What lens to use with an EOS RP for tripod based videos

OK, have had a chance to look at your "template" video, and also look into the EOS RP a bit more.

The first thing I'd say is, reading the seemingly unanimous verdict of reviewers, you'd be mad to spend several hundred Euros on an RF lens when the camera can't make full use of it. I haven't delved into it deeply enough to spot any excessive nerdiness, but a brief scan of several reviews gives the RP a consistent thumbs down for video. Now chances are it'll be "good enough" for your purposes (did you post about them somewhere else? I seem to remember a query, but can't find it in your other posts ...?) and if so, the lenses you've got will not be a problem.

The second point is that I would call the video you posted a "product presentation" rather than an interview. That changes everything as far as the choice of lenses is concerned. You can ignore all of the previous advice re the "portrait" style, as wider lenses/shorter focal lengths won't cause the kind of facial distortion I mentioned if the subject is off to one side, and occupies less than a third of the frame. Instead, you'll need a lens that gives you a suitable angle of view for the room you're shooting in (so probably tending towards "wide"), coupled with an aperture that gives you a depth of field that's "just enough" for the subject and their props, but not enough to have the background pin-sharp. The sample video is definitely a candidate for manual focus.

I'd strongly recommend that you mess around with the lenses you already have before deciding to buy a new one. If you're going to be shooting in the same location every time, do some trials there at the time of day you're most likely to be filming: this'll help you spot any weird lighting issues that you might need to take account of (ditto for sound). If you can't get to the location, or if you're going to be moving from place to place, then set up a variety of studio arrangements so that, again, you can understand where significant problems are likely to arise (almost always stuff in the background!)

Calahonda52 wrote: »

it will be all in the dining room so will do some testing.

In that case, even though you'll be shooting video, look at the scene with a still photographer's eye. The things to watch out for will be distracting objects in the background (unfortunate arrangement of book titles, pot plants growing out of the head, etc :pac: ); and excessively sharp/pronounced shadows on the wall behind the subject from window or artificial lighting.

Depending on the size of the room, and how much of it you want to include in the composition, you're probably going to be working in the 35-50mm range. Lighting will be more critical in this environment than you might think - remember that, when shooting video, you're effectively limited to an "aperture priority" mode, but the aperture the light demands might not match the depth of field you need.