I'm DP on a feature that began shooting last week. I'm using my Panasonic DMC-GH1. My lens toolkit at the moment is a 12-24mm f/4 Tokina Nikon-mount lens, a 50mm f/1.4 Canon FD lens, and a 35-105mm f/3.5 Canon FD lens. With the 2x crop factor of my GH1, these are of course equivalent to 24-48mm, 100mm, and 70-210mm, respectively.
The 12-24mm f/4 Tokina is a great lens, don't get me wrong, but when shooting indoors (and I don't have my lights available or able to be set up), I very often find myself wanting an extra stop or two of light. In a pinch, I do occasionally borrow my friend's Nikon 35mm f/1.8 DX, and while that does get me the extra light, it really isn't wide enough for cramped space indoors (with the crop factor of my camera).
The simple way to fix this problem of course is to crank up the ISO on my camera. However, I ended up at ISO 1600 last week for one small sequence, and the results were not great. Screenshot. Tokina 12-24mm f/4, at 12mm, f/4, 1/50s, and ISO1600 on Panasonic GH1, downscaled but image noise is still very apparent.
I have looked into wide fast lenses such as the Nikon 24mm f/1.4 AF-S and Canon FD 24mm f/1.4, and even 21mm rangefinder lenses, and while these are all excellent, they are extremely expensive.
I guess my question is this: Is there a cheap (cheap being at the most a few hundred dollars), wide, fast, good (this is the real kicker I'm sure. I don't need something ridiculously fantastic, but that would at the very least blend in with footage shot on my other glass) lens that I'm overlooking?
Note: I am very aware that the real solution to this problem is better lighting. With proper lighting (which I do indoors when I can; I have a few worklights from Home Depot), I rarely have any need to shoot wider open than f/4 at 100-400 ISO. However, good lighting isn't always practical or possible with the locations and budget of this film. There aren't many other scenes that will require this type of terribly-lit location, but I'd prefer to be ready for them because I don't want them to stand out like a sore thumb in terms of image noise. The scene shot already will be the opening of the film, so I can dress it up in post a bit to make it contrasting to the rest on purpose, but this anywhere else would be a jarring difference. Just getting this out of the way before someone yells at me about proper lighting, because I know that's exactly what my response to this query would be.
The 12-24mm f/4 Tokina is a great lens, don't get me wrong, but when shooting indoors (and I don't have my lights available or able to be set up), I very often find myself wanting an extra stop or two of light. In a pinch, I do occasionally borrow my friend's Nikon 35mm f/1.8 DX, and while that does get me the extra light, it really isn't wide enough for cramped space indoors (with the crop factor of my camera).
The simple way to fix this problem of course is to crank up the ISO on my camera. However, I ended up at ISO 1600 last week for one small sequence, and the results were not great. Screenshot. Tokina 12-24mm f/4, at 12mm, f/4, 1/50s, and ISO1600 on Panasonic GH1, downscaled but image noise is still very apparent.
I have looked into wide fast lenses such as the Nikon 24mm f/1.4 AF-S and Canon FD 24mm f/1.4, and even 21mm rangefinder lenses, and while these are all excellent, they are extremely expensive.
I guess my question is this: Is there a cheap (cheap being at the most a few hundred dollars), wide, fast, good (this is the real kicker I'm sure. I don't need something ridiculously fantastic, but that would at the very least blend in with footage shot on my other glass) lens that I'm overlooking?
Note: I am very aware that the real solution to this problem is better lighting. With proper lighting (which I do indoors when I can; I have a few worklights from Home Depot), I rarely have any need to shoot wider open than f/4 at 100-400 ISO. However, good lighting isn't always practical or possible with the locations and budget of this film. There aren't many other scenes that will require this type of terribly-lit location, but I'd prefer to be ready for them because I don't want them to stand out like a sore thumb in terms of image noise. The scene shot already will be the opening of the film, so I can dress it up in post a bit to make it contrasting to the rest on purpose, but this anywhere else would be a jarring difference. Just getting this out of the way before someone yells at me about proper lighting, because I know that's exactly what my response to this query would be.
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