 Hey there fellow creators, today's topic ain't news to your ears as we explore the world of lenses together as much as you think there isn't so much to talk about. Keep your attention on me for a moment as we both walk through this journey together. Welcome back to our channel. What do we know about lenses in the context of cinema world? We can all agree it plays an important role in terms of creating imagery, in collaboration with other cinema components such as the sensor and the camera electronics. But for the purpose of simplicity we stick to just the lens in the entire chain of image creation. A lens goes a long way to introduce a subjective bias on the scene being captured. This bias becomes an important artistic or technical factor in terms of visual storytelling. Most cinema lenses are a combination of high quality pieces of glasses that are shaped precisely to bend light in a specific way to form an image. These glasses elements are usually housed in a metal mechanical barrel that uses a control mechanism to move the glass element to control the focus of the lens, magnifying the image in terms of zoom lenses and also control the amount of light that affects the depths of field. All cinema lenses have some sort of marking that communicates measured distance to infinity that allows the first assistant cameraman to move the focus of the lens using a follow focus to help focus on the subject. These markings are either in feet or meters seen on the lens. Some lenses come with dual scale which means they are both in feet and meters. Other markings that can be found on the lens are the focal lens which presents the field of view. This is not to be mistaken with the angle of view which describes how the lens sees the world from edge to edge. Field of view is expressed in mm and the angle of view is expressed in degrees. So a 40mm lens does not have an angle of view of 33.4 degrees. Also found on the lens are aperture markings in t-stop for cinema lenses that communicate the amount of light that passes through the iris opening of the lens. But that's not all as you also get the zoom markings on the zoom lens that communicates the focal lens. Witness marks on focus, zoom and aperture, usually in form of a line, usually to indicate the position at which the lens is currently set at. And to quote Christopher Probst ASC J. Holben, Don't listen to anyone who tells you one lens manufacturer is better than another. As in truth, every lens has its place. Some lenses are made inexpensively and may exhibit characters such as distortion and abrasions. While others can be made light and compact but at the cost of the speed of the lens, these characters can provide a certain look that may appeal to a certain creator and not to the other image makers. So there is no one superior lens just because it carries a certain manufacturer's name. Every lens has something to offer and there is no perfect lens for every job. In cinematography, there are primarily two types of lenses, prime lens and zoom lens. A prime lens is a lens with a fixed focal lens. Its magnification and angle of view for a given sensor size are fixed and cannot be changed by way of comparison. A zoom lens has variable focal lens. Its magnification and angle of view can change as various optical elements within the lens are moved. When a zoom lens is set at a particular focal lens, its angle of view and magnification can typically closely match that of a prime lens at the same focal lens on the same center format. The term prime lens is actually a retronome. It is a term that was invented to distinguish fixed focal lens lenses which were previously merely known as lenses. After the invention of the variable focal lens or zoom lens, prior to the invention of the zoom lens, many cameras were fitted with a two-rate mount that had three or more prime lenses of different focal lengths mounted on a circular disc that could be rotated into position one at a time for use. Prime lenses generally perform better optically and have faster t-stops than their zoom brothers that uses more optical elements in the designs to achieve their zoom capabilities. This additional glass element introduces more optical flaws and decreases the amount of light available to the sensor. Hence, they have slower t-stops than a prime lens. Therefore, prime lenses can be lighter and they require less complicated designs as mostly designed for a single focal lens. Other advantages of prime lenses are they can be lightweight for gimbal and drone work and could be used in creative ways for a film. We also have wide angle prime and telephoto angle primes that can be useful in capturing the different perspective of a scene in the context of the creative intent. But zoom lenses more often have complex optical designs and are physically heavier and larger. This leads to a certain optical compromise over the prime lenses but with modern zoom lenses there is no longer the case as a modern zoom lens may perform optically as well as a prime lens but it will be more expensive and a lot heavier. Zoom lenses may have varying zoom range that determines how far the lens can zoom. A 10x zoom lens means that the longest focal lens is 10x longer than the widest focal lens on the lens. Examples are lenses that are 25mm to 250mm. AMG cameras may offer more zoom range such as 20x. One of the main benefits of zoom aside the ability to change focal lens speedily is the ability to use an in-between focal lens that are all available on a prime lens like 36mm, 53mm etc. And by the very nature of the lens we can use zoom lens remotely in a situation where we can have access to the lens for a quick change of focal lens like when we are filming a casting using a Russian arm. Other lenses include steel lenses which we have the 35mm modern lens manual lens. They are lenses designed for the 35mm full-frame cameras for capturing photographs as time and technology went on. Modern lenses were made. These were lightweight and integrated with electronics for autofocus aperture control with built-in image stabilization to meet modern needs in fields such as spots etc. But before these electronic lenses were manual lenses this was favored by the cinema world as the focus and aperture were controlled manually some of it draws back where the facts as some of the focusing system design made the lens extrude during focusing. And now we have rehoused lenses. These were lenses that were taken from their original form given modern cinema design to solve some of the issues that were occurring with manual lenses. Some lenses in this category include the Canon K35 and the Cooke Pancro early series. Even to date many manual steel lenses are rehoused to meet modern day cinema standards. Rangefinder lenses these lenses go as far back as 1990s similar to a parallax camera. The rangefinder features a system that utilizes a half mirror to view a double image in a viewfinder. As you adjust the range the two images are super imposed on each other. When they match exactly you have the proper range and their unique optical design made them smaller and faster speed in terms of light scattering capabilities. Examples are like the Leakia M series. Other types include the broadcast ENG lens which we call the electronic news reflex. We also have the medium format lens, the anamorphic lenses and so many more. If this topic is not clear enough please feel free to ask questions and comments down below. If you have enjoyed this video and found it helpful or educational give us a thumbs up, hit the subscribe button and do not forget to ring the bell on notification to stay updated on our next topic. Until next time as we like to say here improvise, adapt and never come and I'll see you soon. Bye!