Behind the Lens

2.10What Makes a Good Lens? Part II: Considering Lens Style and Focus Style

In the previous article I talked about all of the different aspects of lenses—build quality, mechanical quality, chromatic aberration, distortion, breathing, falloff, speed, resolution, contrast, color, and bokeh—all in an effort to answer one question: what makes a lens bad or good?

There’s yet a couple final factors to talk about, one of which is the style of lens, be that still, ENG, or cine, which are three of the most popular styles.

Still lenses are designed to be compact. They’re designed to focus the image quickly and momentarily. Most modern DSLR lenses are auto-focus lenses and work with sophisticated mechanics to keep the focus fast, smooth and quiet. They ...