What are the most "popular" lenses in Super 35 mm cinematography?

[Cosmas Demetriou]

Hello,

 

I am a set designer working in the film industry and using 3d models to show directors, production designers and cinematographers what they would see by a particular lens. I know there are MANY lens packages, but can someone give me an idea what lenses are the most "popular"? I am referring to the wide angle lenses. I know this is a difficult question, but what wide angle lenses are likely to be used -- and at what point do they begin to distort so much that they are rarely used. For example, Stanley Kubrick uses wide angle lenses a lot in his films. How wide would he go?

 

Thank you.

 

Cosmas

[David Mullen ASC]

Kubrick shot with the 9.8mm Kinoptik for specialty shots like the maze chase in "The Shining" and Alex's walk through the record store in "Clockwork Orange", which is quite wide in view for 35mm work and rather exaggerated, so it's not a common focal length. He probably also used the 16mm Zeiss Standard Speed and definitely the 18mm Zeiss Super-Speed a lot.

 

Generally 18mm is the shortest focal length that is used for much wide-angle work, below that things are noticeably wide-angle and it becomes more obviously stylized. Distortions like barrel distortion depend on the lens. Most of "Birdman" was shot with an 18mm lens.

 

But with the popularity now of the 15-40mm Angenieux lightweight zoom, it's not uncommon to get as wide as the 15mm end.

 

Now even 18mm is clearly a wide-angle lens in Super-35 -- a less distorted view of a set in a 3D model would probably be better in the 21mm to 25mm range.

[Cosmas Demetriou]

Thank you, David. That is very helpful.

 

I really appreciate the reference to Birdman. That was a striking film. Particularly with all the tight spaces!

Edited January 17, 2015 by Cosmas Demetriou

[David Mullen ASC]

The 18mm first appeared in movies in the late 1950's, most notably in "Touch of Evil". You also see it a lot in John Frankenheimer films of the 1960's.

[Cosmas Demetriou]

Thank you, David. That's interesting.