there too, you can create a very aesthetically pleasing frame.
It wasn't bad for extreme close ups too, however again quite similar to the 18mm it did involve getting quite close to the subject, thus losing light and making it a bit more awkward for the subject. I think for objects rather than people though this would be a very good lens for close-ups.
The other thing more noticeable about this lens is as its so zoomed the movement of the hands on the camera is much more noticeable so if I were to use it i'd want to tripod the shots or have a shoulder rig/mount to rest it on.

50mm Close-up

50mm Long Shot

50mm Mid Shot

50mm Extreme Close-up

85mm Lens:

The 85mm was definitely best for mid shots and long shots. It's depth is very good and can focus a long way away. In fact due to the small location I did these tests in it was quite a job to get far enough away to get the close up. Resultantly the mid shot test here looks more like a close up than a proper mid shot.

This was definitely best for the extreme close-ups, you could get a nice enclosed shot while being far away so your subject still has room to move freely and not worry about being hit in the face with a camera.

It is similar to the 50mm in a lot of ways, the focus being easier, the depth of focus being obvious and strong, but if anything the movements seen from the handheld movements are shown very clearly.

85mm Close-up

85mm 'Mid shot'

85mm Long shot

85mm Extreme Close-up