We shot a bunch of cinematic wide-angle scenes with an $80 camera lens! The Pergear 10mm f/8 pancake lens is an absolute bargain and packs a punch!
Transcript from the episode:
Hello crew and welcome to The Film Look. Rob and Rich here with another filmmaking knowledge bomb!
Today we're testing out just how many unique ways we can use this tiny little 10mm Pergear pancake paragraph lens for making films and hopefully it sparks some cool ideas for you guys in your next film.
And make sure you stick around for the last setup that we used using this lens. We think it is the greatest thing we've ever shot on this channel!
So we've got the Pergear lens setup as a close-up right now and it's making this scene look a little bit crazy, a little bit strange, but that's what we want. I'm putting this bomb together, so i'm clearly playing a crazy character.
This is purely an aesthetic look that we want maybe for just this scene in the film.
We're going to shoot this exact same shot on an 85mm lens which is a bit more traditional.
You could keep everything in your film like that or you could cut to one shot in your film where you're using this lens and it's showing this crazy character in this crazy scene and it looks very, very strange.
So we're just going to give you a quick run around of the lights that we've got to set up. The key light is actually this swinging light bulb which is above me, which is a nice little effect. it's free. it's easy to do.
We've got a side-back light over here which is just an Aputure mini 20. really warm.
Our background light again is a big cob light - that is a really warm light.
Then we've got simple things like a reflector here, and a little eye light here.
So, you know, there's not a lot going on, but just something like a swinging light just adds all of the effect in there, and it's just on a pole and a stand.
The next setup is like a Matrix-style peephole shot. So we're gonna dress as police and we're gonna be knocking on this door. Obviously, there's no door here, and that's because our lens is so wide in full-frame mode that the door has to be 12 inches behind in order to make this shot make sense. You'll see in a second.
We've got a bounce board and we've got a silver board with a light here so we can get exposure on us at the door.
And then up here we've got some Aputure MC fx lights. They're a little bit green, and they've got a faulty bulb mode on so that's flashing and looks really cool.
Then, because the room is so dark, we've set up our big powerful light with a shedload of orange gels, so we got an orange background light.
And then, just to capture a little bit more of the detail in the shot, we've gelled up a side light as well to match the background light. This is an Aputure mini 20 and that's a sidelight just to make sure that we're away from the background.
Police! open up! We know you're in there Rip-off Ricky! We know you stole all those women's shoes! Knock the door down!
--hold on—
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Right, let's have a quick run-through of all the specs of this camera lens. Let's get it out the way.
So first of all it's 10mm, but it is an aps-c lens, so if you put it on a full-frame camera such as a Sony a7s, it is going to have some vignetting.
If you put it into aps-c mode, like on a sony a7s, it's the equivalent of 15mm.
If you compare it to something like our 35mm lens, it is absolutely tiny. It's actually smaller than the back cap which is crazy.
And because it's so small, it doesn't even have a focus ring. It's got this little handle here.
But honestly, because it's so wide and the fact that it's in f/8, you're probably not going to be using it for those really nice smooth racking focus shots.
The good thing is, it does have a metal body, so it's going to survive a little bit rattling around in a camera bag if it does get loose. Although, saying that, if it gets loose, you're going to lose it in your camera bag. Like, look at it! It's absolutely tiny!
And for you gear nerds out there, we've shot this lens compared to all the other lenses that we use so you can see how the focal length changes a human face!
Pairing this lens with a camera such as a Sony a7s (which is already really small), you can fit it in tight spaces like this one. This is the bomb prop from our short film Sixty Seconds and we've mounted the camera and the lens inside so we can capture the poster shot.
it looks like a poster now, doesn't it?--yeah--that's cool the timer underneath--
If you want to watch our short film Sixty Seconds, and how we made it, watch below.
The very first thing we thought of when we saw just how wide this was, was a 90s cheesy hip-hop music video. So we've costumed up, we've got every single light out and we're going to shoot the MADDEST MUSIC VIDEO OF ALL TIME!!!!!!!
So what do you think of this lens then? Do you reckon it's unique enough that you're going to stick it in your camera bag?
Put your thoughts in the comments below. And we've got another review of a 35mm lens for you dirty little gear-people!
And that's been another filmmaking knowledge bomb!
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