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The most rectilinear wides?


Vince Sweeney

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I'm researching wide primes below 24mm for the least amount of distortion and wondered if anyone is aware of any tests that have been done that may help speed up the process of targeting lenses for further testing. Due to budget issues all the wide primes available can't simply be rented and this is why I'm asking.

 

Top tier DP interviews I've found talk up the below 18mm Master Primes for being relatively distortion free, even at 12 or 14mm, but then another preferring to use the older Super or Standard speeds at 14-20mm for their ultra wide shots, etc. so was wondering if there's a more scientific test done that's available somewhere, written or online? The still's world has plenty of tests posted but I'm only looking at cine PL lenses.

 

And this is concerning people in the shots, not landscape and architectural content, but I'd think the less line distortion a test shows the more accurate a face is going to render.

Edited by Vince Sweeney
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The Ultra Prime 8R is the widest properly rectilinear lens you can get, but the price is quite noticeable stretching at the edges to keep the lines straight. Pretty much all high end spherical prime lenses for cinema are designed to be rectilinear: Summilux-Cs and Summicrons, Cooke S4/5/7s, Panavision Primos, Ultra Primes. Some, like the Leicas and Cooke S5/7s, only go down to 18 or 16mm. Master Primes are probably the most consistent in being both rectilinear and without vignetting (darker corners), with focal lengths all the way down to 12mm.

 

This test shows how similar the distortion is among lenses like the Summilux-Cs, Cooke S4s and S5s, Master Primes and Ultra Primes in the 16 to 18mm range:

 

 

Generally avoid zooms, which have a hard time containing distortion over their range, except something like the Arri 9.5-18 UWZ, which is pretty amazing, but the compromise is a short (1.8x) range. I've read that the Tokina 11-18 (often cine-modded) is pretty good in terms of distortion, but I don't have personal experience with it.

 

There's a bit of distortion in the wide angles used on The Favourite, even some fish-eye shots. I think they used old Panavision Standard Speed wide angles, along with PV Vintage lenses for that movie, some crazy wide shots in there!

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