Motor slider, product videography

[David Daniel Doherty]

Hi all, I’ve started a new job where I will be filming products via a very cool motorized slider, with object tracking.

While I’ve been using sliders for many years, I always defaulted to wide angles to get the most from the small length move.

Obviously with a wide angle, the foreground object will appear to be moving past faster and the move more obvious. Which is great.

My question though is which lens, which focal length actually, would be suitable for filming products - shoes etc. I want the movement to be obvious without the product looking distorted by a wide angle lens.

I feel 24mm might be too wide and introduce distortion but kind of feel 35mm might be too long for a small slider? 

I am baring in mind that product photographers often prefer 85!

Any thoughts? 

Positive, helpful replies only please

Dave

[Christopher Santucci]

I would think 35mm on a S35 sensor camera. 85mm is a bit long depending on what the product is and what sensor size you're using. I definitely wouldn't use 85mm on a full frame sensor camera for tabletop stuff unless I wanted a lot of it to be out of focus.