Last week Robin talked about depth of field, focal length and sensor size. The three things that control depth of field are aperture, focal length and distance from the object you are filming. A shallow depth of field isn’t better than a deep depth of field it just depends on the filmmakers desired effect.

In class Robin set up three cameras a Canon 5D DSLR, Sony EX3 and a Sony 7Z all the same distance from a particular object. All three cameras were framed for a MCU on the same subject yet they were all at different focal lengths. Why? This is due to the different sizes of the sensors in the cameras. The DSLR was at 80mm because it had a large sensor whereas the EX3 was at 20mm as it had a significantly smaller sensor. The Z7 was at an even lower focal length, due to its even smaller sensor. This is something to think about when choosing the right camera and lens for a situation.