What lenses do you use as a wedding videographer?

Lenses I don’t leave home without.

If I could only take one lens to a wedding then it would have to be a zoom lens at the shorter end of the range so for instance a 28-70 mm.

During the peak times for filming, during the ceremony and during the speeches there’s not much opportunity for swapping lenses in and out so it’s best to have a lens that can go both fairly wide but also with some capacity to zoom in for shots like the ring shot when the bride and groom place rings on each other’s fingers.

I have a 70-200 zoom but I would never consider taking it to a wedding.

I do have some shorter prime lenses which I may try out at relaxed times for example during the bridal preparations. I would use a 50mm prime lens or an 85mm prime for closer head shots during bridal prep both for video and for stills

Occasionally I have had to film a wedding in quite dark conditions so a prime lens capable of letting in a lot of light is essential in these circumstances. The best option is to use a wide angle say 24mm and forget about being able to zoom in.

The problem of using different camera types full frame and micro four thirds (GH5) is that I have ended up with a variety of lenses for both systems. The S5 L-mount lenses will not work on a GH5 or on Sony. I could buy adapters but I always think that the best results come from using lenses that are designed to work with the camera that they are on.

The L- Mount system has the advantage that I can buy Panasonic, Sigma or even Leica lenses and they will all give similar results in terms of being able to autofocus on the S5. I tend to rely on using autofocus where I can, rather than relying on my own abilities to manually focus.