Film lenses, also known as cine lenses or cinema lenses, are high-end camera lenses used by filmmakers, cinematographers, and videographers to create film and digital projects with cinema cameras or video camcorders. A film lens, like DSLRs and other still photography lenses, has a series of glass plates that direct light from the outside into a film strip or digital sensor through the camera's viewfinder.

For filmmakers and cinematographers, film lenses provide superior image quality and simplicity of use than still photography lenses, making them indispensable.

All lenses filter and focus light so that it reaches the sensor or film strip correctly, but other aspects influence the look and quality of an image captured by a film lens, such as:

Focal length is the distance in millimetres between the camera lens and the image-recording digital sensor, or film plane. Smaller focal length cine lenses have broader angles of view, which is how the human eye perceives the size of the objects in the image, whereas larger focal length cine lenses have narrower angles of view and display less of the scene.

The amount of light passing through a cine lens is measured in transmission stops, or t-stops, which are a more precise unit of measurement than the f-stop (the camera setting that sets the aperture of the lens) used for still lenses.

The aperture, or size of the opening in the lens, or iris, has an impact on the image that the cine lens can record. Large apertures, like focal length, produce a shallow depth of field, or how much of the image is in focus, whereas smaller apertures produce a larger depth of field and more focus. The maximum aperture setting on a lens is suitable for low-light circumstances because it is the widest aperture setting.

In cinematography and photography, there are two basic types of camera lenses:

Due to the fixed focal length (FFL) of a prime lens, filmmakers must physically move the camera closer or further away from their subject to modify the angle of view. A varifocal lens changes focus as it zooms. A cine prime lens is usually lighter than a zoom lens, but it offers less creative zoom control.

By moving the zoom ring on the lens body in and out, cinematographers can vary the focal length and angle of view. Zooming helps the cinematographer to obtain a wide-angle view of a close-up shot. Cine zoom lenses, which are parfocal lenses that allow filmmakers to adjust zoom ranges without sacrificing focus or image quality, are a popular choice for filmmaking. Zoom lenses have more glass than prime lenses, making them heavier but giving them more versatility.

Within the two major types of prime and zoom lenses, there are numerous alternatives for filmmaking. The following is a list of lens options that are representative of what is available:

The 50mm lens, sometimes known as the "nifty 50," is a prime lens that can simulate how the human eye views things and people in nature.

They're both cheap and light, making them perfect for filming on the go. For better image stabilization, first-time users should use stabilizers or gimbals (pivoting support for camera operators). With maximum aperture, a 50mm lens can produce the bokeh effect, which is a soft, appealing out-of-focus background image. The Rokinon 50mm T2.1, Canon, and Tokina are amongst the best choices in this category.

Anamorphic lenses offer a broad field of vision (how much of an image the lens can cover) with just little distortion and lots of warmth in the frame, making them popular among filmmakers for their wide aspect ratio (2:39:1) and capacity to produce epic images. Many anamorphic lens manufacturers exist, including Cooke and ARRI.

The 75mm telephoto lens, often known as a long lens, is a zoom lens with several focal points that compresses and amplifies information in an image's foreground, middle ground, and backdrop. The telephoto lens is rarely utilized in filmmaking, unless in large-scale productions or documentaries. Panasonic, Tamron, and Sigma are some of the most well-known lens manufacturers.

A wide-angle lens is a prime lens with a focal length of 14 to 20mm, perfect for fitting a huge object into the frame or attracting attention to an object in the forefront of an image. Wide-angle lenses can magnify and distort the foreground view, allowing for more movement and breadth within a scene. When the focal length of a lens exceeds the size of the camera's sensor, it can produce an ultrawide-angle or even fish-eye effect. Canon, Zeiss, Sigma, and Fujinon are among the many wide-angle prime and zoom lenses available.

The following are some important distinctions between film and still photography lenses:

The ability to manually modify many of the lens' functions, such as aperture and iris, with rings incorporated into the lens body is a fundamental difference between a cine lens and a still photography lens. T-stop marks on the iris rings enable a more precise estimate of light entering the lens, while the aperture ring allows for smoother exposure.

Unlike still lenses, contain a manual focus ring marked with firm stops that allow for smoother focus pulls. The focus ring also allows for increased focus throw or the degree of rotation from minimum focus distance to infinity; it also reduces focus breathing or the little variation in focus length that occurs when spinning the ring. However, because most cine lenses are manual focus, they do not have autofocus.

Cine lenses give more constant image sharpness than still photography lenses in terms of image sharpness. They are more resistant to chromatic aberration, mismatched colours, and vignetting, which occurs when an image's saturation decreases in the corners.

In both size and construction, cine lenses are larger and heavier than still lenses. They usually have a fixed front diameter that allows the cinematographer to use a wide range of cameras, adapters, and accessories, such as matte boxes, electro-focus (EF) lens mounts, as well as the Canon EF Mount, servo controls, and manual follow focus systems, which allow for smoother shifts in focus.

A cine lens' zoom ring allows for smoother zooming by altering the zoom focus internally. Filmmakers can zoom close on an object and be confident that it will stay in focus.

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