FAQ

Century Film & Video

1. What is Angle of View?
2. What is an Achromat Diopter?
3. How is an Achromat different from a standard close up lens?
4. What is a matte box?
5. What is a lens shade?
6. When do you need a lens shade or a matte box?
7. What is aspect ratio?
8. What is 4:3?
9. What is 16:9?
10. What is anamorphic video?
11. What is the difference between the Mark I and Mark II fisheye lenses?
12. What is anti-reflection coating?
13. How should I clean my lens?
14. Why should I use a bayonet Mount?
15. How much does my accessory lens weigh?
16. What is hyperfocal distance?
17. What is the Hyperfocal distance of my lens?

1. What is Angle of View?

Angle of view is a measure of how much of the scene a lens can view. A fisheye lens can see as much as 180 degrees and a telephoto lens might see as narrow an angle as 5 degrees. It is important to distinguish horizontal angle of view from the vertical angle of view.

2. What is an Achromat Diopter?

An achromat diopter is a highly corrected two element close up lens that provides extremely sharp images edge to edge without prismatic color effects.

3. How is an Achromat different from a standard close up lens?

Standard close-up lenses, or diopters, are single element lenses that allow the camera lens to focus more closely on small objects. Single element diopters accomplish this, although the image may not be uniformly sharp from edge to edge and some color fringing may be visible.

4. What is a matte box?

A matte box is a professional light control system, offering lens shade functions, filter holders (usually rotatable) and accessories such as French Flags, side flages and eyebrows.

5. What is a lens shade?

A simple device that shades the lens from stray light, improving contrast and reducing internal reflections and lens flare. A sophisticated lens shade may have a simple provision for mounting a filter.

6. When do you need a lens shade or a matte box?

To minimize stray light hitting or entering the lens. Properly shading the lens can increase contrast and image quality.

7. What is aspect ratio?

The ratio of width to height of an image. This is a commonly used method of identifying different video formats.

8. What is 4:3?

This is the aspect ratio of standard broadcast television worldwide. Pronounced as: “four by three”.

9. What is 16:9?

This is a widescreen video format aspect ratio. HD video is 16:9. Pronounced as “sixteen by nine”.

10. What is anamorphic video?

This is a process to capture 16:9 widescreen video using a standard 4:3 camera. The video is captured using a cylindrical anamorphic lens to squeeze the image and the resulting imagery is unsqueezed during post production.

11. What is the difference between the Mark I and Mark II fisheye lenses?

The MKI fisheye was designed for cameras such as the Sony VX1000 Mini DV camera. Many professional users objected to the amount of vignetting present in the MKI Ultra Fisheye. The MKII fisheye was designed for newer cameras such as Sony VX2000/PD150 and the Canon GL1/2, which have larger lenses, requiring a larger fisheye. Vignetting was eliminated in the Mark II design.

12. What is anti-reflection coating?

Thin film anti-reflection coatings greatly reduce the light loss due to reflection in multi-element lenses. Reducing these reflections results in a dramatic reduction of lens flare and increased contrast.

13. How should I clean my lens?

See our lens cleaning page.

14. Why should I use a bayonet Mount?

Most DV cameras have lenses that use plastic parts, including the accessory thread on many lenses. Mounting and unmounting an accessory lens many times can result in damage to those threads. By utilizing the bayonet on the front of the camera that was originally intended by the manufacturer to secure the lens shade, accessory lenses can be mounted more quickly and reliably, without damaging your camera lens.

15. How much does my accessory lens weigh?

See the Specification charts.

16. What is hyperfocal distance?

Depth of field is the zone of acceptable focus in front of and behind the point of best focus. If a lens is focused at infinity, the depth of field beyond the focus point (beyond infinity) is wasted. For a particular lens, aperture and film format size, the depth of field can be maximized by focusing the lens at the hyperfocal distance. The hyperfocal distance is the point of focus chosen so that the depth of field extends from a near point to infinity. As you stop down the lens, the depth of field increases and therefore the hyperfocal distance is closer to the camera.

17. What is the Hyperfocal distance of my lens?

That depends on the lens focal length, film format size and lens aperture you are using. You can use our Depth of Field Calculator spreadsheet (requires Excel) to calculate hyperfocal distance for your various requirements. The DOF Calculator can be downloaded here.