Which Lens for video??

[Titanite]

Hello,
I am trying to decide which lens to buy, as I am limited to buying only one at the moment. Will be using a canon dslr. I like taking macro shots, so was thinking about 60mm or 100mm canon in a flat port, but I forgot about video. Will it be impossible to take HD video with either of these lenses? Do I have to use a 15-40mm or similar to have any kind of decent video?
Any feedback is greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
T

[bvanant]

Assuming you are using a T2i or similar, I would strongly recommend that you get the Tokina 10-17 lens for your video shooting. You can take video with the 60mm macro but that is enormously painful at the moment since you will need a tripod and good lights and hope that whatever you are shooting stays in the DOF range. The joy of the tokina with a small dome is that you can do close focus wide angle of pretty small critters and yet on the same dive shoot video of the whale shark that swims by.
Get the tokina, focus it on your fin (3 feet away or so) then point and shoot.
Don't forget that your lighting needs for video are much different than for stills.

Bill

[Titanite]

Thanks Bill, this is the info I was looking for! I only see an 8 inch dome for the Ikelite setup I'm looking at. Is this going to be too big for the 10-17 mm Tokina?
thanks again
T

[bvanant]

No the 8 inch dome is fine, great corner sharpness shooting that way.
Bill

[Jered23]

As you guys may know my current favorite lens for video is the Tamron 17-50mm 2.8 lens with VC. The Vibration Compensation does a fantastic job of smoothing out my handheld video and fixing the jelly effect that all Nikon cameras and plagued with.

The problem with this lens is that it isn't sharp enough to shoot stills on. In fact, it is the blurriest lens I have ever used, you just can't tell with 720p video.

So I have been on the lookout for the next standard zoom lens that is still 2.8 with VC.

Sigma may have done it! They just released the new 17-50mm F2.8 EX DC OS HSM and of course it is already sold out for Nikon cameras. I am on a waiting list to get it and when I do you will be getting our full video review.

Until then, let me know if you see any reviews of this lens.