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Review of "Controlling Aperture on Canon EF Lenses"	2votes
July 16, 2008 09:33 AM	Views: 456 Favorited: 0 Comments: 2

	Filed Under: How-To
Tags: How-To, Review

Review of: Controlling Aperture on Canon EF Lenses

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Shiv Kumar
Controlling Aperture on Canon EF Lenses

Grab your keys! Shiv's taking a wild ride you won't want to miss!

In his latest video offering, "Controlling Aperture on Canon EF Lenses," cinematographer and software developer Shiv Kumar walks us through the process of setting, changing, and ultimately controlling the aperture on your Canon EF lenses. This process is necessary when mounting said lenses onto your digital video camera (with a special adaptor) for digital film making.

When one wants to make a film using a digital video camera instead of a true "film" camera, many will use what's called a 35mm adaptor. This adaptor allows your digital video camera to use high-quality 35mm still camera lenses, which can, in some cases, give your footage a much more "cinematic" quality.

The video camera, and the adaptor that the lens is mounted to, don't have the ability to control the aperture of the 35mm lens. So Shiv, with his salt-n-pepper mane of glory, shows us how to use the original still camera to change the lens' aperture before mounting it on your digital video camera.

(A lens' aperture is the opening at the front of the lens. It controls the amount of light that passes through the lens and enters the camera. For various reasons, too many to cover here, photographers and film makers want to control the amount of light entering the camera.)

This method of using adaptors and still-camera lenses for high-quality digital video footage has been around for years. But recent advancements in digital video camera technology, and in adaptor technology, as well as price drops in both, have made these items much more accessable to both amateur and professional videographers.

Cinematographers Philip Bloom and Steven Dempsey (among others, including Shiv) both use this type of setup extensively in their footage and are at the leading edge of the 35mm adaptor movement, pushing the limits of digital film making and capturing stunning imagery that one can only dream of.

This is a great tutorial from Shiv, and a must-see for anyone interested in using 35mm adaptors for digital film making. The framing is good, the audio quality is good, and the zoomed-in, detail shots are right on the money and natural feeling.

Only thing that I didn't like, and this is just a pet peeve of mine, is that the video starts, and Shiv starts talking, right when I hit the "play" button. I like a second or two of black, or a title card to start. At least a second or so of silence, maybe. But that's just my opinion.

Otherwise this video is informative, helpful, detailed, and wonderfully shot and edited. Good job!

Comments

Shiv Kumar

July 16, 2008 01:41 PM

Will,

I must say that you definitely have a skill for writing! This whole piece sounded so "professional" to me.

Thank you also for the review. I do agree with your pet peeve and will fix it.