Books on Lenses?

[GingeUK]

Sadly one of the things that I missed out most on during University due to me always using MiniDV cameras was quite a bit about camera lenses and how certain ones produce different results. I did a little about them at Univeristy as well as a bit during an A/S Photography course at college but never really got deep into it.

Does anyone have any suggestions in terms of books or websites that could help me understand more?

[Nigel]

I can't think of any books other than basic photography books. Lenses are pretty simple on a basic level. What is hard to understand is how focal length, f-Stop and shuuter speed will change the image.

The best thing to do is go out and get an old fully manual SLR and shoot some film. You can get on for cheap ?75-100. Look for camera like the Nikkormat, Pentax K1000 or Pentax ME Super.

They will have a 50mm lens that will give a "Normal" field of view. Then you can rent or buy some other lenses as time goes by and you can see what they will do to the image.

Does that help??

Good Luck

[danr7]

You might check out the production section in the ?Camera Assistant?s Manual? by David E. Elkins. It provides a good basic foundation on lens information and is generally accepted as the ?bible? of camera assistants.

For more specific information, there are a number of good articles on the Cinematography Mailing List (for professional cinematographers). You can read them free right here:
http://www.cinematography.net/Lenses%20TOC.htm

Hope this helps.

Dan Rahmel
Author: "Nuts and Bolts Filmmaking"
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