Lens for a canon xl1s?

shockimpulse said:

Could anyone recommend a lens for the canon xl1s? I want to use the lens mainly for rack-focusing. If you could recommend the cheapeast one and recommend a moderately good one despite the price, that'd be awesome.

Click to expand...

What you will search for is a "prime lens" - that's a fixed
focal length lens (as opposed to a zoom lens that offers
many focal lengths). Others will be able to tell you what
the lens mount is. For most lenses you will need an EF
adaptor.

In my experience, a lens is usually a rental. "cheapest"
isn't the way to go with lenses and most movie makers
find they don't need to rack focus more than a couple of
times in their career. Renting a $20,000 lens for a weekend
for $200 is much better than buying a $1,500 lens.

Problem is, the regular lens on my camera (the one that came with the cam) can't use field of depth or blur anything for that matter. I think I've already told everyone how if I use the dial to focus or use field of depth, it'll automatically make everything sharp right away even though it's on manual. Which is why I was hoping a change of lens might help and which is why renting wasn't really part of my plan.

The XL series of camera has 3 (couple of models of 2 of the lenses) lens options:

The 16x auto lens that came with your camera
The 14x Manual lens can be had directly from canon or online on ebay or some forums
The 3x Wide lens is an auto lens like the 16x.

I think the 14x manual is what you're looking for, it's got barrel markings and a direct mechanical drive for the focus and zoom (as opposed to the electronic "fly by wire" of the auto offerings).

If the 16x is anything like the 20x that comes with the XL2 then rack focusing is easy. Simply move the camera further away from the subject and begin to zoom in. This should give you the depth of field you are looking for.

Here is an example of a rack focus done using my XL2 with the standard 20x lens.

http://www.vimeo.com/4554196 (Skip to 0:36)