Ultra-fast lenses are not something you would use every day, but they sure have their application and perks. In his latest video, Nikolas Moldenhauer of Media Division bring you everything that you wanted to know about shooting with these lenses. He uses an f/0.73 lens, pushes its limits, and shows you everything that a lens like this can do.
Thanks to its huge aperture, this lens helped Staley Kubrick to shoot the Barry Lyndon candlelight scene:
However, the trouble with this lens is that it can’t focus to infinity. So, Media Division teamed up with Kolari Vision to modify a Mavo LF so it fits the Zeiss Biotar f0.73 lens and lets it focus to infinity. They pulled the sensor out of the camera and attached it on the outside of the camera with gaff tape (yup, it looks just as bad as it sounds). Kolari Vision provided them with an OPF filter because they had to remove the original, much thicker one.
To be able to focus to infinity, the team also needed to modify a Manfrotto Micro slider, and guys from The Marmalade jumped in to help. Then they attached the whole unit to a rig, and shot a pretty epic candlelight scene with their franken-camera and the ultra-fast lens.
Nikolas’ video lasts 50 minutes, so it would probably be pointless to retell it. But watching it feels like watching a documentary. It’s a high quality video, with lots of interesting facts and experiments, so be sure to check it out.
[f0.7 – Ultrafast Lenses – Legends, budget options, modding, and testing MDEpicEpisodeS2E02 | Media Division]
Why is the DoF from Barry London’s candle scene not as shallow as my f/1.4 lens? The scene was shot by a f/0.7 lens!